This document provides information about a data analysis of a 9th grade English assessment given to 85 students. It summarizes that the students performed well on comprehension questions but struggled with vocabulary and applying the stages of the hero's journey to different stories. To improve performance, the teacher plans to spend more time on vocabulary practice and analysis of how the hero's journey stages apply in different literary contexts.

1. Meagan Harrelson
FRIT 7236
Data Analysis
9th Grade English
Students
The school where I teach is about 80% White/Caucasian, 15% African American, and about 5%
Hispanic and Asian. Although the majority of students are considered Middle Class, about 70%
of students receive free or reduced lunch, which actually shows that most students come from
low-income households. The school is comprised of about 55% female and 45% male students,
and it sits in a very rural community. Although I do not teach all of the students in the school, it
can be assumed that the 85 students that I teach for this course are a sample that represent the
whole. I do not teach any students with learning disabilities; however, I do have a few students
who have a 504 document which requires certain conditions for testing.
Course
This assessment was given in a Ninth Grade Literature and Composition class. In this unit of the
course, students read a variety of short stories with the unit theme “The Hero’s Journey.” These
short stories are studied in preparation for reading Homer’s The Odyssey. The short story that
this assessment tested was “Through the Tunnel.” Major objectives assessed include:
1. Read and comprehend the plot of “Through the Tunnel.”
2. Apply knowledge of the stages of “The Hero’s Journey” to various stories in literature.
3. Analyze a short story for literary elements used.
4. Understand and apply new vocabulary.
Descriptive Analysis
● Mean: The mean score for this set of data is 80%.
● Median: The median score for this set of data is also 80%.
● Standard deviation: 2.60
● Item analysis: Students seemed to fare well with items that covered objectives 1 and 3.
However, the vocabulary items as well as the items assessing objective 2 seemed to be

2. more difficult for the students. These are items that students would have needed to study
a little more for and have a deeper understanding of in order to perform well.
Analysis of Student Strengths and Weaknesses
Students’ biggest weakness on this assessment was with vocabulary, which falls under objective
4. As previously mentioned, vocabulary is many times something that students must actually
study more in order to learn. However, when students are not studying the vocabulary at home,
there must be more done in the classroom in order for them to learn it. Otherwise, we’ve wasted
our time in teaching it at all. Before future assessments, I will spend more time on meaningful
vocabulary practice activities, giving students more opportunities to use the vocabulary as well
as learning devices and strategies to help them understand it and remember it. This would also
improve the reliability of the assessment.
Students did really well on items that covered objectives 1 and 3, which dealt with reading
comprehension and analysis of literary devices. The reliability of these items is very good,
because students have had a lot more practice and review with these objectives and it can be
assumed that they would perform well on them if tested again.

3. Improvement Plan
As previously stated, I could improve future results by spending more time with vocabulary in
the classroom. Students do not seem to be studying the vocabulary on their own time, so it will
be up to me to provide more opportunities in the classroom for them to practice with this
objective.
Objective 2 will require a deeper level of understanding with the students. Learning the stages of
the hero’s journey goes beyond simply memorizing twelve steps. Students must be able to apply
their knowledge of these stages within various stories and plots in fictional literature. In order to
do that, students must gain more exposure to not only identification but also analysis of these
stages in different contexts. I can improve instruction by introducing more texts that encompass
the stages of the hero’s journey and then model the process of identifying and analyzing those
stages.