October 1, 2021

 

NO EXCUSES UNIVERSITY

Culture of Universal Achievement

Collaboration

Standards Alignment

Assessment Plan

Data Analysis

Interventions

“We spend time at our Institute distinguishing between formative and summative assessments and how grade level teams can take responsibility for gathering or creating formative assessments that make sense for them.  We emphasize the importance of this work as a support to teachers, because this allows teachers to track those students who are not making adequate academic progress towards proficiency, and then identify specific content areas that require intervention.”

There are some key topics to consider when implementing an assessment plan:

#1:  Assessment is NOT about the teacher, it’s about the student

#2:  Balance between of and for learning assessments

#3:  Scheduling, benchmarks for growth, and continuous improvement are crucial

Assessment is NOT about the teacher, it’s about the student:  One of my favorite quotes from the summer institute was that data does not belong to the teachers.  It was on loan from the students.  In order to help students achieve proficiency, we must support the teacher in analyzing the data and making the necessary adjustments.

Balance between of and for learning assessments:  There needs to be a balance between formative and summative assessments.  Think about the teachers on your campus.  What percentage of the instructional time is dedicated to formative assessment?  What percentage of the instructional time is dedicated to summative assessment?  In a NEU school, both assessments are equally important.

Scheduling, benchmarks, and continuous improvement are crucial:  When you get your data…what do you do about it?  Is it used as a learning opportunity to better understand what your students know and don’t know? Everything we do should be about providing opportunities for continuous improvement.  Do we have systems in place that allow for such a process?

Observable Fish Moments at SV:

Be There: Thank you Daniel for taking on extra coaching duties so that our students can participate in middle school sports.

Play:  Thank you Heather M. for coming up with Fun Friday for 7th-8th graders.

 Choose your attitude: BE POSITIVE!!!

Make Their Day:  Go out of your way and make a connection with a student that you don't know very well in your class.