Explain the connection between educational research, federal and state policy, data collection activities, and classroom instruction. Apply practical data analysis techniques to classroom data to inform classroom instruction. Explain the importance of measurement issues in the construction and use of educational assessments.

EDU 6364: Milestone Two Guidelines and Grading Guide

Overview
The final project for this course is the creation of an instructional growth plan for an instructional area of challenge within your classroom. The purpose of this assignment to create an instructional growth plan to improve an area of instruction that students within your classroom are struggling with mastering. You will first outline how different types of assessment data relate to each other within your classroom. You will then identify an area of challenge and analyze data to understand the trends that you have identified. Next, you will relate this to federal/state policy and explain why this area is important for policy goals. Finally, you will create a growth plan that will help you to monitor student progress and modify your instruction (if needed) to reach your outlined goals.
In this milestone you will identify an instructional challenge/area of concern within your classroom. You will outline how the issue you have identified is connected to education goals outside of your classroom such as federal/state policy. You will then discuss the data and trends that you see for the identified challenge area. Finally, you will create a logic model that outlines the challenge/area of concern that you have identified.

In this assignment you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:
● Explain the connection between educational research, federal and state policy, data collection activities, and classroom instruction.
● Apply practical data analysis techniques to classroom data to inform classroom instruction.
● Explain the importance of measurement issues in the construction and use of educational assessments.

Prompt

Identify a problem/area of concern within your classroom: Identify the foundational, or root cause, of the essential issue. Articulate the issue or challenge. What protocols did you use to identify this challenge (remember you may not have used formal protocols but used elements of a protocol)? If you did not use any protocols, what protocol would you suggest be used? Explain why you think it is an area of concern (e.g., state and benchmark/interim assessments have identified this as an area of concern). Why is this challenge area interesting to you?

Policy: Analyze how this issue is connected to educational goals/policy outside of your classroom. In your response consider how your challenge area is related to state, federal and/or your campus’ goals. For example, is the area you selected a state learning objective (in Texas, a TEK) and/or a district level goal (e.g., a district initiative)?

Analyze your data: Explain the data you have for this project. Is this data at the state, district, or classroom level, or a combination of levels? Outline the trends that you see in the data. Did you calculate a mean or standard deviation? Why or why not? What did the results show you? What strengths does your data reveal? What challenges does your data suggest? Include charts and graphs illustrating your data (please do not include student names).

Logic Model: Reflect on the example logic models in Figure 6.2. and Figure 6.3 in your textbook, and create a basic logic model to address the problem/areas of concern you identified. As you create your logic model, consider the following questions:
● What challenge (problem or issue) did you identify?
● What data did you use to identify the challenge?
● What are the desired outcomes (goals) for your students?
● What are the inputs, activities, and outputs you plan to include?