TMS BLIF Update
May 20, 2016
Testing Related Information
Intrinsic Motivation vs. Standardized Tests-Recommended by Kelly Cooper
When the scores were revealed, the classroom of middle school literacy teachers was everything but hopeful. "Did they even try?" one teacher wondered about her students. The team was disappointed and defeated. After a year of following the curriculum to fidelity, according to the mock-state test data, our efforts meant nothing. I sat in the meeting, half-listening, as I began to devise a plan.
Using Standardized Tests to Promote Student Learning-CASL
- Use released items or item specifications from your state or district assessment if you want to know instruction might be tweaked in the areas for which you are not satisfied with student performance. An activity using sample standards and test item specifications can determine how much experience students have had answering questions aimed at a specific learning target or standard.
2. Deconstruct the standard
- Begin with the content standard on which you would like achievement to improve and then ask the following questions:
- What must my students know and understand when the time comes to perform well on a test of this standard? Plan instruction and classroom assessment to put this building block in place.
- What patterns of reasoning must my students be masters of when the time comes to score well on a test of these priorities? Provide lots of guided practice, with student involvement in, to take them there/
- What performance skills or product development capabilities must be in place when the time comes for my students to shine on a test of these standards? Proceed to set them up for success.
Adapted from Classroom Assessment for Student Learning: Doing It Right-Using It Well.
Standardized Test Scores and What They Mean-CASL
- Raw Score: When students take a test, the number of questions answered right or the total number of points scored.
- Percent Correct: Percent Correct is just what you would expect: a raw score divided by the total possible-the percentage of all items on the test answered correctly.
- Percentile Score: Percentiles are norm-referenced scores-comparing students with one another in ways that rank students. They tell you what percentage of the norm group a student outscores. For example, a student with a percentile score of 55 performed better than 55 percent of the students in the test's norm group.
- Stanines: A stanine is a norm-referenced score. Stanines are similar to percentiles but are less precise. There are 99 levels of percentiles, but only 9 levels of stanines (the term is an abbreviation of "standard nine"). They describe in general terms how a student compares to other, similar students. For example, a stanine of 5 means that a student is average.
- Grade Equivalent Scores: Grade equivalents are the trickiest score of all because they don't mean what it looks like they mean. Grade equivalents are norm-referenced scores, not criterion referenced scores. This means they describe relative standing in a group (as do percentile and stanine); they have nothing to say about the actual level of work students are able to do.
- Competency and Mastery Scores: Competency scores (also called proficiency level, performance level, objective proficiency score, mastery level or achievement level) are criterion referenced; they relate student performance to preset levels of mastery of content. For example, if a test includes 10 items covering a particular standard and a core of 7 out of 10 is required to be judged competent, then the students score must meet or exceed that number correct to be judged to have passed that standard.
Adapted from Classroom Assessment for Student Learning: Doing It Right-Using It Well.
New
MTSS Data Spreadsheets
Iredell County Sheriff's Office Teen Academy
Middle School Bell Schedules for 2016-2017 School Year
Grant Opportunities
Professional Development
Food for Thought
99 Reasons Teachers Rock!
70-80
70. Teachers are a good example for their students.
71. Teachers know that what they’re really teaching aren’t facts, but rather they’re teaching children how to learn and teach themselves.
72. We rock because we live for "lightbulb moments"... ~ Myree Conway
73. Teachers love to share – whether its classroom ideas, lessons, their time or recommendations.
74. Teachers are great storytellers.
75. 4 in 10 college-educated Americans would teach, according to the 2008 Teaching as a Second Career survey. Wannabes :P
76. Teachers have to be on their A-game every minute they’re in the classroom.
77. “The best teachers teach from the heart, not from the book.” ~ Unknown
78. Teachers are there, with a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on, and a hand to hold. Even when it feels like everyone is against them, students always know their teachers are THERE. ~ LyzaJo Jorgensen
79. Teachers have eyes in the back of their heads.
80. Teachers are “home-grown.” Six out of 10 (60 percent) of public school teachers in 2005 got their undergraduate college education within 150 miles of where they were born. And 2/3 public school, according to the 2005 Profile of US Teacher by NCEI.