Lakeview Community Schools Assessment System

Are the current assessments we use providing us with the information we need to help our students?

Objectives of this presentation 1. Inform the School Board of our current assessment system at Lakeview. 2. Provide direction for the future of Lakeview’s School Improvement process.

Student Learning Our main job as Principals is to make sure our students are learning. But, how do we know if they are learning? What do we use as evidence to determine if our students are learning? What provides us this information?

Assessments/Tests The most effective way to determine whether our students are learning is through assessment.

Two Types of Assessments Point of Instruction Formative Summative

Two Types of Assessment Formative Assessment Characteristics: Ongoing in the instructional process. Provides you the best information about whether or not students learned what we are teaching. Helps teachers determine their next step in instruction. Any assessment that directly assess our curriculum. Examples: Classroom assessments, quizzes, essays, chapter tests, criterion referenced tests. Answer these questions: Did the students learn what I taught? Are the students learning what I am teaching? Summative Assessment Characteristics: Given periodically, once a year, end of semester, etc. Scores are often used for accountability. Tests may not align exactly with our curriculum. Examples: Norm referenced achievement tests, NeSA State Test Answers these questions: Is our school performing well? How do our students compare to other students?

Both types of Assessments are necessary and important to help us improve our school system.

Summative Assessments are generally used for school wide decisions Summative Assessments are generally used for school wide decisions. Formative Assessments are generally used for classroom decisions.

School Improvement As an administrative team we have been brainstorming and investigating the possibility of adjusting some of our summative assessment practices. Here’s Why????

Effective Assessment Provides usable, good information. Improved instruction, improves student achievement. This information helps us make good decisions to improve our instruction.

Ineffective Assessment Provides unclear or inconsistent information. And slows down the process of improving student achievement Which hinders our instructional decisions. (less focused)

The simple way to put it, better information, helps us make better decisions, to better improve our students.

Lakeview’s Current Assessments Elementary Assessments ITBS 3rd-6th grade DIBELS K-6th State Writing Test 4th Spring 2010 State Reading Test 3rd-6th grade On-line Math Test 4th Criterion Referenced Science Test 5th High School Assessments ITBS at 7th- 8th and 11th grade. State Writing Test 8th,11th Spring 2010 State Reading Test 8th, 11th On-line Math Test 8th, 11th ( in 2011 State Math Test) Criterion Referenced Science Test (2012 State Science test)

As an Administrative team we would like to add more consistency to the assessment system we currently use and provide a clear focus on how we use the data.

Our Proposal To establish a committee to investigate and find an achievement test that can be taken 3rd –10th grade, that measures growth. Why focus on growth? So that way we can determine whether our students are learning. Not all students are the same, and they do not come to us at the same level. Therefore we need to be able to tell if all students are academically growing. (i.e. Student A & Student B) Are we doing our job? Are students learning?