ISA Value Added Assessment

ISA DYO PERIODIC ASSESSMENTS

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What is the purpose of the ISA DYO Periodic Assessment Program?

“Design Your Own” (DYO) Periodic Assessments in math and ELA are a required by the New York City Department of Education for students who have not yet passed the Integrated Algebra Regents or the ELA Regents exams.

The ISA DYO Periodic Assessment program supports teachers’ professional development in designing performance assessments and implementing formative assessment in their curricula. English teachers collaborate with staff from the MorrisCenter for the Professional Education of Teachers (CPET) at Teachers College and math teachers collaborate with the ISA Math Coaches both in workshops and in one-on-one sessions.

What types of assessments are part of the ISA DYO Periodic Assessment Program?

ELA: Teachers work closely with a CPET ELA Coach in developing a sequence of 3 curriculum-embedded DYO periodic assessments and rubrics that measure students’ performance related to teachers’ learning goals for students, and which are aligned with the NYS ELA standards and performance indicators. Assessments incorporate both writing and reading components and rubrics that measure student progress in four core dimensions: (1) reading process skills; (2) knowledge of literary conventions; (3) making meaning/analysis; (4) communication (in writing). CPET coaches collaborate with teachers to review and revise the curriculum-embedded tasks they are developing and provide feedback on and resources for how they can measure specific NYS performance indicators in ELA.

MathTeachers work closely NCREST math coaches and math assessment coordinators on a developing a sequence of three math assessments over the course of the year. Math assessments are open-ended problem solving tasks designed to surface evidence of students’ mathematical thinking abilities through engagement with the content under study at that time. The DYO math assessment rubric is aligned with the NYS standards and performance indicators and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Process Standards. The rubric is based on the five NCTM dimensions: (1) problem solving; (2) reasoning and proof; (3) communication; (4) connections; and (5) representation. These dimensions also align with Commencement Level standards 1 and 3 of the NYS Learning Standards for Mathematics.

Which students are assessed and how often?

All students you have yet to pass the appropriate Regents exam take three periodic assessments over the course of the school year. The fall assessment is given in September. The mid-year assessment is given in January. The spring assessment is given in April.

How are students’ assessments scored?

CPET ELA coaches, ISA math coaches and NCREST technical assistants provide professional development in scoring assessments using reliable scoring and norming practices. Schools enter students’ assessment scores into an online database, from which reports can be created on individual and subgroup performance. The DYO Coaches works with teachers on analyzing data to identify and develop specific instructional interventions, including differentiating instruction for students with different needs and developing appropriate instructional materials.

How do schools know howtheir students performed on the assessments?

ISA school teams enter their students’ DYO assessments scores in the Online Assessment Reporting System (OARS)—a web-based assessment data entry, management and reporting software that is customized to the ISA DYO assessments. Each ISA small schools and small learning community has a password-protected page on OARS that allow teams to enter data, view and generate reports on students’ performance on the assessments.

NCREST provides OARS training workshops in the fall as well as on-demand OARS technical assistance and support. NCREST also provides each ISA small schools and small learning community data reports on students math and ELA performance and gains in performance overall, as well as OARS-generated reports which show individual student performance and gains in performance on the assessments. School teams can also generate their own reports directly from OARS.

How can students’performance assessment data be used?

ISA school teams are encouraged to use the reports to collectively reflect on how their programs are preparing students in critical ELA and math skills. The DYO assessment data may be used, for example:

to identify math, reading and writingdimensions in which students have demonstrated strengths;
to target math and reading and writingdimensions in which students need improvement;
to consider how math and ELAinstruction can support student growth for a class, subgroup of students and/or individual students.