February 2007 — News
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Texas District Uses Web-Based Assessment Solutions To Target Instruction
Standards-based formative assessment and computer-adaptive diagnostic testing provide educators with data to address student needs
Monitoring student progress is key to helping students prepare for high stakes tests. In Channelview Independent School District (ISD), we used to make copies of released Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) tests and hand them out to be administered every six to nine weeks. Since the TAKS is now released every other year, however, it made it difficult to get good, valid, reliable tests to regularly measure student progress.
We needed a platform to easily deploy benchmark testing in grades three through 12 in math, reading, science and social studies. In 2005/2006, our district began using Scantron Achievement Series, a Web-based assessment platform, to develop and administer district benchmark tests both online and on paper, capture results, and produce reports.
Today, with standards-based formative assessment—and the addition of computer-adaptive diagnostic testing—we're providing administrators and teachers with the assessment data they need to target instruction for students district-wide, including those participating in English as a Second Language (ESL) and alternative education programs.
Preparing for state tests with benchmark testing
Channelview ISD is located in Channelview, Texas, an unincorporated area on the Houston Ship Channel approximately 15 miles east of downtown Houston. Our district enrolls approximately 8,000 students across 11 campuses.
Rather than wait for the next version of our state test to be released, we now use AchievementSeries' content neutral testing platform to create our own item banks that are correlated to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) and cross-referenced to the TAKS.
Our district has a primary-level, an elementary-level, and a secondary-level curriculum specialist. They go out to our campuses and ask, "What objectives do you want to see on the next benchmark test?" Then they create the benchmark tests and distribute them to the campuses.
Using the testing platform's online or paper-based options, we can mix and match test delivery methods. At our elementary and middle schools, each campus decides how it would like to deliver the tests. At the high school level, each department head decides.
The benchmark tests are usually delivered every six weeks in math, reading, and science, and every nine weeks in social studies. The Web-based assessment solution makes it easy for teachers and administrators to immediately access the timely data they need to measure growth, make decisions and inform instruction. We use the test results to identify the state standards for which remediation is required and guide instruction in preparation for the TAKS.
By using benchmark and "mini mark" tests, we have been able to focus teaching and learning on what the student needs in preparation for our state assessment . Teachers use the data to readjust teaching strategies or the curriculum to address student learning gaps, and administrators use the data to see how our spiraling curriculum is working in the different grade levels and to find out where strengths or weaknesses are.
