Below you will find the district plan for revising common quarterly assessments, publishing curriculum mapping, assessment/data collection dates, and district professional development plan. This will give you a clear picture of where the district is going in regards to our process. 

As a district, our projected improvement status is District Continuous Improvement, Year 3, Delay. Based on our number of indicators met (23 out of 30) we are “Effective”.  Following the district plan is essential to meeting the guidelines of District Improvement, Year 3 Delay. Additionally, through formative and summative assessment and data collection we should be able to:

·        better identify students who need more intervention and

·        use the results to inform instruction.

This past year, administrators and members of the DAC completed the Decision Framework survey, which highlighted for us our academic, climate, community strengths and needs as a district. In this current year, we will be establishing building leadership teams to do this work in order to have the data necessary to identify our strengths and needs at the building level.

This process is the practice of sound classroom assessment which provides teachers with the ability to accurately reflect student achievement. Formative assessing occurs prior to summative assessing.  The results from formative assessments will be used FOR learning, and determining enrichment and intervention needs.

·        Over the course of the past two years, 30 high school, 30 middle school teachers, and 40 teachers from the elementary school have been trained in this process district wide.

·        Teachers will design learning targets for students at the start of each new unit.

·        Learning targets represent the broad statements of state content standards, turned into student-friendly classroom level targets.

·        Formative assessments will be written to match the intended learning targets.

 The district is now in the monitoring phase with our curriculum maps and common quarterly assessments.  This year:

§         Student friendly learning targets will be visible in each classroom.

§         Data will be studied, used to inform instruction, and provide intervention.

§         Differentiation will be implemented as a standard piece of instructional practice

§         Curriculum maps and common quarterly assessments will be monitored:

·        to assure that assessments align with curriculum maps,

·        for assessment quality,

·        for alignment by grade level,

·        for alignment across the curriculum,

·        for alignment to state standards.

PBS is defined as a broad range of systemic and individualized strategies for achieving important social and learning outcomes while preventing problem behavior. PBS’s key attributes include proactive data-based decision-making, problem-solving techniques, and fewer discipline referrals.

The DAC is comprised of teachers representative of each grade band and core content area. Each elementary has three representatives, which much include one special education representative. The five middle school and five high school representatives include one of each: math, language arts, social studies, science, and special education.

• DAC was instrumental in the development of the curriculum calendar in regards to the CQA deadlines, updating the district curriculum plan, providing feedback on the district website, and using district data to help develop district goals.  
• The work of DAC for the 2010-11 school year will focus on data analysis for student improvement. 
• DAC teacher leaders will be responsible to:
  • train teachers on our data analysis software (Scantron), 
  • analyze district data from formative/benchmark and summative assessments,
  • analyze assessment questions,
  • vertically and horizontally align curriculum mapping, 
  • discuss ways to use data to inform instruction,
  • develop a district grading policy,
  • report meeting notes to their colleagues.

The district has repurchased the Achievement Series by Scantron to develop and administer tests, capture results, and produce standards-based reports. Staff can view the data aggregated by class, grade, school, district, or subject.   This will help us make data-driven decisions to inform instruction and guide interventions. The district has also purchased projectors and Smartboards for all classrooms. Additionally, Algebra IA students are participating in a project which affords them the opportunity to use Smartpones for Algebra Instruction.  Click on the link to the right for more information.

Work on curriculum mapping, common quarterly exams, and formative and summative assessment training will be the focus of future staff professional development. Please see the attached curriculum calendar for future professional development dates.

• August 19, 2010- Safe, Invited, and Master Taught: Putting a Face to AYP, Dr. Cathy Hamilton
• August 23-24, 2010- District Waiver Days- Align, Assess, Achieve: Formative and Summative Assessment Training
• October 29, 2010- Safe, Invited, and Master Taught: Putting a Face to AYP, Dr. Cathy Hamilton
• January 3-4, 2011- District Waiver Days- Align, Assess, Achieve: Formative and Summative Assessment Training
• January 14, 2011- Safe, Invited, and Master Taught: Putting a Face to AYP, Dr. Cathy Hamilton
• March 25, 2011- Safe, Invited, and Master Taught: Putting a Face to AYP, Dr. Cathy Hamilton