Assessments as an Essential
Component of Instruction
Board of Education Presentation
May 6, 2014
How does assessment serve students?

Personalized learning environment
◦ re-teaching
◦ extensions
◦ Granite Connection

Interventions
◦ Special Education
◦ ESL supports

Special programs access
◦ dual immersion language
◦ accelerated learning

College, career and life readiness
◦ applications
◦ scholarships
◦ grants
How does assessment serve teachers?

Differentiated classroom instruction
◦
◦
◦
◦
lesson planning
re-teaching/remediation
extensions
PLC data
How does testing serve the Granite School
District Community?

Provides feedback to parents, schools, and board
regarding student and school achievement.

Complies with state and federal assessment and
accountability requirements.
Why so much testing?

Granite School District
◦ improve student achievement
◦ inform instruction

Utah
◦ develop tests measuring Utah core
◦ replace national norm-referenced tests
◦ demonstrate return on investment (ROI)

United States (since 1988)
◦ increase rigor in curriculum
◦ improve student learning compared to international peers
How do other districts compare?
(See Handout)
What changes are coming in Granite School District?
(See Handout)
What assessments are selected by schools?

Common Formative Assessments

Teacher selected
◦ end of unit/chapter
◦ formative/summative created by teacher

Software based assessments
◦ My Access

Unaligned
What problems have we experienced in assessment?

Technical
◦ problems with the browser
◦ availability of platforms (purchased and self-developed

Alignment
◦ content accuracy
◦ consistency with core objectives

PLC
◦ availability of time
◦ ability to assemble and disaggregate reports
What are we doing right now?

Benchmark questions available to teachers

Ongoing review and adjustment

ELA benchmarks being replaced
◦ teacher committee recruited
◦ replacing benchmarks owned by CTB McGraw-Hill
◦ incorporating protocol
 align to Utah core
 accuracy ( content, grade appropriate, depth of knowledge)
 technically sound (distractor analysis, on-going p-value analysis)