The theory behind one charter school’s packed testing schedule

assessing assessment

February 26, 2009

The theory behind one charter school’s packed testing schedule

by Philissa Cramer, at 3:31 pm

I recently reported about one mother’s high marks for the amount of testing at her son’s school, Explore Charter School in Brooklyn. Today I asked Morty Ballen, Explore’s founding principal, exactly how often Explore students are tested.

That depends on how testing is defined, Ballen answered. “There’s a really big difference between test prep and getting information from assessments,” he told me. Where tests, and test prep, are meant to judge students and teachers, assessments are used to generate information that teachers can use to improve their instruction, Ballen said. Explore prefers assessments.

So how are Explore students assessed, and how often? In a variety of ways, and every day. Here’s a summary of the school’s testing regimen:

Students complete tests and assignments that their teachers create on a daily basis.
They also take interim assessments several times during the year to give their teachers information about their progress in math, science, and social studies. These tests are created by Explore’s teachers.
Explore holds practice runs for both the math and ELA state tests to simulate the testing conditions for those tests.
Teachers work with each student one-on-one at least three times a year to check his or her reading skills. The number jumps to eight times for children in kindergarten and first grade.
Of course, Explore students take all required annual state tests.
Because administrators aren’t sure the state tests are rigorous enough, the school also gives something called the Terra Nova assessment once a year to see how Explore’s students stack up against other students nationally.

Does all of this testing cause students any anxiety? “I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t” fear, Ballen told me. But he said students were quick to support the school’s recent decision to set their performance goal at 100 percent proficient on the state tests. “The adults were so much more scared about this than the kids,” he said.

As a charter school, Explore could face steep consequences if it doesn’t post high test scores. “Those tests keep us in business,” Ballen said. At the same time, he said, Explore’s charter status makes it able to take steps that prevent test anxiety from mounting as the big state tests approach, such as redeploying teachers’ time and energy based on students’ scores on interim assessments. “We can do that within a day, and we can hire people who are excited about that proposition,” Ballen said.

Another important feature of testing at Explore is the school’s focus on getting students and parents to understand the need for frequent assessments, Ballen said. About Stephanie Campbell, the mother I interviewed last week, he said, “She did not know what her kid knew and didn’t know until he was in second grade and came to Explore. That’s scary!”

ceolaf

“Explore’s charter status makes it able to take steps that prevent test anxiety from mounting as the big state tests approach, such as redeploying teachers’ time and energy based on students’ scores on interim assessments.”

Ms. Cramer,

Can you expand on this? What about the charter status in particular makes this possible? Is it that it is free from NYC DOE constraints? Free from any district office constraints? Is it that there something in particular in teacher union contracts that makes this possible?

Do you know what he meant?
Ellen McHugh

And this is different from the PS….. how? Kids in both types of schools take many exams. I don’t understand why the charter school testing program should be looked upon as more or less rigorous than any PS testing program. Especially since leadership tells us repeatedly that our students are held to the highest standards and are tested rigorously, and vigouously.
Many PS or IS schools use the Mastery Learning methods…testing to determine how much a class has absorbed and where, and with whom, to concentrate learning techniques.

I think we are missing the point on the testing argument. Assessments of skills are done every day at school. Let’s honor the teacher’s skills when s/he can identify and work with a student to bring them up to par or surpass.
The issue isn’t testing, the issue is educating the student using various ways and means to move the child along. There are no Union barriers to that. Some principals may not want to use different learning methods. That is a school community issue.
Some Chancellor’s have dictated methodologies. (I am going to say it, and it is trite, but one size doesn’t fit all.) That is the citywide issue.

let teachers teach
ceolaf

Ms. McHugh,

I think that the biggest difference is that the non-charter public schools have to use a lot of mandated interim assessments from the NYC DOE. That is, both on the DOE’s schedule and of their design.

Explore’s interim assessments are home grown and home scheduled.

What is the significance of that difference? Well, that’s a different matter.
Angela

Ellen: As a principal, I absolutely agree with you that quality teaching is what its all about and Ceolaf, I guess you missed my point when I wrote on the blog already, DOE schools do not have to take interim assessments. We have designed our own assessments and had them approved. Ellen, please know that the DOE’s philosophy is not to micromanage when it comes to curriculum and I think it is great that as a school we have the empowerment to work together to make these decisions.
ceolaf

Angela,

I believe you wrote, “We are a regular elementary school (Title I) and we are exempt from several of the interim assessments because it is one of the choices offered by the DOE. We were approved for Design Your Own Assessments and the teachers all have been a part of the design and implementation.”

Is this option available for all city schools? You wrote that you were “approved.” Does that mean that some apply for the program and are turned down? Is this program capped?

I have plenty of friends in the city who still use interim assessments that are come from the DOE on their schedule. Is this simply because the school leadership decline to apply for these other options, or is it possible that that were forced into using them even though school’s leadership did not want to?
Angela

Ceolaf: Yes it is a choice to all schools, known as DYO assessments. There is a time frame at the end of the Spring to apply in ELA and/or Math. Of course it has to be approved but the criteria is clear and if the school works with a group of schools or partners with literacy or math consultants to help them there is no problem. If you go on to the discussion board in ARIS you can get more information.
ceolaf

Angela,

How many years have you been doing the DYO option? Have you substantially changed them over the years?

More importantly, to me, do you think that anyone actually looked at your renewal application closely? Or was it more like meaningless paperwork to get through?
Angela

Why would it be meaningless paperwork if this is what you propose as an assessment for your school???
ceolaf

Angela,

I’m not questioning the assessments you designed.

Rather, I am wondering how much attention you think that the DOE is paying attention to what you do, and if you found that their *renewal application* helped you with what you were trying to do. (Or, alternatively, whether the renewal application itself was a time consuming distraction that took you away from the work you wanted to do with your DYO.)
http://www.classsizematters.org leonie haimson

All this testing and assessment is irrelevant if teachers don’t have the time to address the child’s individual needs in class. The whole point of the Accountability/data driven ideology is to “differentiate instruction.”

That is why class size is so critical, and why charter schools almost uniformly choose to have smaller classes. It is this that accounts for the higher success rate of charter schools — not a different testing or assessment regime.
Gideon

It’s important to distinguish between diagnostic, formative and summative assessment, and to focus on the use of assessments. Diagnostic assessments are given at the beginning of the year or unit to determine where students are so teachers know what they need. Formative assessments are ongoing to make sure students are on track to achieving goals, and can include teacher questioning and observation, graded assignments and homework, exit tickets and conferencing. I’ve heard formative assessment described as the chef tasting the soup to see if she’s getting the seasoning right. Finally, summative assessments occur at the end of a course or unit to determine if goals have been met. Teachers should be using diagnostic and formative assessment all the time to make adjustments to instruction, re-teach what students aren’t getting, identify students who might need extra help or to be evaluated for a disability, assign students to interventions or enrichment, etc. Summative assessment is more about accountability: school leaders should be using summative data to evaluate the efficacy of their programs and hold their teachers accountable for student performance, superintendents use it to hold principals accountable, school boards use it to hold their superintendents accountable. So whether students experience too much assessment really is a matter of perspective. Good teachers assess every day by questioning and observing students to check for understanding and skills.

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assessing assessment

February 26, 2009

The theory behind one charter school’s packed testing schedule

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