ASSESSMENT IN RTM:

An Overview for Parentsby

Dr. Steve Taylor, Assistant Superintendent for

Curriculum & Instruction

Welcome! Let’s start with a quiz to assess

your knowledge on the topic of assessment.

Scenario 1: Second graders are working math problems at the board while the teacher carefully monitors their progress to see if they understand the concepts. Is that assessment?

Yes No

Assessment Quiz (cont.)

Scenario 2: It’s Saturday morning at 8 a.m., but Penncrest students are not home in bed. They’re sitting in a classroom waiting for the SAT’s to begin. Is that assessment?

Yes No

Assessment Quiz (cont.)

Scenario 3: Teachers and students in 7th grade Language Arts class examine released PSSA items and practice passages in preparation for the PSSA reading test in March. Is that assessment?

Yes No

Assessment Quiz (cont.)

Scenario 4: Students bring home a rubric and ask parents to help them see if their piece of writing hits all the points on the rubric. Is that assessment?

Yes No

Assessment Quiz (cont.)

Scenario 5: Teachers use discussions, surveys, and pre-tests to see what students already know about a subject before launching into instruction. Is that assessment?

Yes No

Assessment Quiz (cont.)

Scenario 6: When Mrs. Smith observes Mary consistently needing more time than others to complete worksheets or quizzes, she suggests that Mary be tested for special services. Is that assessment?

Yes No

If you answered “Yes” to all of the six scenarios, then you already understand assessment, and you may skip the rest of this PowerPoint. Congratulations!

If you answered “No” to any, you may want to read on.

Many people associate assessment exclusively with high-stakes testing, such as PSSA tests. But assessment is a much broader and more complex concept which encompasses many routine classroom practices, as the scenarios above suggest. In the following brief presentation, you’ll learn about the major reasons we assess in RTM and

the different forms assessment can take.

WHY Assess?

• The most important reason to assess—by far—is to see if students are learning day to day. Almost every activity in a classroom can serve as a form of assessment. Teachers are continually observing their students’ responses to questions; gauging their performance on routine tasks involving reading, writing, speaking, listening, spelling, calculating, and problem solving; and seeing how they respond to work of all kinds completed in class and at home.

WHY Assess?

• Teachers use these observations to adjust instruction. Students’ responses to routine tasks let teachers know if they need to reteach material, differentiate instruction for some students, or move on to new material and activities.

WHY Assess?• Assessment provides data to help

teachers know if students need extra help or if they need enrichment. Assessment is the way to find out how to meet students’ individual needs. It also helps teachers and administrators make placement and leveling decisions to enable students to make the greatest progress.

WHY Assess?

• Another reason to assess is to enable students to think about and express their understanding. Assessments provide students the means to demonstrate what they know and can do. A good assessment will enable students to learn as they perform the assessment.

WHY Assess?

• Assessments also provide very valuable information about the effectiveness of our programs. For example, administrators and teachers study the PSSA data quite intensely to see if students are gaining the knowledge and skills dictated by Pennsylvania academic standards for reading, writing, and math. When assessments uncover an area where we need to improve, we address that area directly to make sure students have opportunities to learn the essential content.

WHY Assess?

• Finally, we assess in order to report students’ progress and achievement to them and to their parents. Our goal is to clearly communicate through a variety of assessments how students are doing in meeting our rigorous standards.

To summarize, we assess to:

• see if students are learning day to day• adjust instruction• help teachers know if students need

extra help or if they need enrichment• enable students to think about and

express their understanding• gather valuable information about the

effectiveness of our programs• report students’ progress and

achievement to them and to their parents

Forms of Assessment

Let’s shift from the reasons we assess to the forms of assessment we use. We’ll focus on four kinds of assessments:

1. Classroom assessments

2. District assessments

3. State assessments

4. National assessments

Forms of Assessment: Classroom Assessments

In Rose Tree Media, our teachers do not rely solely on standardized tests, commercial tests, or end of chapter tests to show them what their students know and can do. Instead, they create meaningful tasks that require students to use information, apply what they’ve learned, or perform or demonstrate their understanding of material. Most of the assessments our teachers create ask students to practice and perform tasks such as writing, giving speeches, creating projects, answering key questions, or solving problems.

Forms of Assessment: Classroom Assessments

Teachers put assessment on the front burner when they’re designing their units and lessons. It’s the routine, classroom assessments, like conducting a class discussion, calling children to the board to problem-solve, or engaging in a literature circle discussion that provide daily feedback to teachers on their students’ progress. Formative classroom assessments provide intermittent checkpoints of student understanding before the summative end of unit tests occur.

Forms of Assessment: District AssessmentsDISTRICT Assessments are designed

to ascertain how students are performing in relation to the Rose Tree Media curricula and standards, and to compare their performance to those of their peers within the district. Typically, teachers will review these data with parents during conferences (elementary and middle school only).

Forms of Assessment: District Assessments

Examples of District Assessment include:

– Progress Reports and Report Cards– Benchmarks– Portfolios (e.g., writing portfolios that

collect work over an entire year)– Midterm and Final Exams (high school

only)

Forms of Assessment: State Assessments

Most of you are probably familiar with the annual PSSA tests and the new Keystone Exams. These are assessment at the STATE level. They compare the performance of RTM students to those of students from across Pennsylvania. The acronym PSSA stands for Pennsylvania System of School Assessment.

Forms of Assessment: State Assessments

The PSSA tests assess students’ progress in reading, math, and writing. For all the subject areas tested on the PSSA, Rose Tree Media curricula are aligned with state standards, so students don’t need to learn new material or study at home to prepare for the tests. Everything they need to know and do to be successful should be covered in classes prior to the testing.

Forms of Assessment: State Assessments

Keystone Exams are end-of-course tests. There are three Keystone Exams now: in Algebra I, Literature, and Biology. Penncrest students will take the Algebra test after they have completed the course, which will differ depending on their math progression, and the Literature and Biology tests near the end of 10th grade.

Forms of Assessment: State Assessments

Students’ performances on the PSSA tests and Keystone Exams are reported according to four performance levels for each subject area:

– ADVANCED– PROFICIENT– BASIC– BELOW BASIC

Forms of Assessment: National Assessments

It is also important to know how Rose Tree Media student compare to students from across America. Assessments given to assess our performance on a NATIONAL level occur less frequently than classroom and district assessments. They enable teacher and parents to know if children are making progress typical for children in America at their age.

Forms of Assessment: National Assessments

MAP Tests: Our most recent innovation in testing involves the Measures of Academic Progress, or MAP test. MAP tests are completed entirely via computer. They use a form of artificial intelligence to develop a completely unique test for each student, constantly adjusting the level of difficulty depending on how students are performing.

Forms of Assessment: National Assessments

MAP tests determine a student’s instructional level in reading and math and track growth over the course of time. They are given twice a year, in the fall and in the spring. They compare RTM students’ performance to a norming group of over 2 million students across America.

MAP tests are given in grades 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, and 10. Results will be reported to parents in June.

Forms of Assessment: National Assessments

At the high school level, there are other national tests that students may take to determine their readiness for college. These include the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT), the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), and Advanced Placement (AP) tests.

Final Thoughts

More and more, data inform our daily decisions. The data come from a wide variety of assessments, such as those mentioned in the previous slides. Seldom does a professional development event pass without some in-depth consideration of data.

Final ThoughtsShould you have further questions

about any of the information in this presentation, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher, principal, or us:

Steve Taylor, 610-627-6015, staylor@rtmsd.org,

Assistant Superintendent forCurriculum & Instruction