Assessment Plan

Through collaboration between parents, students and educators, Rockwood’s balanced assessment practices will empower students along their individual pathway to learning, creating hope and resilience for ALL learners.

In order to ensure a systematic approach to assessment, districts should develop local assessment plans which supplement state-level testing without duplicating it . A balanced assessment plan should address the needs of students and provide insights to teachers regarding what learning has and has not been mastered. Data from assessments should be used to diagnose areas of strength and to customize instruction to address student needs.

Assessment can take many forms including traditional tests and quizzes, but it can also occur through other means such as screenings, surveys, exit slips, performance events/tasks, interviews, and much more. Formative and interim assessments can guide next steps for learning, gauge and communicate student mastery of learning standards, diagnose immediate areas where instructional programming can improve, inform classroom teaching, and predict future achievement. Interim and summative assessments can also measure instructional quality, support the evaluation of educator effectiveness, measure program efficacy, inform system accountability measures, and provide for comparison to other schools and districts. A balanced plan can help evaluate student needs system-wide and provide valuable insight into continuous program improvement.

This Assessment Plan attempts to:

• Summarize Rockwood School District’s comprehensive and balanced assessment program,
• Demonstrate how the district monitors achievement targets for a variety of purposes,
• Outline what data are available and how data are used to drive decision-making with regard to curriculum, instruction, and programs,
• Support the district’s commitment to communicating assessment data, motivating students to do well on assessments, ensuring test security, and teaching test-taking skills, and
• Outline the process for how the Assessment Plan is continually monitored and adjusted.

Through their approval of this document, the Rockwood Board of Education shows their endorsement of the assessment efforts within the district and their support for this critical component of the Teaching and Learning Model.