dancepulse

Assessment time again. Just finished scoring the dance assessments required for 5th graders in Washington State, and it’s not all good news:

• 6 out of 44 students didn’t choreograph locomotor (traveling) movements into their dance, despite the instructions. Did they not understand, or were they cowed by being videotaped?
• 21 out of 44 students (!) didn’t get the idea of a dance in ABA form (most did ABABABAB…). Aarrgghh! ~that had to be my fault!
• 9 out of 44 performed with sort of diminished energy.

But I guess it’s better to know what’s wrong than assume all’s well — sort of the point of assessing them!

On the positive side:

• 13 out of 44 totally nailed it — 12 out of 12 points on choreography, performance & response!
• Another 14 out of 44 only missed one point — 11 out of 12.
• 91% scored either competent (average score of 3) or proficient (average score of 4).
• Several dances were fabulous!
• Of the 4 students that didn’t get an average score of 3 or 4, three of them scored 2.6.
• The student with the lowest score (2) started class with me only 4 weeks ago, and he’s still shell-shocked at having dance in his curriculum!

So there you go — analyzing data in order to improve instruction.  It’s all the rage now in education! But the insights are hard to ignore.