Project LIFT ASSESSMENTS: How are we performing?Project LIFT Personnel Only: Check out Project LIFT's 2017-18 End-of-Year Scores. Click here to view results of Project LIFT's 2018-19 Beginning-of-Year Screening Results Click here to view comparisons of Project LIFT's combined data across years. Assessment as a Critical Component of Response to Intervention
Assessment is a vital component of implementing Response to Intervention. As teaching professionals schools should be constantly monitoring our students (even for short one-minute periods of time) to see if our instruction is effective and, if not, determine the strategies we will use to better meet our students' needs. This video of one elementary school in Oregon, along with early literacy assessment expert Dr. Roland Good, highlights the need for assessment to be a critical component of a Response to Intervention model in Project LIFT schools. (6:56) |
Understanding Our Assessments:
Pilot schools within Project LIFT are currently building Schoolwide Assessment Plans that incorporate the four major types of assessment:
What are screening assessments? Screening assessments are generally brief, individually administered tests given at the beginning of the school year, middle of the school year, and end of the school year. These assessments identify students who are on track with their literacy skills, as well as those who may be at risk for reading difficulties. Screening assessments alert teachers to which students need extra support and intervention to achieve FSM grade-level standards and benchmarks. What are progress monitoring assessments? Progress monitoring assessments are used to monitor students’ progress across the school year and are generally given to those students performing below grade level standards and are receiving intervention instruction. These brief assessments help teachers determine whether students are making adequate progress toward grade level standards and benchmarks. Progress monitoring will be introduced during Year 2 of implementation. Based on progress monitoring data, teachers are better able to deliver differentiated instruction, so every student within the same class receives the individualized instruction he or she needs. What are outcome or summative assessments? Outcome assessments are end-of-the-year assessments used to evaluate the effectiveness of a Project LIFT school’s overall progress in improving student reading achievement. Outcome measures also evaluate the effectiveness of reading programs and classroom instruction at each grade level. Currently, the FSM National Minimum Competency Test given in 6th grade serves as the sole outcome assessment at the national and state levels. During the 2014-15 school year, the end-of-year benchmark scores at all grade levels will serve as the outcome measures for project schools. What are diagnostic assessments? Diagnostic assessments are more in-depth measures that provide specific information about a student's reading ability and instructional needs in the five essential reading components of reading. Diagnostic assessments will be added during Year 2 implementation of the project and will be administered to EC-5 students in Project LIFT schools when teachers need additional information to plan effective interventions for at-risk students. |
Project LIFT Assessments and Professional Development
Professional development modules relating to assessment in general and within Project LIFT are available. These modules can be opened either through the drag-down menu above under Assessment, or by directly clicking on the modules below. Developing a Schoolwide Screening Plan - An Overview Conducting Screening within the RTI Project LIFT Framework Data Analysis - After Screening Progress Monitoring with Project LIFT Data AnalysisCoaches and other leadership personnel including principals, meet with teachers after each screening to review performance for each student, each grade level, and the school as a whole. The purpose of these meetings is to determine which students are performing well and which students are not performing as expected and most likely in need of extra and/or more targeted instruction.
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