ISA DYO PERIODIC ASSESSMENTS
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is the purpose of the ISA DYO Periodic Assessment Program?
“Design Your Own” (DYO) Periodic Assessments in math and ELA are a required by the New York
City Department of Education for students who have not yet passed the Integrated Algebra Regents
or the ELA Regents exams.
The ISA DYO Periodic Assessment program supports teachers’ professional development in
designing performance assessments and implementing formative assessment in their curricula.
English teachers collaborate with staff from the Morris Center for the Professional Education of
Teachers (CPET) at Teachers College and math teachers collaborate with the ISA Math Coaches
both in workshops and in one-on-one sessions.
What types of assessments are part of the ISA DYO Periodic Assessment Program?
ELA: Teachers work closely with a CPET ELA Coach in developing a sequence of 3 curriculumembedded DYO periodic assessments and rubrics that measure students’ performance related to
teachers’ learning goals for students, and which are aligned with the NYS ELA standards and
performance indicators. Assessments incorporate both writing and reading components and rubrics
that measure student progress in four core dimensions: (1) reading process skills; (2) knowledge of
literary conventions; (3) making meaning/analysis; (4) communication (in writing). CPET coaches
collaborate with teachers to review and revise the curriculum-embedded tasks they are developing
and provide feedback on and resources for how they can measure specific NYS performance
indicators in ELA.
Math Teachers work closely NCREST math coaches and math assessment coordinators on a
developing a sequence of three math assessments over the course of the year. Math assessments
are open-ended problem solving tasks designed to surface evidence of students’ mathematical
thinking abilities through engagement with the content under study at that time. The DYO math
assessment rubric is aligned with the NYS standards and performance indicators and the National
Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Process Standards. The rubric is based on the five
NCTM dimensions: (1) problem solving; (2) reasoning and proof; (3) communication; (4)
connections; and (5) representation. These dimensions also align with Commencement Level
standards 1 and 3 of the NYS Learning Standards for Mathematics.
Which students are assessed and how often?
All students you have yet to pass the appropriate Regents exam take three periodic assessments
over the course of the school year. The fall assessment is given in September. The mid-year
assessment is given in January. The spring assessment is given in April.
How are students’ assessments scored?
CPET ELA coaches, ISA math coaches and NCREST technical assistants provide professional
development in scoring assessments using reliable scoring and norming practices. Schools enter
students’ assessment scores into an online database, from which reports can be created on
individual and subgroup performance. The DYO Coaches works with teachers on analyzing data to
identify and develop specific instructional interventions, including differentiating instruction for
students with different needs and developing appropriate instructional materials.
How do schools know how their students performed on the assessments?
ISA school teams enter their students’ DYO assessments scores in the Online Assessment
Reporting System (OARS)—a web-based assessment data entry, management and reporting
software that is customized to the ISA DYO assessments. Each ISA small schools and small
learning community has a password-protected page on OARS that allow teams to enter data, view
and generate reports on students’ performance on the assessments.
NCREST provides OARS training workshops in the fall as well as on-demand OARS technical
assistance and support. NCREST also provides each ISA small schools and small learning
community data reports on students math and ELA performance and gains in performance overall,
as well as OARS-generated reports which show individual student performance and gains in
performance on the assessments. School teams can also generate their own reports directly from
OARS.
How can students’ performance assessment data be used?
ISA school teams are encouraged to use the reports to collectively reflect on how their programs
are preparing students in critical ELA and math skills. The DYO assessment data may be used, for
example:

to identify math, reading and writing dimensions in which students have demonstrated strengths;

to target math and reading and writing dimensions in which students need improvement;

to consider how math and ELA instruction can support student growth for a class, subgroup of
students and/or individual students.