EPAS: Leading Building-wide Systems

1. EPAS: Leading Building-wide Systems A Focus on System Assessment A tool for building leaders

2. Agenda • Understand what data is available • EPAS as one tool for school leadership and planning • EPAS as one tool to use with teachers to inform their instruction • Implications and Next steps

3. Learning Outcomes Participants will be able: • To identify the different types of assessment and purpose • To understand what data is available, when it arrives and who has access to it in order to think about what that means for their school • To help teachers understand the ways in which data may be helpful in problem-solving and promoting team collaboration

4. Inclusion: Reflect on the following question and be prepared to share your thoughts with a neighbor. Which of the RTI questions is answered by the use of the EPAS assessment system?

5. Why Assess? • Research on effective schools consistently find a correlation between effective monitoring of student outcomes and schools that achieve exceptional student learning outcomes (Levine & Lezotte, 1995). • Research on the effects of classroom assessment (formative) indicate the practice of frequent classroom assessment is associated with the largest observed student learning gains (Black & Wiliam, 1998)

6. Integrated Assessment Practices Need to address: • The assessment questions • Purpose of assessment • The right tool for the job • The most efficient process

7. REVIEW: Types of Assessment • Summative Assessments: evaluate whether the instruction or intervention provided is powerful enough to help all students achieve or exceed grade-level standards by the end of each year. • Benchmarking and progress monitoring: Brief and targeted assessments, focused on “indicators” of broad skill domains. Assessment of Learning • Formative: Brief, targeted, and frequent measures of progress toward short-term goals. Used as feedback for refining instruction/learning. Assessment for Learning • Diagnostic: inform instructional planning in order to meet the most critical needs of individual students

8. Purposes for Assessing Student Outcomes • Effectiveness • System • Organizational Units • Programs • Teachers • Progress toward important goals • Current Status • Growth

9. Port Desired Course You are Here Actual Course How am I doing? Where are we? Where is the port? What course should I follow? GPS On Early Childhood Research Institute

11. Assessment Framework Matrix

12. What type of assessment is EPAS?

13. Identify the purpose for using EPAS in your building? • Work in small groups of 5-6 people. • List on chart paper the common uses for EPAS • Be prepared to share with the large group

14. Making Effective Use of ACT’s Longitudinal Assessment System (May 2012) • Key Findings: • Level of usage does not reflect quality of usage • Schools aren’t taking full advantage of the assessment • School context matters for understanding assessment use

15. Main Uses of EPAS Data

16. Main Uses of EPAS Data

17. Figure 3. Percentages of Schools Implementing Specific Behaviors • How are schools using the assessments? • What ways of using the results are schools engaged in more than others? • Are the ways in which schools use the results most likely to lead to improved academic achievement?

18. Summative Assessments

19. Student Score Report CCRW Manual p. 20-23

20. Student List Report

21. Profile Summary Report

22. From the Data CD EXPLORE 8th Grade Math Benchmark = 17

23. PLAN Item Response Summary Report CCRW Manual p. 94

24. Item Response Summary Report College Readiness Standard: Math - Expressions, Equations, and Inequalities (XEI): 601 (28-32) – Manipulate expressions and equations

25. CCRW Manual p. 97-102

26. EXPLORE/PLAN Reports to Schools • Student Score Reports with Item Response (2) • Student Score Labels (2) • Student List Report • Item Response Summary Report • Profile Summary Report (including Presentation Package, Early Intervention Report and College Readiness Standards Data) • Data Disk

27. Example: Mathematics College Readiness Standards ACT’s College Readiness Standards™ http://www.act.org/standard/pdf/CRS.pdf

28. ACT Alignment to Common Core State Standards www.act.org/commoncore

29. Using EPAS for Problem-Solving at the Systems level Analyzing group data over time to inform long term planning

30. Are Our Results Improving? • How did we do? • Overall? • As a school? • At a grade level? • With specific groups of students? • For specific learning targets? • What are our “Opportunities for Improvement?” • What are the broad effects of programming actions and improvement initiatives?

31. Results Tell Us About Long-Term Broad Impacts • This is important to guide decisions about what to sustain, what to improve and where to focus resources. • Results reflect the overall health and direction of the organization or organizational unit • School • District

32. EPAS results can help drive long-term goalsExample: Status Goals • “In the areas of Reading and Math there will be the following increases in the percentage of students who meet or exceed Explore benchmark Scores:” • Math: from 47 % to 60% • Reading: from 37% to 60%

33. Example: Growth Goals • “70% of students will meet or exceed Explore benchmark scores(this would place my school in the top 10% of all schools nationally)” ….growth goals are harder to determine in the early stages of epas implementation

34. Delving Deeper What do EXPLORE,PLAN and ACT scores tell about what students know?

35. Application • Materials: • Instructional Support Workshop Materials • ACT College Readiness Standards Posters • http://www.act.org/standard/instruct/index.html (test analysis booklet) • http://www.act.org/standard/instruct/pdf/CollegeReadinessStandardsTables.pdf (pdf of all ACT standards) • http://www.act.org/standard/instruct/pdf/EXPL_CRS_MatchtoItemsBooklet.pdf(sample test questions matched to standards)

36. Let’s Talk About It

37. Your work; Your Turn In small groups • Select a test question booklet for either EXPLORE, PLAN or ACT • Refer to the ACT Career College Readiness Standards posters on the wall Consider • How might these materials be used within your building? • What might your next steps be? • How might you use this with your School Based Leadership Team? • How might this inform your School Improvement Plan?

38. Implications and next steps What is your role in supporting the work around EPAS? Who are the key stakeholders within your building and what are their roles in supporting the work? How will you use PCT and/or district professional development days to support the work? What supports and resources do you need in order to increase the effectiveness of the EPAS system within your building?