EADMS offers multiple ways to investigate test results. A teacher can go to Report Builder to see general scores for an overall picture of success, but she can also dig in and look at more specific results in the Standards Based Report. Here, she can view the student results specific to each item or standard. This is helpful for an individual teacher to clarify questions, answers, and teaching practices. It would be even more useful to a team of teachers who gave a common assessment. They can use the report to research whether a particular question or bank of answers was faulty, whether students overall did not understand the question or how to answer it, and, perhaps most importantly, albeit sometimes a bit humbling and uncomfortable, look at results in different classrooms and share best teaching practices so that all students may benefit from what worked for one teacher. One important thing to keep in mind is that multiple questions on one standard will offer a clearer picture, minimizing the possibility of unclear questions or confusing answer banks. The end results of the investigation should be not only improved test questions, but, more importantly, improved classroom practices to best address common core standards in a concrete, detailed fashion.
