How can tracking a students progress help a child’s growth?

It’s been more than two years since I was just an average student with average grades. I went to a school that had no system for tracking my growth, and over time I lost almost all my confidence to become a better student. It was then when I transferred to an online school. I attempted being my usual self of not caring at all but through time I realized that the teachers would do anything to get me to be the best version of myself at school. Since then I slowly brought myself to the top and I have stayed only because my teachers have helped me in every way possible.

“It is important to track a student all the time,” says Adelita Shepherd, a compliance coordinator at Destinations Career Academy of Colorado. “I think there are many ways that you can see whether a student is making progress, or if they take school seriously,” she continues, “If it’s the testing percentage, their overall motivation to participate in school, and the dropout and re-registration numbers.”

Being able to track a student’s progress throughout the school year can help the instructor understand the low parts and the high parts of the student. For example, if the student is not getting ideal grades in English and this student has recently moved from a foreign country, the teacher can focus on improving their English skills by enrolling them in courses such as ESL, ELL, and maybe even introduce them to online applications like Duolingo that can help them improve their English to a level like other students.

This kind of tracking can help the teacher determine what students are and aren’t getting from classes, when to slow down or re-teach, etc. According to an article written by the Teach For America organization, a teacher must always ask themselves “Which of my actions is causing these gaps/strengths?”