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Contact No one is currently available to respond to questions Demographics Summary Hanford Elementary School District is making progress toward a system of trimester and year-end reading, writing, and mathematics performance assessments. Locally developed instruments were influenced by the National Center on Education and the Economy's (NCEE's) New Standards materials. Full Description Hanford Elementary School District (HESD) has been developing a system of district reading, writing, and mathematics assessments. The assessments are administered at the end of the first and second trimesters to all students in elementary grades. Assessments were influenced by the National Center on Education and the Economy's (NCEE's) New Standards materials. All assessments have open-ended response items. Some assessments are commercially available products. Phase one concentrated on training teachers to use assessment results for lesson planning. Phase two will focus on training school teams to use summary results to make grade-level and school instructional program decisions. New Standards Reference Exam The district administers year-end performance assessments in grades 2, 4, 6, 7, and 8. In grades 4 and 8, the district administers the New Standards Reference Exam in English Language Arts and Mathematics. The New Standards Reference Exam is based on the NCEE's English Language Arts and Mathematics Standards and is purchased from and scored by Harcourt Brace. In grades 2 and 6, students are administered the standards-based exams in writing and mathematics. Content specialists at the district level score these assessments. In grades 6 and 7, students take a mathematics skills test in numbers and operations to assist with placement and assessment for the mathematics tutorial program at the junior high schools. Reading, writing, and mathematics tests are administered in grades 3-8 at the end of the first and second trimesters. Reading results are summarized for three performance levels: above, at, and below proficiency. Writing and mathematics tasks are scored with rubrics and yield four or five performance levels. Data are summarized at the school level and summary results are sent to the district office. Individual year-end results are placed in each student's portfolio for the receiving teacher to review at the beginning of the next year. The district provides schools with summary reports by grade level as well as individual student scores. Schools are expected to review trimester results to identify students in need of interventions and make decisions about instructional program improvements. However, the district has not yet established a formal process that would enable schools to use results for program decisions. The district reviews year-end summary results to inform districtwide decisions about curriculum and instruction for the following year. Other Assessments in Reading, Writing, and Mathematics Reading: The Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) is administered in grades K-3 and to students in higher grades whose reading level is below grade 4 on the Johns Basic Reading Inventory (BRI). The DRA is given at the end of the first and third trimesters in grades 1-3, as well as midyear and year-end for kindergarten. In grades 4-6, the Johns BRI is administered at the end of the first trimester and the end of the year. Students reading below grade 4 are administered the DRA. Teacher training began in 2001-2002 on the use of the Johns Inventory and STAR (computerized assessment for the Accelerated Reader program) for grades 7-8. Writing: The writing assessment is a performance task. Teachers use a five-point scoring guide for rhetorical effectiveness and a four-point scoring guide for conventions to rate student papers. Teachers in grades 3-8 receive an assessment binder containing writing tasks, scoring guides, and model papers. The genres of narrative reading/writing and informational reading/writing are assessed at every grade level. Other genres are selected for particular grade levels. Assessments are administered after scheduled instruction on the particular genre. Grade-level committees spent three years establishing anchor papers and exemplars. Teachers at most schools score their own students' work and then meet in grade levels to discuss results and papers that were difficult to score. Veteran teachers work with new teachers for the first scoring session. A central committee composed of district and school site representatives rate samples submitted by schools from the highest performance level to check for scoring consistency and accuracy. The results are used to determine what training is needed to strengthen scoring consistency across schools. Mathematics: Students in grades 3-8 take a mathematics performance assessment at the end of the first and second trimesters. Mathematics tasks, scoring guides, and anchor papers are available in the assessment binder. Mathematics tasks are scored at school sites and scores are reported to the district. |