District Administration - December 2006 - (Page 53)

ADVERTISEMENT Florida District Uses New Assessment Program to Improve Test Scores Benchmark assessments allow teachers to target intervention efforts. seamlessly with a testing platform T he heart of the program, now in aced with mounting pressure F purchased from another vendor. its second year, is a series of bench- to improve standardized test The tests were first administered mark tests created by The Princeton scores, school districts across in the 2005-06 school year. A detailed Review, of New York City. The Prince- the country are seeking ways to analysis is underway, but Baldwin ton Review was hired to create items focus intervention efforts on stu- says early signs about the program's and assessments that would accu- dent s who have the greatest risk effectiveness are very encouraging. ratel y mirror the FCAT. We felt com- of performing poorly on those high It's too early to say whether it's for t able that The Princeton Review stakes tests. The challenge is how to cause-and-effect or coincidence, had the best proposal, Baldwin says. reliably identify those students. but I can say that our FCAT results We felt we could trust them to pro- Now, one Florida district, Orange last year were universally better duce a high-quality assessment. County Public Schools, is using a than they'd ever been before, and Orange County Public Schools new assessment program that's been our school grades last year were also needed three benchmark assess- shown to accurately predict how stu- better than ever. According to Baldwin, the assess- men t program created by The Princ- I can say that our FCAT results last year eton Review for his district could were universally better than they'd easily serve as a model for other districts. I've gotten quite a few ever been before. phone calls from colleagues across the state who want to know about our experience, he says. ment s in reading and three in math den t s will do on the FCAT, the annual Recen t l y, a statistical analysis of for grades 3-10, for a total of 48 tests, standardized tests taken by all Florida The Princeton Review's test ques- each of which would have 25 ques- students in grades 3 through 10. t ions by an independent consultant t ions. In addition, the district's plan We're using an assessment pro- showed that the assessments are called for development of a series of gram that appears to have good predic- correlated so closely to Florida's fi ve-question mini-assessments tive ability in terms of FCAT scores, state learning standards that they that teachers could use at any time says Lee Baldwin, the district's senior can accurately predict which stu- to test student progress on specific director for accountability, research dent s are likely to under-perform on standards. However, before the first and assessment. He explained that the the FCAT. test question could be written, a team system gives teachers early warning O f course, says Baldwin, our of educators from Orange County and about which students may not get a goal is to arm our teachers with this editors from The Princeton Review proficient score on the FCATs, as well information so they can then prove worked for several weeks to estab- as detailed information about each of the predictions wrong. lish guidelines and standards for the those students' academic weaknesses. assessments. There is so much riding on the For more information, please call T hen, with the start of the test FCAT that we needed to have informa- 800-Review2 or visit creation process, the district's tion that would allow us to look at how educators.princetonreview.com. review team checked each question well students would do on the test and provided feedback regarding before they took it, Baldwin says. content development and standard There had been a lot of attempts at alignment. The final assessments solutions to this, but none were really were delivered to the district in working until we came up with this a format that could be integrated new formative assessment program. December 2006 53 princetonreview.indd 53 11/8/06 11:36:12 AM http://educators.princetonreview.com http://educators.princetonreview.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - December 2006

Contents
Editor's Letter
Update
Inside The Law
Curriculum Update
Administrator Profile
District Profile
Mayor controls LA district
Who's In Charge In LA?
How Safe Is Your School
National school security plan
District Administration's 6th Annual Salary Survey
Fresh Chance for New Orleans Schools
Fresh start for New Orleans
Alfie Kohn on the homework myth
The Homework Myth
Conventional Guide to Birds of a Feather
Speaking Out
Anne Bryant on school board relations
Professional Opinion
Principal Opinion
Problem/Solution
Leadership Books
New Products
By the Numbers

District Administration - December 2006

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