Look at Historical Data on Current Students

Looking at Historical Data on Current Students

Looking at historical data on current students is an important strategy that teachers use to guide teaching practices. If it is the beginning of the school year, for example, you may want to examine historical data to get a sense of the academic abilities of the new group of students you will be teaching.

To examine historical data on current student using VCAT just following these simple steps:

1. After logging onto VCAT, you are provided with 3 tabs – Curriculum, Assessments, and Reports. Select the Reports Tab.
2. Because you are interested in viewing information on a group of students, next to Student you will select Group Achievement.
3. You will be asked to Select Year. The year you select represents the current year that these students are in your class.
4. Select your School.
5. Select Course: At this point you should select the grade that the students are currently in (Grade 4).
6. Select the current teacher (Ms. Fourth) – if you are the current teacher, simply select your name.
7. Select individual students or Check All to look at all of your students on the same report.
8. Select Data Years: If your students are currently 4th grade students for the 2010-2011 school year and you wish to look at 3rd grade data, simply select the year previous (2009-2010). If you wish to look at data from 2nd grade, select two years previous (2008-2009), and so on.
9. Select the Curriculum Courses you wish to look at and ask for More Detail.
10. Select More Detail.
11. Check All or Select the specific sub-categories you wish to examine. Once you have selected the sub-categories, click on Criterion Summary Report.
12. If Proficiency Scales are available, uncheck Numeric and click View Scales to just view the student Proficiency Scores. This makes your report easier to interpret and understand.

Examining historical data on current students is easy within the VCAT system. The information gathered is valuable for teachers as they make decisions around instruction.