A dozen area school districts welcomed an infusion of state funding to help improve assessment practices.
The State Education Department awarded 31 grants Tuesday, Aug. 12, through the state’s New “Teaching is the Core” initiative, which is funded through federal Race to the Top grants. Capital Region BOCES led a consortium of 12 school districts applying for the funding — including Guilderland, North Colonie, South Colonie and Voorheesville — and was awarded nearly $400,000.
The funds will be used to help school districts identify locally adopted tests not contributing to teaching or learning. Districts will also identify effective assessments, which could be improved upon, and share best practices with area schools.
“We are excited that these districts will now have the resources to complete this important work,” Lynne Wells, assistant district superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction at Capital Region BOCES, said in a prepared statement. “Reviewing assessment practices will help ensure they support student learning to the highest degree possible.”
The grant will fund related activities for districts through the 2014-15 school year.
Last month, the State Education Department sent every school district and BOCES a Testing Transparency Report, which identified tests that could be eliminated or replaced with performance-based assessments.
State Education Commissioner John King Jr. said high quality assessments are a vital part of education and provide useful feedback to teachers, parents and students.
“At the state level, we haven’t increased the number of tests we administer, and virtually all of the tests we give are required by federal law,” King said in a prepared statement. “Unfortunately, due to various pressures at the federal, state and local level, testing has increased in many districts in ways that do not always support good instruction and, sometimes, even crowd out time for student learning. Testing should be the minimum necessary to inform effective decision-making in classrooms, schools and districts.”
Every district will create an assessment review team consisting of teachers and administrators. An education consultant will also provide extensive training to help facilitate the review process, what assessments to review and develop an action plan from findings.
Another focus of the grant is engaging parents on how assessments are used.
North Colonie Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Kathy Skeals said the district was pleased to receive the grant and work with neighboring districts.
“The opportunity to share our ideas and thinking with other area schools will allow us to review our current portfolio and practices to ensure that we have a variety of means by which to gauge our students’ progress,” Skeals said in a prepared statement.
Bethlehem Central School District is the only district not receiving grant funding in the Spotlight News coverage area.
Bethlehem Assistant Superintendent Jody Monroe said the district chose to not be a part of the consortium partially because it had already begun “an in-depth look at student testing and options for reducing unnecessary assessments.”
“We are consistently reviewing how assessments impact our students and how they can be used most effectively,” Monroe said in a statement to Spotlight News.
Bethlehem Superintendent Thomas Douglas said the district has begun improving its assessment process.
“Through careful review and working internally with our teaching staff, we eliminated pre-testing of students in 2013-14, which allowed teachers and students more educational time last year and will again this year,” Douglas said in a statement to Spotlight News.