Assistant superintendent calls it a banner year
By PAUL DELANEY
Staff Reporter
Medical Lake School District now has an updated set of maps – make that M.A.P. – to guide them in offering students a better education.
Assistant superintendent Ralph Headlee presented the results from recently released spring Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) tests at last Tuesday's school board meeting. The presentation had the board enthused about the fact that the overwhelming majority of grades scored above national norms, and are continuing to progress in all subject areas.
Headlee said the district is very pleased with the results, noting, “Our NWEA test scores this year – were a banner year for us.” Headlee injected some track and field jargon into his report, calling some of the efforts “PRs,” short for personal records. “We're moving them up every year.”
According to the Northwest Evaluation Association, the non-profit organization that coordinates MAP tests, the state-aligned computerized adaptive tests accurately reflect the instructional level of each student and measure growth over time.
“We use it in a variety of ways,” Headlee explained. “Teachers used it to help with instruction and help differentiate instruction for each student or group of students,” he said. Tests are scored in five different goal areas and have categories for reading and math.
The outcome of the test allows a math teacher to find that there may be some kids who need further help in measurement and a different five kids that need help in number sense, Headlee explained.
“Teachers really like the data they get,” Headlee said. “It makes teaching more prescriptive. They (teachers) are changing what they are doing all the time and it helps determine groups and what courses kids should be taking.”
There was a grade level that did drop below that baseline – not by much – “but it really stands out,” Headlee said. “We want to celebrate all the others but it's our human nature to notice that one.”
Fourth-grade reading skimmed just under the national norm, where the district recorded a 205 Rasch Unit (RIT) to the national standard of 207. Headlee also pointed to math RIT scores at Hallett Elementary.
“Hallett dropped and we don't know why,” he said.“The Rasch Unit measures growth in math and reading, similar, to like measuring growth on a yardstick when a kid is starting to grow.” It's an assessment graph that follows a student as long as they are in Medical Lake schools.
A class of kids can have their names put into the system at the beginning of the school year, Headlee said. Reports can indicate where their score was in the spring and then what the projected score should be in every goal area after completion of a particular grade. “When the kids learn they can get this far, learning does snowball,” Headlee said.
Curriculum and assessment are “One of the hats I might wear,” Headlee said of his position as MLSD's assistant superintendent. “But Dan Mueller (Hallett principal) is our assessment coordinator so he does a lot of this also.”
MAP testing started in about 1998 with reading only, Headlee said. Math was added to what was once a traditional paper and pencil test, but is now online. “It's instant feedback,” Headlee explained. Cheney, joins Medical Lake, along “with many, many districts,” across the state in using this testing system, Headlee said.
MLSD will implement the science test in fifth- and eighth- grade. “Sam Petersen at the middle school pushed for that,” Headlee said. Headlee concluded his presentation with a WASL update. He hoped that scores would be available soon.
As for the new WASL, the Measures of Student test, Headlee said, “He's heard people from OSPI (the Officer of Superintendent of Public Instruction) talk about it.” There's also material at the OSPI website.
“They know the amount of time for the test,” he said. “It's going to be much, much shorter in all grades,” except 10th grade.The test will also be administered online, and Headlee said, might be similar to the NWEA MAP Testing.
The test will also be later in the school year and the turnaround time much faster because it is online. In the old system a fourth- grade teacher, for instance, might be getting test scores back for a previous class, but gearing up for new students.
When asked if the anxiety level for the next generation WASL might be ratcheted down a little, Headlee replied, “I hope, I hope.”
In other school board business, the board breezed through a lengthy list of action items with unanimous approval. They included approving a school accident insurance contract with Myers-Stevens and Toohey, as well as clarifying rules about the release of personal information.
Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com
Reader Comments(0)