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Contact Mary Black, Director of Curriculum & Instruction mblack@brentwood.k12.ca.us 925.634.7768 Demographics Summary Brentwood Union School District has established a system of local assessments that measure content standards and provide:
Professional development builds teachers' capacity to select and administer a variety of assessments, and then use results to inform instructional decisions. District assessment results are communicated to parents and/or legal guardians along with specific strategies to help their children at home. The district is developing and implementing standards-referenced report cards. Primary grades began the process. The sample for second grade shows that content standards are graded, but detailed information in reading is reported. Brentwood MM Matrix Brentwood LABenchmarks: Kindergarten-Third Grade Brentwood LABenchmarks: Fourth-Eighth Grade Writing Scoring Form Report Card Full Description Performance Levels Brentwood Union School District established four performance levels and all district assessments are aligned to these levels. Performance level data inform student and program decisions. The lowest performance level, Non-Proficient, is used to identify students at risk of retention and in need of intensive intervention services ("students at risk of retention," according to the district's pupil promotion and retention policy). Students at the Approaching level are offered moderate interventions. The district supports a range of research-based intervention services. Teachers decide what school interventions should be offered to their students and communicate with the intervention teacher about students' progress. Interventions include daily small group instruction, after-school tutoring or classes, and weeklong intersession classes. This empowerment of teachers strengthens their accountability -- they accept responsibility for their students' learning inside and outside their classrooms. Assessments In 1998, the district began to identify critical benchmarks and develop local measures in reading, writing, and mathematics. By 2001, reading and writing assessments were firmly established. In 2001-2002, mathematics curriculum materials were adopted and items on the assessment instrument were changed for greater alignment with standards. All students are assessed at the beginning and end of the year, and students at risk are also assessed midyear. The time periods have "flexible windows" that allow teachers to administer the district assessment after completing the unit of study. Administration of district assessments yields performance levels and results are reported to the district for school and district program decision-making. The district's long-range plan is to supplement the district assessment system with more frequent classroom assessment. Classroom assessments may be the district instruments or alternatives. Teachers are encouraged to frequently assess students at risk to monitor their progress and tailor lessons to their needs. The goal is seamless integration of instruction and assessment in classrooms. Teachers at different schools may be using different programs and assessment instruments, but all assessments are linked to a common set of district-defined performance levels. In other words, although teachers may use different classroom instruments, they all yield the same data in terms of performance levels. The district created a teachers' reading assessment guide that correlates the levels of all reading curriculum materials used in the district (e.g., level 10 of Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) is equivalent to Level F by Fountas-Pinnell, Level G of Wright Group, Level 9-10 of Reading Recovery, and lexile level 200-299). The district has a chart that identifies multiple district assessments for each grade span. Grade-level forms accompany the chart and present cutoff scores and weights for each assessment (see sample forms). The district uses the proprietary ARMS database software to compile data and produce summary reports for schools. Brentwood MM Matrix Reading: The district uses commercially available instruments to assess students' reading achievement. All students are assessed at the beginning and end of the year. Three instruments are:
Writing Scoring Form The writing assessment is administered three times per year. Teachers in grade-level teams score the first assessment at their school sites. The second and third assessments are sent to the district, mixed, and sent back to sites for scoring so teachers are scoring student work from other schools. Preparation and scoring sessions are quite sophisticated to achieve consistency among teacher raters. Lead teachers from each grade level at each school are trained to facilitate groups of raters. An additional teacher at each grade level serves as a "chief reader" to adjudicate scoring discrepancies and coordinate the scoring process across grade levels in the district. There is extensive calibration training and four qualifying rounds before actual scoring begins. In calibration training, raters compare their scores to "known" scores and discuss reasons for discrepancies to help each rater raise or lower their personal criteria to align to the common criteria and rigor for judging student work. Teachers must reach an acceptable level of agreement during qualifying rounds to be allowed to score actual student work. Leadership District leadership continually seeks feedback from staff and parents and/or legal guardians to design user-friendly resource materials, plan workshops, and implement a feasible system of accountability. District leaders seek a balance between time to assess and time to use the results to plan changes in instructional strategies and school programs. Teachers on Special Assignment (TSA) are based at each school to guide planning and facilitate communication between sites and district. This process supports site-based management in a unified district and fosters collective expertise. Professional Development The community is experiencing rapid student population growth, resulting in a strain on professional development resources to provide foundation knowledge for new teachers and advanced topics for experienced teachers. In response, the district narrowed coverage of all content standards to an emphasis on "critical benchmarks," or key content standards. This meant setting priority levels for teaching and assessing, but not ignoring any content standards altogether. The intention is to expand coverage over time as capacity builds. The critical benchmarks also define the knowledge and skills students must master for promotion and successful learning at the next grade level (pupil promotion/retention policy). Brentwood LABenchmarks: Kindergarten-Third Grade Brentwood LABenchmarks: Fourth-Eighth Grade Professional development time is divided into a series of mini-sessions throughout the year. The district conducts some sessions and Teachers on Special Assignment conduct other sessions at their school sites. The district schedules a half-day session before the start of the school year, and other sessions are offered before or after regular school hours. Approximately six hours is devoted to introductory topics and the remaining time is for application and advanced learning topics. All teachers receive a binder of critical benchmarks tied to assessment instruments and instructional strategies. Workshops are offered throughout the year to teachers on curriculum, instruction, and assessment. In addition, school leadership teams learn data-based decision-making. Reporting and Using Results Use of results is key in the district's accountability system. Detailed, diagnostic information from the assessments is used for planning lessons and giving specific information and tips to parents and/or legal guardians. Parents and/or legal guardians can see examples of their children's work in performance assessments. Assessments also yield general performance level data, which are used to make school and district program decisions. The report card lists the critical benchmarks for each standard. The grading system in primary grades gives detailed results for reading (e.g., level, accuracy, comprehension, fluency). For mathematics, the quarter is marked when proficiency is reached. The change to standards-referenced report cards started in the primary grades. Intermediate grades began developing a format in 2001-2002 that provides proficiency-level information on math strands and reading levels. Letter grades are also given and are based on a blend of standards achievement and explicit work habits. Report Card Back to District Practices Table |