EOC Prep

This Thursday is my student's EOC.  They are not even remotely ready.

Friday I had my students take our state's only EOC practice test that they have available for Chemistry.  You can see the test HERE.

In the few years we have been implementing the chemistry EOC (it began in 2013), I have always found the actual EOC to be much easier than the practice test.  Which is a good thing, because my students scores are always depressingly dreadful on the practice test.  Their scores end up being okay on the actual EOC.

I really liked how I created a Biology EOC data tracker last semester, so I did the same for chemistry.  I had them complete the test on Scantron, and then entered their scores into an excel spread sheet:

Obviously I left the student names out of the screen shot.  Each question is color-coded by Unit 1-8.  A "0" indicates they answered incorrectly, "1" for a correct answer.

Entering in this manner allows me to not only see the students' raw scores, but also determine their strongest and weakest units:

A group of students raw scores are at the lefthand side of the photo above.  The color coding indicates below basic, basic, proficient, or advanced based on the state's criteria of # of questions correct.   Yellow indicates the student did not complete the entire practice test.  The "curved" is my own curve-- I factored out the questions I felt that I did not sufficiently cover to give the students the ability to answer them correctly.  The red text color is for me to see who was still failing.  To the right, you can see the students performance by unit.  Also, the number of questions that I classified to be from each unit is listed.

Tracking the test in this manner also allows me to see the percent of students who answered each question correctly, so I can see where students are collectively making mistakes:

For example, in the questions shown above, only 13 students or 22% answered question #12 correctly.  Question #12 had students predicting the products of the following reaction:

Al + Cl2 -> _____ (I can't seem to get subscripts to work on Blogger)

Almost all of the students chose "AlCl2" as the answer, because that would be a balanced equation.  So we revisited ionic compounds and how the subscript tells you how many of each atom you need to cancel the charges.

The breakdown of scores is terrifying.  If I wasn't so burned out from this group of students and this semester, I'd be in panic mode.  Although I've hit the point where I just can't care anymore.

The results show that only 9 of my students scored in the "advanced" range.  18 scored in the "proficient" range.  26 were in the "basic" range and while 5 were "below basic," only 2 of those 5 actually finished the test.

I have serious concerns that 3 of my students will not pass the EOC.  Those 3 students all happen to be minorities, which makes me kick myself even harder.  I hate to think that I'm contributing to the "education gap" on paper.  Unfortunately, there is pretty much nothing I can do now.  These students have struggled ALL year.  I've tried to get them to come in for extra help.  I've tried to pull them aside, or group them with a peer tutor.  I've emailed their parents and coaches.  No luck.

The nice thing about data tracking students in this manner is that it allows me to tailor the review material over the past few days.  Instead of making my students review EVERYTHING, we go over the most missed questions in class... then they each have their own set of review material they need to complete.  In reality, I just make a review packet for each unit and the students need to complete the material for each unit that they scored below 75%.

The test is Thursday.  I hopefully will get scores back before the end of the year!

EOC Prep: Data, data everywhere...

What have I been doing?  Data tracking.  Tomorrow is my students' state end of course exam for biology.  It's hard to believe that it's already that time...

Since last Friday, we have been working on practice tests and review.  I have been struggling over the years to find an EOC review method that works best.  Let's just say that the struggle continues.

Some teachers say they start at the beginning of the curriculum and revisit every topic, then take a practice test.  I've found that style ineffective for me and my style of teaching:  the students tune out and none of us get a very good assessment of what we know/don't know until we're done.

Lately, I have been trying to tailor review activities to individual students' needs:  I usually give a practice test as a diagnostic and use that to guide the review material.  Sometimes I have done "whole class" reviews, other years I have done individual review packets.  In a perfect world, I would give a post-practice test afterwards, but we always seem to run out of time.

This year, I sort of blended my methods.  I somehow actually had time to create a real, live data tracker for their EOC practice test results.  Data tracking is something that was stressed heavily in my alternative teacher certification program, but I've never had the time to utilize it in my own classes.  The schools I've taught at haven't mandated it, and it's time consuming to create all of the necessary tools from scratch.  But somehow this year I had a chance to sit down and make a simple excel spreadsheet to track my students performance on the EOC practice test.

Raw data for each student per question, color-coded by unit-- 1 for answering a question correctly, 0 for incorrect.

Raw scores for each student and color-coded performance for each unit.  Missing data from a handful of students, hence the reds.

I also calculated the % of students who answered each question correctly.  I had several students absent, so no question has 100% correct.

The results have been really interesting.  I also have successfully gotten myself worked up into a tizzy.  You can see the numbers for some of my standard biology students in the 2nd picture above, and they are NOT pretty.  But in years past, I do recall students doing significantly better on the actual EOC vs. the practice test.  Last year, I believe only my absolute brightest standard students even passed the same practice test, yet they all had strong scores on the real exam.  Thanks to this data tracker, I should eventually have facts to support my recollection...

Based off the data, students then had to complete a combined class/independent review activity.

There were six questions that had lower than 50% of students answering correctly.  We reviewed these six topics as a class (boring lecture style).  Of these six questions:  

• One was a cell diagram where it was unclear if the arrow was pointing to the ER specifically or a ribosome on the ER.  That was an easy fix.
• One involved a coral reef food web.  I was really surprised that this question was missed so frequently, but when I asked the class about it, apparently it was the way that the diagram was drawn that threw a lot of students off.  They misinterpreted the diagram and thought it was a trick question.
• One (well, technically two but we combined them) were testing for macromolecules in food.  We just needed to review that topic, since most students had forgotten which indicator to use for each macromolecule.
• One (technically two) were on enzymes.  I did not cover enzymes well.  We did enzymes the week my classes were disrupted by students taking the ACT Plan test.  So we revisited the topic.
• One was on the percentage of chromosomes in gametes formed by meiosis.  Now, every single student in my classes can repeat that gametes are haploid and have half the chromosomes of the parent cell.  But for some reason, seeing the number as a percentage threw them for a loop.
• The last was a tricky pedigree chart for an x-linked recessive disorder.  It began with an affected father and carrier mother who produced affected sons and daughters.  Seeing both males and females affected made many students assume it was an autosomal disorder.

After our whole class review, I gave students the breakdown of how they scored for each unit.  Based on their score, they had to attend stations with review materials for their weakest units.  The idea for the activity was good, but it was difficult to execute.  If I can find a way to streamline and organize the stations, it may work better in the future.

So... that's that.  Tomorrow is the big test.  I should find out their quick scores after the new year and their full results sometime in July.  I am extraordinarily curious to see how my standard biology class will fare and if the class average will be higher than last year's average (I didn't have any honors students last year to compare).  I really want feedback on how effective the modeling curriculum has been for my teaching!!!!