"Creating assessment networks for schools"
Dissemination Grant
During 2006, The Academy for Math, Engineering and Science (AMES) was awarded a two year federal Dissemination Grant to share information with other charter schools in Utah. The project is titled: Beyond UPASS: Linking Formative With Summative Evaluations.
Overview: Legislators, parents, school board of trustees, and school personnel are just some of the many stakeholders who want to know how charter schools are performing. The school report cards generated by USOE as part of UPASS provide an overview. However, to truly impact academic achievement, more in-depth and longitudinal assessments are needed. The purpose of this two-year project is to examine multiple dimensions of learners and connect assessments with instructional strategies that promote increased student academic achievement. AMES will develop materials documenting our successful practices for the educational purpose of assisting other schools in improving student academic achievement.
This project consists of three components that reach “beyond UPASS”:
1. Interpretation of test results for instructional strategies
Project Lead: Rebecca Raybould, Ph.D., Charter Assessment Results Mentor
- Procedural aspects, e.g., How do schools get the data and what do they do with it?
- Technical design, e.g., What report formats are useful for informing instructional strategies?
- Training, e.g., What type of training is needed at the schools in order to effectively and efficiently access and process the data?
2. Pre- and post-test writing assessments
Project Lead: Kathleen Crapo, AMES Assistant Principal
The U-PASS Direct Writing Assessment (DWA) is administered in February and scores are returned just before the end of the school year. The timing makes it difficult to use as an effective formative assessment tool. We have implemented a writing assessment that will provide more immediate feedback. This will help teachers differentiate instruction tailored to students' needs. Also, a pre- and post-test format will better assess the actual changes in student achievement during the school year.
3. Differentiated instruction informed by an in-depth demographic survey
Project Lead: Janna Martin, M.Ed., AMES Social Studies Teacher
Knowing your student body better is key to improving student academic achievement. All AMES students will take an in-depth survey of students' attitudes about school, self efficacy as students, and future aspirations. Faculty will develop differentiated instructional strategies based on the results.
Here is the final report with the results of this component of the grant.