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Assessment Plan

At the beginning of the 2022-2023 academic year, teachers will use a variety of data to determine students’ instructional levels, identify gaps in learning and prepare a path for instructional success and recovery.

At the beginning of the year, students in Grades 1-9 will take the i-Ready assessment for reading/English language arts. Students in Grades 1-8 and those students enrolled in Algebra I and Foundations of Algebra will take the i-Ready assessment for math. This assessment will serve as baseline data to help teachers and school leaders determine where students are in relation to grade-level expectations and what supports students needed in order to reduce and eliminate learning deficits.

After initial assessment, administrators and school teams will analyze the fall assessment data and determine next steps for instruction for individual students, grade levels/courses and the school overall. Staff will review i-Ready’s criterion-referenced placement levels for each student, which reflected what students are expected to know at each grade level and in each content area. In reading and math, students are identified by i-Ready’s analysis to be performing on-grade or above-grade level, early on-grade level (partially meeting grade-level expectations), one grade below level, two grades below level, or three or more grades below level. This information will reflect a profile generated for each individual student assessed with i-Ready.

Students will take the i-Ready assessment again in the winter (January) and in the spring (May/June). After the second diagnostic, data will be analyzed to identify instructional implications and provide additional supports for students. Over time these assessments will allow CCPS to monitor progress for individual students, as well as reflect upon instructional practices and the effectiveness of programs and resources.

In addition to this assessment, the following assessments will be administered in the fall:

  • Kindergarten Readiness Assessment August 29 - October 7, 2022
  • Acadience (Universal screener for K, 1 and 2) August 29 - October 31
  • PSAT Oct 12, 2022

For courses where i-Ready could not be used as a screening tool, teachers gathered data based on course specific content. Content Specialists included information in the August and September in-services protocols on how teachers could define and then identify student mastery of the key pre-cursor skills and knowledge needed for the course. Teachers then met — by course — to develop lessons and supports to directly address gaps in learning or deficits that were common across the system. At the school level, significant student-specific deficits were addressed through intervention, tutoring services and Extended Learning Opportunities.

At the district level, content specialists meet at least once a month to review system data and determine how instructional and curricular resources need to be augmented in order to address overall gaps and deficits in learning. Direct school-based support is provided as needed. 

At the school level, teacher and administrative teams meet at least once a month to review school data, by grade, class or course, and on an individual basis. Schools use the TAP-IT cycle of data-driven instruction: Team, Analyze, Plan, Implement, Track. Assessments are then re-administered to measure growth and make adjustments to the instructional program. In some cases, assessments that all students take, like i-Ready, are administered in the fall, winter and spring. The purpose of repeating the administration of the assessments is to monitor students’ progress and academic growth. Students may also participate in other short-range tests based on needs and formative assessment data. For example, WIDA ACCESS for ELLs 2.0 is the MSDE-approved assessment for English Language Proficiency. This test is used to measure the academic language growth of English Learners (ELs) in the four domains of language (reading, writing, listening and speaking). The goal of the test is to measure the academic language proficiency gap between ELs and their grade-level peers. The window for ACCESS administration is from the second week of January through the third week of February (including the makeup window) and the test is given in four separate sessions (one for each domain). ACCESS results are returned to the school district in mid-May. Scores are on a scale of 1.0 to 6.0, with 4.5 being the MSDE-approved exit score for ELs, indicating that the student will achieve a similar score to their peers on the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP) language arts assessments. ELs who exit the ESOL Program with a score of 4.5 or higher are monitored by ESOL teachers for two additional years. 

All students are monitored for individual growth and reduction in gaps between current level of performance and grade level expectations. For elementary and middle school math, the Illustrative Math program is used. Each instructional unit has an end-of-unit assessment, which allows teachers and students to know the level of understanding and mastery of the unit concepts and skills. It also assists schools with identifying the need for specific, standard based reinforcement and intervention if needed.

For elementary reading, students are administered a running record at the end of the first and second quarter, and again at the end of the year. This allows teachers to measure progress in reading as well as diagnose reading behaviors to determine next steps in instruction. For students who are performing below grade level, running records can be administered at a greater frequency to monitor progress and gather instructional implications. In addition, the Into Reading program used in kindergarten through Grade 5 has embedded standards focused tasks that provide teachers with data concerning students’ progress towards meeting and mastering standards.