Florence Unified School District #1

June2011Board Report

Elizabeth Ridout, Director of Assessment and Accountability

AIMS

  • Electronic results for all AIMS high school assessments have been received. The scores are embargoed until July; therefore, they cannot be shared with the public at this time. Both high schools have received their results. Individual student scores can be shared with parents. Hard copies of the student reports will not arrive until late June; therefore, they will not be mailed out until July.
  • The results for the math, reading and science AIMS 3-8 test will be available late May. And, the results for the AIMS 3-8 writing test will be available in the middle of June. These scores will also be embargoed until July.

Galileo

  • The last benchmark test was administered the week of May 2nd. Data from the pre-test and the post-test has been reviewed. The majority of the grade levels showed significant growth. This data will be shared with principals during a June administrative meeting.
  • Assessment Technology Inc. (ATI), the company that developed Galileo, will be introducing pre and post assessments next year that are designed to more accurately measure student growth. FUSD will be administering these tests to students in grades K-10.
  • All benchmark assessments for the 2011-2012 school year will be customized to the Beyond Textbook curriculum. These will more accurately assess student proficiency of the standards taught.

Math

  • A component of the Balanced Math program that FUSD will be implementing next year is Daily Math Reviews. These reviews consist of a series of five questions targeting performance objectives that students have already been assessed on. This component provides the necessary cyclical review that is vital in a student’s retention of course objectives. Beyond Textbooks only provides these reviews for grades K-8. FUSD believes that our high school students would benefit from this component of the program as well; therefore, we are in the process of developing daily math reviews for our Algebra and Geometry courses.

Beginning Educator Support Team(BEST) Mentees 7th – 12th Grade

  • Next year the BEST program will be called TIPS, Teacher Induction Program and Support.

EXPLORE and ACT Initiative

  • All sites reviewed the EXPLORE test results with all 8th grade students. The students were shown how to read all of the reports and how to interpret the information. Feedback from the site testing coordinators indicated that the students were very interested in their results. They specifically liked the results that guided them to possible career choices and classes to take in high school.
  • All final reports were received by each school. These reports as well as the district final report were submitted to the NAU GearUp program before the deadline.
  • I will be attending an EXPLORE Summit in June. At this time, school districts will be informed as to whether or not the grant monies will support the administration of the EXPLORE test for the 2011-2012 school year.