Final IPA Performance Data, round 2

I’ve officially been using IPAs for a year now, and I could not be happier with the results. I finally got around to graphing last semester’s final IPA results, and it is pretty much all good news.

You can see significant differences between last year and this, not least among them being that I consolidated skills, rolling presentational speaking and interpersonal into one data set.

Perhaps the most important difference? This year’s results are after ONE semester of Spanish instead of two! The similarities are a lot cooler when you realize that discrepancy. That also begins to account for how many fewer intermediate scores there are, although I think the simplicity of the non-authentic recordings for listening  that made the listening scores go up significantly also made it difficult to achieve above Novice High.

You can also see that among my Spanish I students, not a single one ranked at N1, and almost none ranked at N2! That means that pretty much everyone really is ready to take on Spanish II and is on their way to Intermediate!

It seems especially fair to me since students’ first round of portfolios will be due BEFORE next semester starts. I analyzed each kiddo’s portfolio and IPA results for the semester and assigned them a level to “maintain” for next year, so they will be accountable for revisiting their speaking, reading, listening, and writing skills at least enough to submit 3 samples for each skill between now and August. (I’ll also be sending out reminders through Google Classroom periodically to keep it in the back of their minds.)

• 95% of my Spanish I students hit at least Novice Mid in most skill areas.
• 75% hit Novice High or better in reading AND writing.
• 70% hit Novice High or better in listening (BIG change!)
• 65% hit Novice High or better in speaking (which North Carolina says is the slowest skill to develop)

I think those numbers definitely add up to overall success, success which I attribute to clear expectations and feedback. The Performance & Proficiency page in their notebooks and clear objectives from AAPPL rubrics made it clear for students how they could advance. IPAs every 3 weeks or so made it easy for students to see their progress, and portfolio badges apparently helped them self-evaluate regularly too.

My students grew significantly in one semester, and I think it’s because they knew where they were headed.