Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein today announced that all schools will have access to a range of flexible periodic assessment tools to help them track students’ progress in English Language Arts and math starting in the 2007-08 school year. Developed in consultation with principals and teachers, these new tools are more advanced than the current interim assessments that many schools already use. They allow educators to customize assessments to what they are teaching and what they want students to learn. The assessments give educators timely and relevant information about student progress, including a detailed analysis of each skill tested. No stakes are attached to the results of periodic assessments for schools, principals, teachers, or students.

    The Department of Education (DOE) has encouraged schools to use these kinds of no-stakes assessments since 2003, but this is the first time every school will have easy access to a menu of differentiated assessment tools rather than pre-packaged exams that do not necessarily match the needs of individual teachers and students.

    “Teachers have always used assessments to monitor their students’ progress. Now they’ll be able to find out quickly exactly what students are learning and where they need more help,” Chancellor Klein said. “These tools are quicker and more accurate than what our schools have today. They’ll make it easier for our educators to tailor instruction to meet the individual needs of every student.”

    Schools can customize the new periodic assessment tools to match their particular scope and sequence in reading and math, ensuring that the assessments correspond to what students have been taught. All questions are research-based and aligned to New York State academic standards. Educators will also have access to a robust bank of assessment questions, aligned to standards, from which they can draw at any time—not merely as part of periodic assessments—to help them more quickly and easily create mini-assessments, worksheets, and instructional supports. They will be able to view detailed results online within a` maximum of five school days after administering an assessment—and immediately if assessments are administered online or scored locally—allowing them to quickly adjust their instruction to match students’ strengths and weaknesses. 

    Schools can choose any combination of the new periodic assessment tools as long as they are assessing students five times a year in grades 3-8 and four times a year in high school in both English Language Arts and math. Schools can also request to design their own assessments to replace or supplement the provided assessments. The DOE will hold information sessions and demonstrations of these assessment tools for schools in the coming weeks, and schools will select the ones they want to use for the 2007-08 school year by July 6.

    The options are as follows:

• Predictive Assessments – These assessments simulate and provide an indication of future student performance on New York State tests. They are aligned to grade-level standards and are able to measure student growth within an academic year. They can help guide tailored interventions and be used up to twice a year.
  
  
• Instructionally Targeted Assessments – These assessments provide insight into students’ skills. They are aligned to standards and skills taught during a specific instructional period and developed collaboratively with educators to match the scope and sequence used by schools. They are also customizable by school and classroom. They help inform instructional decisions and can be used up to three times a year.
  
  
• Customized Item Bank Assessments – Educators can use these assessments at any time by choosing from a bank of high-quality, research and standards-based items that assess student learning on a particular set of academic objectives. The bank will include a mixture of multiple choice; short, constructed response; and extended-response items.
  
  
• Computer Adaptive Assessments – These are online assessments that adapt to each student’s individual responses and indicate a student’s current instructional level in reading, language, and math independent of grade level. These assessments are especially helpful in assessing the needs of students who are two years or more below or above grade level. They can be used at any time.

    After a competitive bidding process, the DOE selected CTB/McGraw-Hill and Scantron to provide these new tools. CTB/McGraw-Hill will provide and support the Predictive, Instructionally Targeted, and Item Bank assessments. Scantron will provide and support the Computer Adaptive Assessments.

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Contact: David Cantor / Andrew Jacob (212) 374-5141