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Contact No one is currently available to respond to questions Demographics Summary Long Beach Unified School District's language arts and mathematics assessments are administered at least each trimester. Scoring guides and model student work accompany assessments where appropriate. Descriptions of the assessments are presented in a clear and succinct format on the district's Web site. The district's accountability system is fully developed and implemented across all schools. Districtwide implementation is the result of a long history of professional development for administrators and teachers on assessment, instruction, and using results for decision- making. The Web site for Long Beach reports a variety of state and local assessment results in user-friendly formats. Online reports of local accountability results are linked to district initiatives. Full Description Long Beach Unified School District developed trimester performance assessments in language arts and mathematics. The assessments were designed for integration with instruction. Teachers are encouraged to use the instruments more often than the required trimesters. The district's accountability system is fully developed and implemented across all schools, the result of a long history of professional development for administrators and teachers on assessment, instruction, and using results for decision-making. Refinement of the system is a continual process within limitations on resources (e.g., funding for scoring when outside teachers' regular working hours). District staff members provide individual consultation and coaching to principals upon request. The assistant superintendent of research, planning, and evaluation presents at most site administrators' meetings. District and school site administrators share leadership and work on solving problems together -- there is a culture of collegiality. The district expects principals to work collegially with teachers. Workshops in using results to inform instruction are offered to teachers. Language Arts Assessments: The district established four instruments to measure student progress across grades and writing assessments to prepare students for the high school exit exam. Reading: Reading Benchmarks are assessments administered in grades K-5 three times a year and results are collected and reported by the district's Research Office. The tests contain a series of texts that have been linked to reading levels ranging from prekindergarten through the end of sixth grade. Students read these texts aloud to the teacher and then respond to several comprehension questions. Students are given scores on both their fluency in reading the text (e.g., correctness of pronunciation, fluidity) and comprehension. Students who have met the criteria for success are judged as reading at the grade level linked to that benchmark. Writing: Writing assessments are scored for conventions and composition skills. Across the grade levels, the Curriculum-Embedded Writing Assessments include the following styles of writing: Firsthand Biography, Report of Information, Autobiographical Incident, Problem Solution, Observational Writing, Speculation About Causes/Effects, Evaluation, and Controversial Issue. The district provides professional development on how to use district scoring guides and model student work. Training bolsters consistency in scoring the writing assessments. Budget constraints disallow double scoring as a districtwide practice, but some schools use a variety of team scoring methods. Mathematics: Basic math facts tests are administered in grades K-8, end-of-course examinations for middle and high school mathematics courses, and open-ended assessments at key grade levels. The basic math facts tests measure proficiency of fundamental mathematical operations. Students who are not proficient may retake these tests until mastery is reached. Each test consists of 70 items. Students are judged as proficient on a test if they accurately complete at least 93% of the items during the time allotted. The district developed a large bank of open-ended mathematics assessment (OEM) tasks, along with scoring guides and model work. Teachers are encouraged to administer and score OEMs biweekly, and the top four OEMs completed by each student are put into the student's Mathematics Assessment Portfolio. Online Report of Results The Web site for Long Beach reports a variety of state and local assessment results in user-friendly formats. Online reports of local accountability results are linked to district initiatives. Back to District Practices Table |