Assessment
OVERVIEW
The purpose of assessment is to measure student growth, evaluate progress towards standards and provide feedback as a means to continuously improve academic performance.
Assessment Calendar
Why Do We Assess And What Do We Do With All This Data?
- To develop flexible and dynamic classroom groups
- To monitor progress throughout the year
- To problem solving process
- To develop goals for programs and students
- To communicate with parents during conferences
- To determine strengths and weaknesses and alter instruction
- To better understand student learning
Targeted Instruction = Improved Achievement
OVERVIEW
ACCESS for ELLs is a standards-based, criterion referenced English language proficiency test designed to measure English language learners' social and academic proficiency in English. It assesses social and instructional English used within the school context as well as the language associated with language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies across the four language domains (Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing).
RESOURCES
Assessment and Evaluation Programming System (AEPS)
Description of Assessment
AEPS (Early Childhood) assesses children across six major developmental areas—fine motor, gross motor, cognitive, adaptive, social-communication, and social. The assessment encompasses pre academic content areas such as pre literacy, numeracy, and pre-writing
Areas Assessed
- Fine Motor
- Gross Motor
- Cognitive
- Adaptive
- Social-communication
- Social
OVERVIEW
The Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) is a standardized test designed to measure learned reasoning and problem solving skills in three different areas: verbal, quantitative, and nonverbal. These abilities, acquired both in and out of school, are important because children use them on a daily basis to learn and solve problems. It is important to note that the CogAT is neither an intelligence test nor an achievement test. It measures developed rather than innate abilities.
Examples:
- Comprehend problem situations
- Detect similarities and differences
- Make inferences
- Make deductions
- Classify and categorize objects, events, and other stimuli
- Create and adapt problem-solving strategies
- Use familiar concepts and skills in new contexts
The CogAT is given to students in third and fifth grade.
OVERVIEW
Measures of Academic Progress® (MAP®) are K – 12 interim assessments that measure growth, project proficiency on high-stakes tests, and inform how educators differentiate instruction, evaluate programs, and structure curriculum.
Computer adaptive MAP assessments reveal precisely which academic skills and concepts the student has acquired and what they’re ready to learn. MAP assessments are grade independent and adapt to each student’s instructional level. Every item on a MAP assessment is anchored to a vertically aligned equal interval scale, called the RIT scale for Rasch UnIT—a stable measurement, like inches on a ruler, that covers all grades. RIT scores serve as an essential data point in a student’s learning plan; educators can see their precise learning level and respond accordingly.
RESOURCES
OBJECTIVES
The SAT Suite opens doors to college.
The PSAT 8 tests the same skills and knowledge as the SAT, PSAT/NMSQT, and PSAT 10—in a way that makes sense for eighth graders. It measures what students are already learning, shows whether they’re on track for college, and lets students, teachers, and parents know where they need the most improvement. This helps guide high school placement.
RESOURCES
OVERVIEW
The Illinois Assessment of Readiness is the state assessment and accountability measure for Illinois students enrolled in a public school district. IAR assesses the Illinois Learning Standards Incorporating the Common Core and will be administered to students in English Language Arts and Mathematics. IAR assessments in English Language Arts and Mathematics will be administered to all students in grades 3-8, according to their current grade level.
RESOURCES
OVERVIEW
TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) is a large-scale assessment designed to inform educational policy and practice by providing an international perspective on teaching and learning in mathematics and science. Not all schools take part in this assessment. There is a lottery each year. Schools are notified in the fall. The test is given in the spring. No individual student scores are shared. Large scale data is provided back to the school district to use in future planning.
Kindergarten Individual Development Survey (KIDS)
KIDS is a state-mandated tool in which teachers observe the knowledge, skills, and behaviors that most impact long-term student success of children entering kindergarten. Teachers assess students during the first 40 days of school. Data is submitted to the state and used to analyze kindergarten readiness.
Common Assessment Terms
AIMSweb is a progress monitoring system based on direct, frequent and continuous student assessment. The results are reported to students, parents, teachers and administrators via a web-based data management and reporting system to determine response to intervention.
AYP stands for Annual Yearly Progress. It is the measure by which schools, districts, and states are held accountable for student performance under Title I of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.
Benchmark assessments are common assessments given periodically throughout the school year, at specified times during a curriculum sequence. The assessments evaluate students’ knowledge and skills relative to an explicit set of longer-term learning goals.
CBM stands for curriculum-based measurement and involves assessing students' fluency in reading passages, computing, spelling words, and in writing sentences.
ELL stands for English Language Learner and indicates a person who is in the process of acquiring English and has a first language other than English.
ESL stands for English as a Second Language and is a traditional term for the use or study of the English language by non-native speakers in an English-speaking environment.
Formative assessments are observations or assessments that occur during instruction and allow for the evaluation of student performance on a learning task and that identify portions of that task that the student may or may not be able to do.
Lexile is a score that helps identify reading material that is at an appropriate difficulty level for an individual student. When a student reads material within his or her Lexile range, that student should read with 75% comprehension.
MAP stands for Measures of Academic Progress (computer-administered tests that result in a RIT score).
Norm-referenced tests compare student performance to that of other students nationwide. They show where students stand in relation to their peers, not to a defined standard of achievement.
Percentage and percentile: "Percentage" is about the number of questions answered correctly; "percentile" is about ranking a student in comparison to other students in the same grade or age group. For example, if a student answered 8 out of 10 ten questions correctly, then the student's percentage would be 80%. If that same student's percentile score is at the 70% percentile, that student scored higher than 70% of the students who took the test.
RIT stands for Rasch Unit scale and is named after the developer of the scale, George Rasch. The RIT Scale is a curriculum scale that uses individual item difficulty values to estimate student achievement.
RtI stands for Response to Intervention. It is both a strategy for intervening early within the general education and one part in the process by which students may be identified to receive special education and related services.
Screener is a general type of assessment that helps determine whether or not a student might need more in depth assessment of some sort.
Summative assessment is a comprehensive assessment that is used to determine the level of student learning at the end of a course, program, or grade.