Statewide Assessment Preparation

How Do We Do It?

Standard Based Instruction: We teach New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards (NJCCCS) for all grade levels. All CJCP curricula are aligned with content standards and college readiness skills. Teachers’ annual plans, unit plans and lesson plans are based on the state standards. Moreover, assessments are also aligned with the content standards and college readiness skills. While utilizing Understanding by Design framework for their unit and lesson plans, CJCP teachers design and implement essential questions, learning & performance objectives, traditional assessment & performance tasks with proficiency of state standards as their goals.

Data-Informed Instruction: CJCP’s data-informed instruction system is based on three pillars that are supported in a data-driven school culture: assessment, analysis, and action. Everyone gets involved in this process. CJCP utilizes a mixture of school wide interim assessments (mock tests) and classroom based benchmark tests to inform and guide classroom instruction and program decisions. The data-informed instruction is a major component of our efforts to prepare our students for the 21^st century. Teachers prepare assessments that are aligned with state standards and college readiness skills. Questions target higher order thinking skills rather than memorization and recalling of the information. Interim assessments mimic statewide assessment in format for more reliable results. After each schoolwide assessment whole staff analyzes the results together using CJCP’s custom made analysis sheet (see the sample).

CJCP analysis sheet provides informative data both vertically (standard/skill based for the whole class) and horizontally (student—individual and group—based). While it provides a snapshoot of the whole grade and/or class, it also presents standard/skill mastery statistics and proficiency level statistics for the whole class. By looking at the CJCP analysis sheet teachers can focus on following questions:

· How well did the class do as a whole?

· What are the strengths and weaknesses in the standards/skills: where do we need to work the most?

· How did the class do on old vs. new standards? Are they forgetting or improving on old material?

· How were the results in the different question types (multiple choice vs. open-ended, reading vs. writing)?

· Who are the strong/weak students?

· “Squint:” bombed questions—did students all choose same wrong answer? Why or why not?

· Compare similar standards/skills: does results in one influence the other?

· Breakdown each standard/skill: did they do similarly on every question or were some questions harder? Why?

· Sort data by students’ scores: are there questions that separate proficient/non-proficient students?

· Look horizontally by student: are there any anomalies occurring with certain students?

After analyzing the data, teachers come up with action plans to address weaknesses (see the sample CJCP action plan). While they fill out the individual CJCP action plans, teachers consider standards/skills for whole class review, small group instruction, analysis of standards, weak/strong students among other things. They implement new instructional strategies for re-teaching. They plan the next 6 to 9 weeks until the next assessment. Grade level teams complete similar grade team action plans (see the sample CJCP Grade Team Action Plan). In these team action plans whole grade level teachers design and implement cross-curricular strategies to assist students. Every subject teacher gets involved in this process.

Use of Technology: CJCP is committed to utilizing state of the art education related technology. All assessments are scanned and analyzed through powerful software that provides various reports. CJCP maintains a database where all results are held and available to parents and teachers through secure login on school website. Thorough use of technology analysis following a schoolwide assessment is fast and powerful.

Timely Intervention & Tutoring Programs: CJCP provides individual and group tutoring and after school programs to students who are not doing very well and are at risk of not attaining proficiency. Students are grouped based on assessment data and their weaknesses and strengths. By utilizing data CJCP ensures that tutoring is targeted and effective.

Professional Development: CJCP provides continuous professional development to its staff to ensure effective instruction and master teaching. Most of the professional development activities are focused on lesson planning, delivery of instruction, data-informed instruction, effective assessment strategies, and curriculum development. While benefiting from experts in their fields for coaching, CJCP also utilizes Professional Learning Communities composed of CJCP educators focused on continuous school improvement efforts based on the needs of students. In professional learning communities teachers continually asks questions, sets goals, reflects on practices, and analyzes student learning. They focus on following critical questions of learning:

1. What is essential for students to know?

2. How do we know when they have learned it?

3. What interventions should be put in place when they don’t learn it?

4. What do teachers need to know and be able to do to support the student learning?

5. What professional learning must the team engage in for student learning?

Teachers also engage in collective inquiry into their practice by examining data on student progress, analyzing student work, determining effective strategies to facilitate learning, designing and critiquing powerful lessons, and developing classroom-based common assessments to measure progress. CJCP’s daily schedule ensures time for weekly meetings of professional learning communities.

Communication & School Culture of Success: CJCP works to nurture a school culture of achievement. The school has high expectations from both students and teachers. CJCP provides systems to ensure continual success and inform all stakeholders about these systems. All teachers speak the same language through participation in workshops & meetings that explain the CJCP way of success. All assessment results are shared with all the teachers and parents. All staff members get involved in the designing and implementation of action plans. Everyone in the building contributes to the success and shares responsibility for the results. Parents are always kept informed through mailings, school website, access to online databases, and home visits.