Analyzing Student Data to Inform Instruction and Increase Student Growth

Abstract

This practice-focused chapter describes analyzing student work (ASW), a process used by some music teachers in the United States to assess student work, analyze the results, and modify and improve instructions based on that analysis. Throughout the ASW process, specific qualities of student work are assessed using rubrics (markschemes). For teachers, the ASW process addresses the two questions “What do we do if a student is not proficient?” and “What do we do if a student is proficient and beyond?” The ASW process focuses on one aspect of student work at a time and provides data that enables teachers to modify instruction to improve student learning. Teachers can use data yielded from the ASW process in three ways: (1) to inform instruction and improve student proficiency; (2) to describe student work present and missing to construct a rubric; and (3) build consensus in scoring student work as a data team.