Clear Standards

Pennsylvania Standards describe what students should know and be able to do; they increase in complexity and sophistication as students progress through school. The Assessment Anchors clarify the Standards assessed on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) and can be used by educators to help prepare students for the PSSA. The metaphor of an anchor signals that the Assessment Anchors clarify the relationship between state Standards and our assessment system. Assessment Anchors are further elaborated with Eligible Content. Eligible Content identifies how deeply an Anchor should be covered and specifies the range of the content to best prepare students for the PSSA. Not all of the Eligible Content is assessed on the PSSA, but it shows the range of knowledge from which we design the test.

Fair Assessments

Fair Assessment is a process used by teachers and students before, during, and after instruction to provide feedback and adjust ongoing teaching and learning to improve student achievement. In Pennsylvania the four types of assessment are summative, formative, benchmark, and diagnostic.

Summative Assessment: Seeks to make an overall judgment of progress made at the end of a defined period of instruction. They may occur at the end of a school level, grade, or course, or are administered at certain grades for purposes of state or local accountability. These are considered high-stakes assessments and the results are often used in conjunction with No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). They are designed to produce clear data on the student’s accomplishments at key points in his or her academic career.

Formative Assessment: Used by teachers and students during instruction to provide feedback to adjust ongoing teaching and learning to improve students’ achievement of intended instructional outcomes. In Pennsylvania we are defining formative assessment as classroom based assessments that allow teachers to monitor and adjust their instructional practices in order to meet the individual needs of their students.

Diagnostic Assessment: Ascertains, prior to instruction, each student’s strengths, weaknesses, knowledge, and skills. Establishing these permits the instructor to remediate students and adjust the curriculum to meet their unique needs.

Benchmark Assessment: Measures achievement of important grade level content periodically during the year in order to provide feedback about how students are progressing toward demonstrating proficiency.

Curriculum Framework

The Curriculum Framework specifies what is to be taught for each subject in the curriculum. In Pennsylvania, Curriculum Frameworks include Big Ideas, Concepts, Competencies, Essential Questions, Vocabulary, and Essential Questions aligned to Standards and Assessment Anchors and, where appropriate, Eligible Content.

Curriculum Framework Components:

• Big Ideas: Declarative statements that describe concepts that transcend grade levels. Big Ideas are essential to provide focus on specific content for all students.
• Concepts: Describe what students should know (key knowledge) as a result of this instruction specific to grade level.
• Competencies: Describe what students should be able to do, key skills, as a result of this instruction, specific to grade level.
• Essential Questions: Questions connected to the SAS framework and are specifically linked to the Big Ideas. They should frame student inquiry, promote critical thinking, and assist in learning transfer.

Instruction

Aligned Instruction comprises the following activities:

• Teaching topics aligned with the Standards.
• Ensuring the right level of challenge.
• Focusing teaching based on the learning needs of each student
• Implementing instructional strategies to increase student achievement.

Materials and Resources

• Materials and Resources includes Voluntary Model Curriculum (VMC) incorporating learning progressions, units, lesson plans, and content resources aligned to the Pennsylvania Standards in curriculum frameworks for the four major content areas (mathematics, science, social studies, reading-writing-speaking-listening).
• Learning progressions span grades K-12 and include what all students should know and be able to do as a result of successfully moving through grades K-8 and by taking specific courses in grades 9-12.
• The courses are Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, World History (1450 – present), US History (1890 – present), Civics and Government, English Composition and Literature.

Interventions

Interventions ensure students are provided with supports they need to meet/exceed grade level Standards. A comprehensive system of Interventions involves a graduated set of safety nets aligned to specific student needs and Standards.