District+Assessment+Plan

District Assessment Plan: My understanding of our discussion today (6/16/08) on the District Assessment Plan: DRA: grades K-6 (all students) Tungsten: ELA grades 3 and 4 Math grades 2, 3, 4, and 7 (still not sure about grade 6) Dibels: K-6 (possibly limit in grades 5 and 6 to “at risk”) Achieve 3000: grades 5 and 6 and “at risk” students grades 7-12 Aimsweb: “At Risk” grades 7-12 GRADE/GMADE*: Grade 2, Fall and Spring (all students) Grade 3, Fall (all) and Spring (“at risk” only) Grade 4, Fall (all) and Spring (“at risk” only) Grade 5: Fall and Spring (all students) Grade 6: Fall and Spring (all students) *Issues: Should we re-evaluate the purposes of our assessment plan (i.e. do we need a standardized assessment for all of our kids, given the amount of time to administer/score)? Should the GRADE/GMADE be used with all kids? Can our other assessments (NYS assessments, common grade level assessments, report card grades, DRA, DIBELS, etc) provide us with enough data so we only need to track longtitudinally the performance of our “at risk” kids? /district assessment plan discussion of 6-16-08.doc

--- Summary notes from 4/14/08 discussion on district assessments: We agreed that the “checklist” template developed by Barbara, Ginny and Jayne works well by providing necessary information about each district assessment. Well done! The only addition to the checklist is whether the assessment will be included in the data warehouse. We need to follow the same format for our future discussion about math assessments. FYI, we will continue our discussion of the District’s ELA assessment program at the Monday, April 28 administrative team meeting. We will begin our discussion of the District’s math assessment program at the Monday, May 5, 2008 administrative team meeting. Both meetings begin at 12:30 p.m. in Mark’s office. Please let me know if any of the above information is inaccurate so I may make the appropriate change(s). Thanks!
 * We agreed that not all assessment data will go into the data warehouse.
 * We will no longer use the QRI assessment.
 * We will administer the DRA to all students in grades 1-4 at least twice a year (fall and spring) and perhaps a third time to “at risk” students. We remain undecided about whether to administer the DRA in grade 5.
 * Elements of the ELP will be used K-2 for diagnostic/instructional purposes only. The writing, concepts in print, listening and speaking portions will be administered. Student performance will not be included in the data warehouse.
 * DIBELS will be administered to all students grades K-6. Student performance data for this assessment will not be included in the data warehouse. Instead, labels for students’ permanent record cards will be produced.
 * AN IMPORTANT CONCERN IS HOW WE WILL COLLECT ASSESSMENT RESULTS FROM TEACHERS ( i.e. spreadsheet, one form for all assessments). WE AGREED THAT WE WILL REVISIT THIS CONCERN WHEN WE REACH AGREEMENT ON THE OVERALL ASSESSMENT PLAN.
 * We continue to debate how to collect longtitudinal data on student performance that can measure student growth over a year (in NCE’s) and be used as a diagnostic tool. Terra Nova is an option, as is the GRADE if it is administered to all students. We need more research on this. The middle school would like to drop the Terra Nova in grades 7 and 8; the question remains- if not this, then what?
 * Beginning in 2008-9, we will use Tungsten in grades 2-4 only. Tungsten data will not be included in the data warehouse.
 * Achieve 3000 will be used in grades 5 and 6 for all students, and for “at risk” students in grades 7-12. The question remains: what about grades 7 and 8? If not Achieve 3000 or Tungsten, then what (Performance Pathways?)

Summary of the discussion of 4/7/2008 on the District's assessment plan: As per our discussion, our K-12 assessment plan needs to: Provide longitudinal data regarding student progress over time Provide diagnostic information about students Provide results that are used by teachers to inform curriculum and instruction Minimize the impact on instructional time Disaggregate data for subgroups (NCLB) Areas of Consensus: We have agreed that the DRA will be used grades1-4 and as it is tied to our reading program “Good Habits great Readers.” We agreed that a normative assessment is needed. Pending Issues: DRA in Grade 5? Terra Nova v GRADE v Tungsten? Longitudinal assessment in math Variation on Tungsten- some grades only?