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Assessment Plan

The Rochester School Department recognizes that adopting high standards without a means of measuring progress toward those standards will be meaningless. Accordingly, the Department has engaged in a process for assessing the district’s progress in the areas of student achievement, quality of teaching, including review of the professional development program, and overall district performance.

Grade Assessment

Type

Main Purpose

 

 

 

Grade 2 to 10. NWEA MAPS Assessment

Standardized

Create a class profile to adjust instruction and measure progress

Grades 3-8, 10 NECAP

Criterion Referenced

Measure progress on state curriculum frameworks

Grade 9. Placement Tests

Criterion Referenced

Appropriate placement in math, science and English


  Assessment of Student Achievement
Student achievement is measured in three ways:
  (1) against criteria adopted by the New Hampshire Department of Education in its curriculum frameworks for language arts, mathematics, science and social studies,
  (2) against the performance of national samples of students on standardized tests designed for benchmarking and for determination of special educational need, and
  (3) against individual criteria set by the school district for placement of ninth graders in appropriate levels of math, science and English, and by each teacher to measure progress within his/her classroom program.
These three areas are covered through the following components:
  • Participation in the NECAP in grades 3, 6 and 10. This assessment is given at all schools in New Hampshire in the Fall. It is a criterion referenced test that uses prompts for writing, requires the students to demonstrate critical thinking skills rather than just show knowledge of factual information, and purportedly measures the students’ achievement in those areas deemed most important by New Hampshire’s professional educators, business representatives, and other citizens who participated in development of the state’s curriculum frameworks. (Area 1)
  • Our computerized Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) combine the benefit of technology with the integrity of our level tests. While an individual student is taking a computerized adaptive test, the program customizes the test to the student's achievement level. MAP is a system that allows each student to receive a unique test, which is dynamically developed for him or her as the test is being administered. MAP offers unparalleled efficiency, flexibility, and most important, improved measurement precision. It is a key component of any comprehensive assessment program.

    Teachers can use Measures of Academic Progress to:

      • Place new students in the appropriate course or instructional setting
      • Focus instruction for new students Monitor growth in student achievement over time
      • Determine student proficiency related to the district's graduation standards
      • Screen students for Title I eligibility, special education services, and gifted program

    In addition to improving assessment decisions, MAP can:

      • Improve the testing experience for students and teachers
      • Enable teachers to give tests whenever they're needed
      • Provide immediate feedback
      •   Provide parents with better information about their child's growth in achievement
      •    Decrease testing time
      •   Increase test security
  • Individual assessment of ability and achievement for students who are referred because of academic deficiencies indicating a possible disability. A variety of individual assessment instruments are used for this purpose, including achievement tests, psychological assessments, measures of intellectual ability, and specialized assessments for physical limitations, emotional issues, speech language development, and other potential areas of disability. These assessments are used primarily as part of the special education referral process. (Area 2)
  • Entrance tests given to ninth graders to facilitate placement in appropriate course levels during their high school years. (Area 3)
  • Extensive assessment within individual classrooms on subject matter included in the district’s adopted curricula and teachers’ expansion of those curricula. These are the traditional classroom tools that include a wide range of activities including term papers, live presentations, quizzes, chapter tests, and final examinations. The district, through the DEIP process, has chosen to strengthen the effectiveness through the use of professional development activities designed to give teachers more expertise in designing and using the data obtained from their assessment activities. (Area 3)

Results of the assessment, in all three areas, provide useful information on two planes.

  • The first is individual information regarding the progress of students toward achievement of the district’s performance standards. By using both criterion referenced and standardized assessments, the district can track students’ progress both in terms of curriculum standards and in comparison with students in other districts nationwide.
The second, and equally valuable, use for the assessment results is to monitor curricular and instructional progress in the district.

Analysis of student performance on each test item can identify for individual teachers and for the district as a whole, which parts of the curriculum are receiving too little attention or are not being taught effectively. The assessment instruments used are not equally strong on both of these planes. Criterion referenced tests provide the best information regarding student progress through the curriculum and toward fixed standards for graduation. Standardized assessment provides more reliable information for benchmarking against other districts and students. Assessment of Instructional Quality High standards for students and assessment of student progress will have virtually no effect on student achievement unless quality instruction and supporting services are available to every student. To that end, the district has strengthened its staff evaluation procedures as part of the educational improvement process. A major effort in this area culminated in adoption by the Management Team of a procedural handbook entitled Indicators of Teacher Performance: A tool for enhancing the evaluation process. This handbook is an outgrowth of the teacher evaluation procedure contained in the district’s master agreement with the Rochester Federation of Teachers. It describes the district’s expectations for each item contained in the teacher contract, and defines performance standards for each evaluative designation, from unsatisfactory through commendable. Use of the performance indicators has improved consistency of evaluation and has resulted in more accountability for teaching performance. A second aspect of improved instructional performance that is directly related to assessment is a professional development effort to prepare teachers to better utilize the results of student assessments. These efforts are in the infancy, so we are unable to determine their effectiveness at this time.
Assessment of Overall District Performance The primary vehicle for assessing overall district performance has been the DEIP process, which began in 1991 with adoption of the district’s first strategic plan. The first strategic plan established goals and objectives through the analysis of data from student assessment, community surveys, financial records, school board minutes, and other historical data. In a second round of strategic planning, culminating in a 1994 report on successes and failures from the first round and new goals and objectives, the district was able to measure its progress in several areas and adjust the plan for new circumstances. The district’s focus broadened slightly to maintain efforts in all of the areas identified in the first plan, but expand the involvement of businesses and the community in the educational process and to focus more on applied knowledge in the curriculum. A new goal of making the district "more user friendly" was adopted. Community, staff and student surveys have been the most effective means of assessing progress toward the district’s goals and objectives. Under the current iteration of this plan, these surveys will remain an important tool for measuring overall performance
The Rochester Schools
150 Wakefield Street Suite #8
Rochester, NH 03867
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