St. Helens School District Assessment Plan

1. St. Helens School DistrictAssessment Plan By Ben, Danielle and Molly

2. St. Helens School District-Overview • Total district enrollment: 3,663 • Special Education: 13.5 • ESL: 1.6% • Students with diverse backgrounds: 16.2% • All schools rated “Satisfactory” or “Outstanding.”

3. St. Helens School District-Overview District State-wide

4. St. Helens High School

5. St. Helens Middle School

6. Assessment Plan Overview • 6th grade intervention: Read 180 • OAKS, Holt 6th Entry level, and Teacher Recommendation • 7th grade intervention: Read 180 • OAKS, Holt 7th Entry level, and Teacher Recommendation • 8th grade intervention: Read 180 & Writing Workshop • OAKS, Holt 8th Entry level, and Teacher Recommendation • 9th grade intervention: Reading and Literature Workshop • OAKS, Holt 9th Entry level, and Teacher Recommendation

7. Timeline/Requirements for Interventions • April 1: 2nd round OAKS (8th-9th grade); Holt Entry Exam (6th-7th grade) • April 15: Teacher Recommendations; 2nd round OAKS (6th-7th grade) • May 1: Consultations with SPED/ELL; 3rd round OAKS (8th) • May 15: 3rd round OAKS if need(6th-9th) • May 31: Ranked list, parents notified

8. Inquiry Procedure (how we got our information) • Sent out interview questions (via email) to administrators (high school and middle school) and teachers (reading, language arts, electives, and workshop). • Asked students in the reading workshop and read 180 classes to fill out surveys

9. Survey/Interview Questions (teachers) • What tools do you use for formative assessment? • What tools do you use for summative assessment? • How do you determine baseline reading level for each student? • How do you progress monitor? • What is the criteria for student placement in reading workshop/intervention classes? • In your opinion, is this criteria being followed to place students? • Besides OAKS, what screening assessments are used for placement. • What is the criteria for exiting reading? • What role does teacher recommendation play vs. data in student selection and placement? • What populations are being served? • What populations meet the criteria but are not being served?

10. Interview Results: General Education Teachers • https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AhHAmO8z3fyodHNSY1l1SkZaaVR1QThFdEVfZ3Jkc1E&hl=en&authkey=CJjhlqgB • Google Docs-14 replies

11. Interview Results: Staff • L.A. teacher on attendance factors: • “The behavior and attendance portions are part of the overall teacher recommendation. Teachers indicate whether students have a positive work ethic, behavior problems, or attendance issues. Students are then assigned a total number of placement points based on their performance.” • “Given the limited space that we have in workshop classes, we want to make sure that those students who are 1) most in need of intervention and 2) are most likely to respond to that intervention are placed. If a student’s behavior and absenteeism gets in the way of them progressing, then we might be able to better serve another student with similar test scores but with the positive behavioral attributes to really get the most out of the class.”

12. Interview Results: Staff-continued • Reading Teacher on Student Population in Workshop and Read 180 classes: • Who is being served? • “In terms of the student populations being served, I can say that a large percentage are "behavior problems."  By "behavior problems" I mean students who are suspended on a regular basis, get referrals often, act defiant, rowdy, and generally disrespectful.  Many of them come from single parent homes or homes with parents who abuse alcohol or drugs.  I also have at least 20 students who use marijuana regularly and drink alcohol regularly.  They do not hide this fact; in fact, they love to tell me and other students about it.  I have two ELL students, both of whom receive additional services in English language development. I also have about 7 students who are on IEPS or 504 plans. I am not sure if there are other specific groups who are not being served.” • What types of assessment are used to determine mastery? • “I have to say though that most of my formative assessment happens in class when I am circulating to small groups and giving them feedback as they work.  That is where I am able to see who is getting the concepts and who needs more modeling or practice. Students must complete two independent assessments for each standard we cover to prove that they have mastered that standard.”

13. Interview Results: Administration • Principal at St. Helens Middle School: • What is the criteria for exiting reading? • “We refer to the criteria in the plan and then adjust according to seat count availability. Seat counts have increased with a reduction in force and higher class size expectations across the district. Although we prefer a seat count of 18 per Read 180 section, that has not been allowable . The intervention of Read 180 is only to be for two years. If a child still in need of reading intervention, as defined by the criteria, they are placed into a Reading and Writing Workshop for a maximum of one year in the 8th grade. If the student shows significant progress and there is compelling evidence to remove the intervention, that may be an option midyear.” • What populations of struggling readers are not being served? • “Special Education students with multiple goals may not have an additional reading intervention on top of their Language Arts class depending on SDI and goals outlined in their IEPs.”

14. Survey Results: Students • Students in workshop classes: • believe they read as well as or better than their classmates; • understand their OAKS scores were a large factor in their enrollment in the class; • 9th grade students don’t believe it’s fair they were placed in workshop, 7th grade believe the placement is fair; • few can state specific skills they learned in workshop that they didn’t have before.

15. Survey Results: Students • Students who have exited workshop classes: • believe they read as well as or poorer than their classmates; • understand their OAKS scores were a large factor in their enrollment in the class; • about half the students feel it was fair they were in the class; • half can state specific skills they learned in workshop that they didn’t have before.

16. Alignment with IRA/NCTE Standards • 2. The teacher is the most important agent of assessment. In Reading workshop, teachers are using formal and informal formative assessments on a regular basis to check whether students are mastering concepts.  • 3. The primary purpose of assessment is to improve teaching and learning. St. Helen's is using assessment data to drive programming to support literacy development.  From teacher interviews, it also looks like many teachers in different content areas are using strategies to improve literacy, which may be a result of looking at schoolwide OAKS data.  • 8. The assessment process should involve multiple source of data. St. Helen's uses at least 2 sources of data to place individual students. 

17. Questions for St. Helens S.D. to Consider • What if a student has bad absenteeism and behavior issues due to something at home-does this still affect their chances of receiving intervention via Read 180 or workshop? • Could a problem solving model work in the secondary school?

18. Suggestions for Improvement of Plan/Future Implementation • Professional Development for all grade level teachers and administration on : • What the intervention model looks like • The importance of accurate (valid and reliable) assessments in determining student qualifications for interventions • The reasoning behind this intervention model • How to use this intervention model correctly