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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