Sarah Perry 3/12/11

Assessments

The Lake Orion School District utilizes a variety of assessments, each serving a distinct purpose. District wide common assessments serve both as formative and summative assessments to guide teacher instruction as well as providing data to demonstrate students proficiency or deficiency in regard to the content standards. Other assessments, like the AIMSweb Maze Comprehension, serve as screeners for appropriate placement for students. Additionally, diagnostic tests such as the QRI, P.A.T., or CBM, serve to identify the root of a problem in reading. An example demonstrating change of practices based on data extrapolated from the measurements in the district is Oakview Middle Schools Response to Literacy Process. It serves to identify students struggling in reading and guide staff toward appropriate interventions. At the start of each school year, the students MEAP Reading scores are analyzed, each student is screened with AIMSweb MAZE Comprehension, and teacher observations and input are shared through written observation notes in a students CA-60 file or verbally through move-up meetings. Students who earn a 1 or 2 on their MEAP Reading test and score 20 or greater on the AIMSweb reading comprehension screener continue with typical ELA instruction without the assistance of additional interventions. Students who score a 2, 3, or 4 on the MEAP Reading test, score a 20 or less on the AIMSweb, or have concerns from their teacher from the previous school year each progress in one of three directions. Students reading less than 86 words per minute are given the Phonological Awareness Assessment (P.A.T.), a diagnostic assessment that serves to identify a weakness in decoding. These students may be placed in a curriculum support class that uses Fast ForWord. This software targets basic reading skills. Students reading 87-114 words per minute with less than 3 errors complete a second fluency screener to verify the first assessment was reliable. If the second fluency screener is consistent with the first, student are routinely pulled out of an elective class or homeroom period to work with a Learning

Sarah Perry 3/12/11

Assessments

Support Staff member for intervals of 15 minutes. During this time, the students use software called HELPS as an intervention to target the issue of fluency. The third category of students includes those that can read more than 114 words per minute. These students are given the QRI, an assessment that measures if the issue is comprehension. These students may be placed in a curriculum support class that will include the use of interventions like the WIAT, WJ, Cars and Stars, or GORT. Each of these interventions targets the issue of comprehension. The use of this Response to Literacy process also guides staff during Student Support Team (SST) monthly meetings as part of Oakviews Response to Intervention. Each month, grade level teams meet with administrators, the social worker, the teacher consultant, the psychologist, and both guidance counselors when they have identified students at risk of academic success. The team brings the name(s) of student(s) about whom they have concerns along with data that have gathered about the student. MEAP scores, AIMSweb scores, QRI scores are all analyzed when the SST tries to identify the most immediate concern for which an intervention will be targeted. The validity of the measurements is discussed based on each individual student. This is to ensure that the measurement selected addresses the concern for the student and that the assessment is fair considering the abilities and / or limitations known about the student. Furthermore, reliability is discussed. Variables such as student motivation or the circumstance under which the assessments were given are considered. It is not uncommon for the team to disclose that they assess a student with two or more different forms of the AIMSweb once they had identified a student as at risk. Sometimes once initial scores from the school-wide screener were known, teams give a student an alternate form in a different setting, perhaps one-on-one, in order to ensure that the initial score was reliable. Likewise, alternate forms of an AIMSweb are given to students who may have scored a 2 on the MEAP Reading, which may be considered proficient, but are struggling in core classes. They key has been to use the triangulation of data, like multiple assessments, grades, and teacher input, in order to identify a specific weakness. Once this has been identified, an intervention is chosen and the progress monitoring begins. The fidelity checker of the meeting, usually the teacher consultant,

Sarah Perry 3/12/11

Assessments

then follows up with the team routinely to monitor the progress of the child. Either the intervention was successful or the student is brought back to SST in order to brainstorm a new intervention.