Teachers work to produce educational results that are acceptable, measurable, and appropriate for student academic progress.
The purpose of gauging student academic progress is to ensure that teachers are attentive to students’ developing mastery of content throughout the year. The primary goal is to support teachers’ use of data and understanding of student psychology and ability to guide lesson development and implementation. The central objective of student academic progress is exemplified in the teacher’s ongoing assessment of student learning and how that data is used to present new content with methods that bridge the learning goals and achievement expectations for each student.
Tracking student comprehension
Modern technologies allow teachers, students, and families to access academic records from any device connected to the internet. Families are provided with access codes at the beginning of the school year which allow them to log in and view student progress. Grades for each class may be
viewed as well, so that opened communication regarding assignments and grades is facilitated. Teachers use interfaces like this one to track not only academic progress, but also communication via phone conference.
While grades are the quantitative measure of learning, they represent only one aspect of academic progress. Students may not express themselves thoroughly on formal assessments and may struggle with testing conditions. It is essential for teachers to recognize measures of learning beyond the numbers expressed on paper. Progress tracking data must incorporate measures that reflect student learning in less tangible terms, such as participation in classroom discussions and ideas expressed on written assignments that diverge from the expected convention. Student confidence sharing ideas, asking questions, and providing answers during classroom discussions can be an important indicator of academic progress through appropriate use of content vocabulary.