Ugh...Data Driven Instruction???

Well, today I was introduced to the realm of data driven instruction and if I haven't felt overwhelmed by this point, I sure do now!  Anyone else out there having to deal with DDI?  I feel like I had it easy last year with my elementary SLO's compared to this year!  Luckily, it looks like I may only have to do 2 SLO's and 1 LLO this year (compared to 4 SLO's and 1 LLO last year), but it's going to be SOOOO much more work to do them with this data driven instruction component!

For anyone who doesn't know what DDI is, from what I learned today, teachers must give students an exam-like assessment at various points throughout the year (our school is making us do one at each 10 week quarter to assess what has been taught up to that point).  We have to review what a majority of students are getting wrong/struggling with and readdress/reteach, and then test again at the next 10 week period!

Now, I get the idea behind this, but it's going to be A LOT of work for me!  We are now moving to using eDoctrina (which I found out is a relatively locally ran company in Buffalo, NY...near my hometown and 5 hours away from where I teach).  In eDoctrina, we will enter in our SLOs, pre-assessment scores, target scores for each student, and then the post-assessment scores.  The nice thing is that eDoctrina will automatically weigh and compute our 40% assessment score for APPR. (On a side rant, I'm being encouraged to use my student's STAR scores for my SLO's...something I DON'T want to do!  I'd rather do a two-part assessment...an observational drawing portion and a test portion that tests students on art vocabulary as well as a writing portion, that will probably be analysis of an artwork...but that's another post for the future!)

The other nice thing is that eDoctrina has test banks to build test (for the quarterly DDI exams) as well as for post-assessment tests IN EVERYTHING BUT ART! (Because there is no state assessment for art, and no state assessment for art from other states that I've been able to find elsewhere so far...)  Which therefore means that I will have to start entering in test bank questions!  Argh!  It will be worth it in the long run, but it's so daunting to look at right now! This program will generate tests and bubble sheets to match the test.  After the bubble sheets are filled out, you scan the bubble sheet (which is printed off with a special bar code) into a fax machine to the eDoctrina number and the results are automatically calculated and entered under each specific student's account....thus allowing the program to generate graphs and data for me as a teacher to evaluate and adjust my teaching.

There is so much more I could say about this program, but for now, I'll just ask if anyone else out there is venturing into the realm of DDI and what your thoughts are on it...how is your district approaching the data collection...and are you using a program like eDoctrina?