What assessments do I use to determine the effectiveness of your plan?
Assessments
Once a plan to increase student achievement is created, then leaders determine the assessments needed to monitor the effectiveness of the plan. The effectiveness of the plan is based on the students’ progress. Progress monitoring is a scientifically based practice that is used to assess students’ academic performance and evaluate the effectiveness of instruction. The student’s academic performance is measured on a regular basis (weekly or monthly). Progress toward meeting the student’s goals is measured by comparing expected and actual rates of learning. Based on these measurements, teaching is adjusted as needed. Thus, the student’s progression of achievement is monitored and instructional techniques are adjusted to meet the individual students learning needs (National Center on Student Progress Monitoring 2012).
When determining the assessments to use for progress monitoring, leaders should return to the data. Based on student learning results, the leadership team can create an instructional focus with a timeline that indicates when certain standards will be taught and when students will be assessed on the effectiveness of the instruction. Therefore, the assessments must be based on a standard.
What strategies would be included in the School Improvement Plan?
Monitoring and Implementing
The best strategy to monitor student progress is the Continuous Improvement Model. This type of progress monitoring is a process where data is obtained on the impact of on-going practices. There are major elements described in the Continuous Improvement Model. For example, this type of progress monitoring is not subjective because the data drives the decisions made to improve teaching and learning. Additionally, there is an alignment of planning, instruction, assessment, and support that affects student performance (Florida School Leaders 2012).
After the leadership team creates the instructional focus calendar for reading that indicates when certain standards will be taught, students will be assessed on the effectiveness of the instruction. More importantly, this assessment data will determine which students are meeting and exceeding the learning goal for that standard and which students are struggling. For example, students are assessed on main idea, which is one of the Reading standards. The assessment data should help the school leader determine how well the students are learning this standard. A plan needs to be created to assist those students who need further assistance (remediation) and those who need more learning opportunities (enrichment). In addition to these adjustments, effective leaders also used this assessment data to decide the professional development that teachers need to assist them in effectively teaching the standards-based curriculum.
