Session 5 Scenario

Which Maryland middle schools have been most successful with Special Education populations in math? One of the areas of concern that we have identified in our schools is the assessment of special education students, particularly in math. Deep Creek and other schools especially struggled in the sub group of special education and math. We are interested in the concept of data mining in order to improve the education for our struggling population. Data mining offers an opportunity for schools to analyze their classrooms, teachers and practices in order to compare them to the best performing schools and their best practices. The purpose for the data below is to look at the top performing middle schools in the state of Maryland in regards to special education mathematics in order to analyze the numbers to decide how data mining could be used to support special education classes within our schools. You will be asked to consider the following prompts:

 What additional information would you need from teachers, students, parents, administrators and community in order to analyze this data and why?  Is this a fair comparison of the data? Why or Why not?  Where does you school compare to these top schools? What two things would you suggest for your school to do to improve in the test scores in the area of special ed?  How could data mining strategies help special ed teams working to improve their test scores? Data taken from: http://mdk12.org/ Subject:

Schools in:

Pop:

Grade Band:

GRAPH MY CHOICES >>

CONSIDER THE DATA IN THE CHART BELOW: 2009 MSA Mathematics State of Maryland Middle schools most successful with Special Education student population. % Proficient and Advanced Special Education All Students % % County 94.7

90.3

Washington

93.3

72.4

Baltimore City

90.0

72.7

Baltimore City

85.7

87.5

Montgomery

82.7

90.5

Anne Arundel

82.1

94.0

Worcester

82.1

92.9

Allegany

79.3

79.4

Baltimore City

79.3

92.3

Howard

78.5

95.9

Montgomery

78.3

86.2

Baltimore City

78.1

96.5

Montgomery

77.6

94.7

Baltimore

77.3

85.6

Baltimore City

76.9

98.6

Howard

76.6

72.2

Baltimore

75.3

90.2

Montgomery

75.0

86.3

Baltimore City

75.0

88.2

Washington

74.3

94.6

Howard

Special Education Test Takers School Name % # 19 Hancock Middle Senior High 12.3 154 30 Fallstaff Elementary 13.8 217 40 Woodhome Elementary/Middle 13.5 297 35 Takoma Park Middle School 4.4 792 52 Severn River Middle 6.3 828 56 Stephen Decatur Middle 8.8 637 39 Westmar Middle 13.8 283 29 Rosemont Elementary 11.7 247 29 Ellicott Mills Middle 4.1 705 121 Thomas W. Pyle Middle School 9.7 1248 23 Holabird Elementary 21.1 109 105 Herbert Hoover Middle 10.7 985 67 Hereford Middle 6.7 1002 44 Franklin Square Elementary 20.5 215 26 Clarksville Middle 3.6 715 64 Woodlawn Middle 10.2 625 81 North Bethesda Middle 10.4 778 40 Thomas Johnson Elementary 21.1 190 16 Clear Spring Middle 3.8 417 35 Hammond Middle School 6.1 573

Also consider the following excerpt from this week’s readings when responding to the prompts: Enhancing Learning Environments Through Solution-based Knowledge Discovery Tools: Forecasting for Self-perpetuating Systemic Reform Page 18-19

Data Mining for Schools “If data mining allows the business and medical sector to accurately identify and predict the most effective way to deliver their respective services, shouldn’t educators understand how to use their data to match (a) instruction to student, (b) teacher style to learner needs, and (c) learning environment to student requirements? Shouldn’t administrators mine school or district data for the characteristics of the most successful classes, teachers, pedagogy, schedule, or other variables that identify a significant pattern? Students bring additional variables to the classroom and it is sometimes difficult to sift through patterns of interestingness, as described above, and use these patterns to inform instruction. Guttentag and Clark (1999) have documented the impact of information overload in a variety of education settings. Their findings sound an alert that schools are drowning in the hundreds of daily transactions including attendance, student and teacher schedules, and individual student assignments. A student carries with him or her historical data, random sets of demographic information, standardized test scores, unique family situations, health records, extra curricular participation, and grades. Each student also interacts with teachers, administrators, academic specialists and career counselors who in turn have their own data histories with details such as salary, educational attainment, certification and professional development in addition to regional, school-based, and student domains.” When discussing the data above, consider the following prompt questions: (repeat of the prompts above on 1st page)  What additional information would you need from teachers, students, parents, administrators and community in order to analyze this data and why?  Is this a fair comparison of the data? Why or Why not?  Where does you school compare to these top schools? What two things would you suggest for your school to do to improve in the test scores in the area of special ed?  How could data mining strategies help special ed teams working to improve their test scores?