Testing, testing: A look at other assessments
In Pennsylvania, the PSSAs and Keystones are probably the most familiar standardized tests, in part because of the high stakes associated with them.
But students in the School District of Philadelphia take a number of other assessments each year whose names are less well-known. Some help identify for the teacher that a child is not making sufficient progress in learning to read, and others pinpoint why.
These assessments include the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA2), AIMSweb, the Kindergarten Entry Inventory (KEI), the Writing and Reading Assessment Profile (WRAP), and the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests. The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS), an assessment that measures students’ early reading skills, was discontinued in the District after the 2014-15 school year.
Generally, the purpose of these so-called formative assessments is to give teachers a snapshot of students’ reading performance at a particular moment. They are instructional tools because they determine the level at which a child can read independently as well as the instructional reading level – the level at which a child can read with some support. Teachers can also use these assessments to chart a student’s growth in reading over a school year and entire academic career.
Such tests differ from the PSSA and Keystones in terms of whom and what they assess, when and how they are administered, and how the results are used to evaluate students and schools.
Who and what is assessed and how often?
The PSSA is administered once a year to measure the extent to which students are meeting the Pennsylvania Core Standards for reading and math in grades 3-8. Students in grades 4 and 8 also take the PSSA in science.
High school students take the Keystone exams for algebra, biology and literature. If they don’t pass, they can take them again. The Keystone exams are offered three times a year.
The diagnostic assessments are different. They are given at least twice a year, usually once at the beginning and once at the end, as a screening tool to measure reading proficiency. They are not mandated by the state (with the exception of the KEI). When administered in the early years – grades K-3 – they support the push for proficient reading by the time students reach the 4th grade.
The KEI, an observation-based tool, is unique because it is completed by the teacher only once – in the first 45 calendar days of the school year – and because it measures kindergartners’ noncognitive skills, such as their social and emotional disposition, in addition to their math and reading skills. The KEI is based on Pennsylvania’s Learning Standards for Early Childhood.
This chart identifies the differences among five formative assessments in terms of their purpose, who and what they test, and how results are reported. (Click image to see enlarged version.)
When and how are the assessments administered?
The PSSA is administered in the spring of each school year to the entire class at once. Students may answer a combination of multiple-choice, selected-response (which have more than one part and in which more than one answer can be correct), and open-Testing, testing: A look at other assessments | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:
