Teaching staff are used to gathering data and evidence on a wide range of issues. The data handling teams found in most schools also collect information continually. Try spending a minute listing all the forms of data collected in your school - no doubt you’ll miss a few.
The question we need to ask ourselves is why we gather the data, when, how and what do we eventually do with it?
Most importantly, special educational needs and disabilities coordinators (Sendcos) need to reduce the amount of additional data they are collecting. Some of this they can’t avoid, such as results from diagnostic assessments or measurements from interventions, but much of what they require already exists.
Before Sendcos start gathering evidence and data, they must ask why they need it. Is it to establish if a student is making progress? Then the evaluations of interventions and measurements of academic progress that take place at natural data collection points in the school calendar should suffice.
Is it for a review meeting or funding bid? You can usually find what you need by contacting everyone involved in a student’s education and asking for a current report. These interim reports are also useful in indicating how much support or differentiation a student needs to achieve at that level, and where they are in relation to their peers both nationally and within the classroom.
Evidence for access
Or perhaps you need evidence for an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) report or access arrangement applications. In this scenario, numerical data - such as reading age, age-related expectation (ARE), maths level or Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT) score - is equally as important as the anecdotal evidence.
In the case of access arrangements, schools must prove that the adjustment they are applying for is the student’s normal way of working in the class, whether that is with a reader, writer, extra time, laptop or breaks. Don’t start thinking about this at the point of application - you need to build up an evidence log over time. It is also helpful, although not essential, to be able to illustrate what happens when the adjustment is not in place.
Say a school wishes to apply for a reader for forthcoming GCSE examinations. The evidence should be something like this:
- Poor reading ability evidenced through psychometric testing results below a standard score of 85, a history of literacy intervention. A diagnostic report indicating dyslexia provided by a specialist teacher, a record of graduated support within school.
- Additionally held on file: copies of in-class tests when the teaching assistant read to the student, plus two tests where the TA was absent through illness and a reader was unavailable. (Student retook tests later with support.)
With EHCP applications, Sendcos have to backtrack through history to find evidence for the graduated approach, and for success as well as failure. This could come from traditional data such as levels, reading age and so on, but also from attendance, behaviour tracking and collated information.
Again, it is important not just to evidence what a student can do with support but also what they can achieve without it.
So, where can Sendcos start and how do they gather the information?
- Line up data/evidence-gathering with whole-school collections. Don’t duplicate data and avoid asking colleagues for an update two weeks after a major data-gathering exercise. If you need “working-at” grades - and your school collects trajectory grades - request these at the same time as it’s much easier for your colleagues.
- Gather data from other sources, too, such as attendance and behaviour. Find out when the staff involved in these do their reporting and ask to receive a copy.
- Time observations and book scrutinies to coincide with when these naturally occur in the school cycle. You might also consider asking other staff to support you. For example, a TA can copy pages of a book for a quick scrutiny or can be given criteria under which to take an observation.
- Keep diagnostic assessment data only for as long as it remains relevant. For example, Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT) reading scores are superseded each time a new test is taken, so by all means refer to the change between two sets of results but be careful only to quote the most recent.
- Gather information from wider sources. Dinner staff are particularly useful when you are trying to gather evidence about the social interactions of ASD (autism spectrum difference) and SEMH (social and emotional mental health) students. TAs, too, can provide great information on what students can achieve with or without support.
- Take note of external sources such as diagnostic, medical or professional reports. Ensure that you include information from parents and pupils. While this data may be difficult to put a “value” to, it is nonetheless valuable and can reflect success that may not otherwise have been evident.
- Identify the gaps in information and work out if you need any further individual or group assessments, observations or tasks.
If you don’t know what to do with the data you’re collecting, you probably don’t need it. Only gather information when it will inform your next steps or tell you whether something is working or not.
What format?
The format of evidence reports will depend on their purpose. For an individual student it is probably easiest to open a word processing document, insert some tables, add the data and append a narrative. This lets you collate and analyse many strands of information simultaneously.
For reporting on groups, a spreadsheet with narrative is more useful and probably won’t contain as many strands of information. This is also where you will need to note historical information alongside current data to determine progress over time.
For exam concessions at secondary level and above, it is essential to use JCQ Form 8. Recent guidelines advise that you cannot substitute a school-devised version. (In fact, Form 8 is a good model for any report.)
Whatever evidence we gather needs to be fit for purpose. Sendcos have enough work without giving themselves another administrative burden.
So, have a look at the data your school already collects and use that as far as possible. Gather anything additional that you require, but don’t be afraid to stop collecting information you don’t use. It is far more important to have focused and relevant files.
Abigail Hawkins is a Sendco at Edukey
Provision Map is an outstanding piece of software that is helping Sendcos succeed. Find out more about Provision Map
