Assessment at Brent

PTA Meeting March 14th 2012

Sara EwbankRuey Timberg

Sarah Werstuik

Benchmarking Assessments

Types of Assessments: Grades:

GOLD PreK Continuum PS - PK

DIBELS K - 5

Fountas & Pinnell K - 5

ANet 3 - 5

What are Benchmarking Assessments?• Administered Periodically

• Beginning, Middle, and End of the Year

• Provides teachers with information about students’ progress on skills

• Are useful to inform instructional decision making.

• Low stakes for individual students

Teaching Strategies GOLD• Objectives are organized into

10 areas of development and learning

• Teachers record observations for 38 GOLD Objectives for Learning & Development

GOLD Continuum: Process

• Teachers observe students playing in small groups, during centers, and at outdoor activity times

• Examples:– 2c, Interact with peers– 11c, Solves problems– 14b, Engages in socio-dramatic play

GOLD Continuum: Data

• Families receive an "Individual Child Report" for each reporting period

• Reports provide child's current levels on all learning objectives

• Information includes data from GOLD's Assessment Opportunity Cards supplemented with teacher’s notes for assessments

DIBELS

Dynamic Indicator of Basic Early Language Skills

What is DIBELS?

• A way to quickly identify students who are struggling with early reading skills and to gauge the effectiveness of any extra help they are getting.

• Used K – 5th at Brent• A series of one-minute assessments that measure a student’s

ability and growth in essential early reading skills:• Phonemic Awareness : Hearing and identifying the individual

sounds in a word• Alphabetic Principle: Associating those sounds with a letter or

letters• Accuracy and Fluency: Putting those words together into smooth

phrases

DIBELS: Process• Every student in the school participates in a DIBELS

assessment at least three times a year: In September, January and May

• Students sit one on one with the teacher and it is all talking and pointing: nothing written

• Testing takes 10 – 15 minutes depending on the number of DIBELS measures required at the student’s grade level.

• Relaxed and fun. Younger students consider DIBELS assessment to be “games with letters and sounds.”

DIBELS: Data

• If a student scores below what is typically expected, extra help in that skill will be offered.

• These students are frequently monitored ( every two to four weeks ) to determine if the intervention is resulting in improvement.

DIBELS: Reporting• Three times a year, a letter goes

home with your child’s DIBELS scores and suggestions for targeted skills practice you can do at home.

• Scores in each DIBELS measure falls into one of three categories:– Goal: your child is right on track– Some Support: Let’s keep an eye on

this skill and try some extra instruction and practice

– Most Support: your child is behind where he/she needs to be in this skill and needs focused instruction and practice

Fountas & Pinnell Leveling• Fountas & Pinnell provides

reliable and consistent reading assessments at every reading level

• Teachers administer assessments individually to determine the student’s instructional level

Fountas & Pinnell Leveling• Teachers use this

information to plan lessons that target student’s needs

• Students select independent reading books according to their levels

Achievement Network (ANet)• 3/4/5 Graders

• Teachers deliver instruction according to a pacing guide

• Each test assesses only what was taught during that interim period

ANet: Data

• Teachers reflect on class and student data to determine content that needs to be re-taught.

• Leadership team reflects on grade level data to determine instructional trends.

• School level data can be compared with other ANet schools to monitor progress during the year.

ANet: Reporting

What About the DC-CAS?

• A one-time test; not a benchmarking assessment

• Data is collected and used at the state level, rather than at the school level

• Standardized administration• Basis for determinations of school progress,

but not instructionally useful

Where to Find More Information• www.teachingstrategies.com• www.wirelessgeneration.com • www.heinemann.com/fountasandpinnell • www.achievementnetwork.org