District Administration- August 2008 - (Page 60)

SUPERVISOR’S OPINION • Eamonn O’Donovan Assess More to Improve Learning Regular measurement of learning and the subsequent adjustment to instruction promote higher levels of student achievement. THE RICHARD HENRY DANA Elementary School in Dana Point, Calif., houses 385 students on a bluﬀ overlooking the Paciﬁc Ocean. The demographics of the school would suggest a challenging scenario for raising student achievement: 78 percent of students participate in the free or reduced-price lunch program, and 59 percent of the students are English Language Learners. Yet by any measure, the students at this school demonstrate admirable growth in all areas assessed on California standardized tests. The overall Academic Performance Index (API) for the school has grown from 704 to 806 in two years (800 is the benchmark of excellence for the state). The data is even more impressive when disaggregated for subgroups of students: Hispanic/Latino students showed a 39 point gain, students from the disadvantaged socioeconomic subgroup gained 33 points, and the API for English Language Learners jumped 43 points. Principal Chris Weber attributes this improvement to the use of assessment data to target instruction and intervention for all students at the school, particularly those below grade level in math and reading. California standardized test data is the end-point and is used to set goals and targets. It is one year-end measure of student performance, a summative assessment of learning. However, Weber and his staﬀ use assessment data to guide instruction during the learning process. His teachers measure learning as it happens, guiding instruction in real time. This progress monitoring is conducted with a variety of formal and informal reading inventories, benchmark or periodic assessments, and teacher-made tests. 60 August 2008 Learning from DIBELS For example, primary grade teachers use Dynamic Indicator of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS), an assessment system used to measure student progress in the big ideas of early literacy development. It is designed to be a one-minute ﬂuency measure to regularly monitor the development of pre-reading and early reading skills. These quick assessments provide benchmark measures at the beginning, middle and end of the school year. Weber asserts that the best way to evaluate the reading ability of students is to listen to them read. His teachers use the Qualitative Reading Inventory, 4th Edition (QRI-4), to informally assess ﬂuency and comprehension in reading for each individual student. The QRI-4 is admin- RESOURCES Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) www.ascd.org Dynamic Indicator of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) dibels.uoregon.edu Qualitative Reading Inventory, 4th Edition www.pearsonhighered.com/educator Richard Henry Dana Elementary School www.capousd.org/rhdana istered between the DIBELS assessments to get a running record of student reading. Data from each assessment is analyzed by a data team to design reading intervention for each individual student. As the assessments are frequent, student instruction is modiﬁed in a timely manner. This regular assessment and resultant adjustment of instruction was a big change for Weber’s teachers. To get the ball rolling, he started doing the progress monitoring himself. He would go into classrooms, conduct the inventories, put data into a spreadsheet, match the scores with content standards, and place students into intervention activities. He structured the daily assignment of reading intervention staﬀ so that students could rotate into activities during scheduled reading groups. As teachers saw the growth in student learning in targeted instruction, they took over the process themselves. More importantly, students saw their progress and were motivated to read more! The system was not perfect at ﬁrst, but Weber and his staﬀ learned a lot from assessing performance and adjusting learning for students. As the school leader, he rolled up his sleeves and jumped in. Somewhat counterintuitively, more assessment promoted higher levels of student learning. At R. H. Dana, the administration of assessments is not seen as an imposition on class time; rather, it is viewed as an essential means of obtaining feedback to guide learning. Data teams perform a checkup on student learning, not a postmortem. Formative Assessments R. H. Dana teachers make an important distinction between assessment for learnDistrict Administration http://www.ascd.org http://dibels.uoregon.edu http://www.pearsonhighered.com/educator http://www.capousd.org/rhdana

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration- August 2008

District Administration - August 2008
Contents
Editor's Letter
Letters
News Update
Curriculum
English Language
8th Annual Salary Survey
Do You Know the Drill?
The Evolution of Notification Systems
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
New Products
Problem Solutions
Technology Books
Profession Opinion
Supervisor's Opinion
Crisis Response
Speaking Out
Calendar of Events
Understanding the Times

District Administration- August 2008