Leading a Balanced Literacy Assessment System:
Conducting a Literacy Assessment Review
We have new supervisors
(within the last 2 years) for every content area. We do have a District
Curriculum Coordinator- who has 2 meetings per year for teachers from all of
our schools to meet and collaborate. This is where we can discuss what we have
used so far or what we would like to implement.
We do have required
benchmark assessments in every content area. These are created by content area
supervisors as well as a committee they have. These are now done on an online
testing system that provides quick and accurate data. This data can then be
compared between individual classes, individual schools, and even on a district
level. It even compares state assessment scores that are uploaded to it as
well. We do use this data for curriculum decisions and individual student
decisions. The administrators as well as all teachers have access to all data.
At the end of last
school year a Google Forms survey was sent to every teacher district wide. It
then asked various questions about the grading system we have and assessments. It
was nice to know that feedback was considered. It even asked how our 4 main
grade types (classwork, homework, class participation, tests/quizzes) should be
weighted in each grade level.
In regards to
assessment results being communicated with students and families, it depends on
whether it is a formal assessment or not. Our benchmark assessments are posted
on teachers’ Realtime Portals in which Parents have access to daily and can see
all student grades. We do give scholastic guided reading level assessments,
which do not count as a grade, but for diagnostic of levels. This is up to the
school/teacher on how to share that information. One year we did not send up
notices with reports on it. This year we did send home letters when we did
initial assessments to tell parents what level their child was on and what this
meant.
This video really made
me want to take part in an assessment review! There were some questions such as
ones discussed above that I knew answers to, but others that I genuinely didn’t
know, but am interested to find out.
As Reading Specialists…
We need to be aware of
all of the types of assessments going on in all content areas. We need to know
what content area gives what assessment and when. It is our job to make sure
that every student is getting worthwhile assessments. We need to make sure
teachers and other professionals are using the data from these assessments to
drive instruction.
Wisconsin DPI. (2015,
January 16). Leading a balanced literacy assessment
system: Conducting a literacy assessment review. Retrieved April 13, 2016,
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v-uruFu6f-kg0
