Thinking About Testing

The Ides of March are upon us. Soon it will be May and students in grades 3-8, and 11 will be asked to do state mandated tests called the CAASPP which utilizes the SBAC. Folks should follow the links of the acronyms in order to learn what these tests aim to do. Basically, they ask students to go on the computer and respond to questions that test designers have created. There are less multiple choice type questions than in recent state mandated normative tests, rather, they ask students to type in their answers, do some true and false, and explain their answers in one way or another. They aim to assess whether students have met, exceeded, nearly met, or not met standards for skills and content knowledge that the common core standards  framework has determined should be known or accomplished at each grade level.

2016 is the second year these new tests have been administered and results provided to Californian students. These tests aim to provide information at the school level, class level, and individual student level. The tests are very rigorous while also adaptive. Adaptive, in this sense, means that the test questions change based on the prior answer provided by the student. Generally, if the child answers a question correctly it soon provides more challenging questions and if they answer incorrectly, they will soon receive a more basic question. The scores are reported both as scaled scores- a number in the 1000s and as levels; 4= exceeded standards, 3= met standards, 2+ nearly met standards, and 1= not meeting standards.

For Rio students, staff, and families, the District wants to express our encouragement for every child to do their best on each item and each test so that the tests can accurately assess what they aim to assess. We also want children to know that they should increase their levels over the course of their school years at Rio. This will indicate that they are improving and learning more about the standards the test aims to measure. Another and perhaps most important thing to think about these tests or any test, is that the test does not measure or assess what kind of person you are. Students should try their best, see what the results are, work to improve their skills, content, and practices in order to improve over time. The goal is GROWTH.

Students should also know that these tests measure some things and don’t measure others. The Rio School District is working on helping every child develop their 21st century learning practices; collaboration, communication, creativity, and caring. We are beginning to develop rubrics, performance tasks, and authentic assessments that provide students, teachers. schools, and families information about how their children are developing in relation to these aims.

Together, as school and community, we are setting our sites on improving as a learning organization that aims to help every child improve their learning at maximum possible rates and depths.