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Much research has been conducted as to what makes a great school. There are many intangible components. However, research supports the notion that great schools and school systems tend to have six common elements:
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Clear Standards
Fair Assessments
Curriculum Framework
Instruction
Materials and Resources
Interventions
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Pennsylvania standards describe what students should know and be able to do and reflect the increasing complexity and sophistication that students are expected to achieve as they progress through school. The Assessment Anchors clarify the standards assessed on the PSSA and can be used by educators to help prepare their students for the PSSA. We use the metaphor of an “anchor” because we want to signal that the Assessment Anchors anchor both the state assessment system and the curriculum/instructional practices in schools.
• PA Academic Standards
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Summative Assessments seek to make an overall judgment of progress made at the end of a defined period of instruction. They 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.
Scores on these assessments usually become part of the student’s permanent record and are statements as to whether or not the student has fallen short of, met, or exceeded the expected standards. Whereas the results of formative assessments are primarily of interest to students and the teachers, the results of summative assessments are also of great interest to parents, the faculty as a whole, the central administration, the press and the public at large. It is the data from summative assessments on which public accountability systems are based.
If the results of these assessments are reported with reference to standards and individual students, they can be used as diagnostic tools by teachers to plan instruction and guide the leadership team in developing strategies that help improve student achievement.
Examples of summative assessment are: PSSA and Terra Nova
• School Talk Video: Data Driven Instructional Practices
• PSSA Resource Materials
School Improvement Process Tools:
• Pennsylvania Adequate Yearly Progress
• Getting Results Generation VI
• Pennsylvania Value-Added Assessment System (PVAAS) - Evaluating Growth, Projecting Performance
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E-metric-PSSA Data Interaction - create your own reports in tables, graphs or external files, at the summary or individual student level, by selecting content, statistics, aggregation levels, disaggregated groups or subgroups, and/or score variables.
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Formative Assessments are defined as Pennsylvania classroom based assessments that allow teachers to monitor and adjust their instructional practice in order to meet the individual needs of their students. Formative assessments can consist of formal instruments or informal observations. The key is how the results are used. Results should be used to shape teaching and learning. Black and Wiliam (1998) define formative assessment broadly to include instructional formats that teachers utilize in order to get information that when used diagnostically alter instructional practices and have a direct impact on student learning and achievement. Under this definition, formative assessment encompasses questioning strategies, active engagement check-ins, (such as response cards, white boards, random selection, think-pair-share, popsicle sticks for open-ended questions, and numbered heads) and analysis of student work based on set rubrics and standards including homework and tests. Assessments are formative when the information is used to adapt instructional practices to meet individual student needs as well as providing individual students corrective feedback that allows them to “reach” set goals and targets. Ongoing formative assessment is an integral part of effective instructional routines that provide teachers with the information they need to differentiate and make adjustments to instructional practice in order to meet the needs of individual students.
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When teachers know how students are progressing and where they are having trouble, they can use this information to make necessary instructional adjustments, such as re-teaching, trying alternative instructional approaches, or offering more opportunities for practice. The use of ongoing formative classroom assessment data is an imperative. Effective teachers seamlessly integrate formative assessment strategies into their daily instructional routines.
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• Dylan William: PDE School Talk-Smart Investments
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Diagnostic Assessments are intended to ascertain, 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 each pupil’s unique needs.
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Examples of diagnostic assessments are: DRA’s, Running Records, GRADE, GMADE
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• DORA/DOMA
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Benchmark Assessments are designed to provide feedback to both the teacher and the student about how the student is progressing towards demonstrating proficiency on grade level standards. Well-designed benchmark assessments and standards-based assessments:
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• measure the degree to which students have mastered a given concept
• measure concepts, skills, and/or applications
• are reported by referencing the standards, not other students' performance
• serve as a test to which teachers want to teach
• measure performance regularly, not only at a single moment in time
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Examples of benchmark assessments are: 4Sight, Assess2Know, DIBELS
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• Pennsylvania's benchmark assessment - 4Sight
• Acuity
• Assess2Know
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A curriculum framework specifies what topics are to be taught at which grade levels for each subject in the curriculum. At any given grade level, the topics that are taught are those-and only those-that are needed to provide the foundation for what comes next. In Pennsylvania, we are developing curriculum frameworks that are built by identifying standards, anchors, big ideas, concepts, competencies, essential questions academic vocabulary, and exemplars.
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Curriculum Framework Defined:
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Big Ideas: Declarative statements that describe concepts that transcend grade levels. Big Ideas are essential to provide focus on specific content for all students.
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Concepts: Describe what students should know, key knowledge, as a result of this instruction, specific to grade level.
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Competencies: Describe what students should be able to do, key skills, as a result of this instruction, specific to grade level.
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Essential Questions: Questions connected to the SAS framework and are specifically linked to the Big Ideas. They should frame student inquiry and promote critical thinking. They should assist in learning transfer.
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Aligned instruction comprises the following activities:
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• Teaching topics that are aligned with the standards.
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Making sure that you get the right level of challenge. Instruction that is too challenging leads to frustration and discouragement on the part of students. Instruction that is not challenging enough results in little or no learning.
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Focusing teaching based on the learning needs of each student. These needs are those identified through evaluation of student achievement against the standards.
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• Implementing instructional strategies that 'scaffold' by building on each other to help students achieve the standards.
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• Dr. Slavin and Dr. Madden Effective Teaching Pt.1
• Dr. Slavin and Dr. Madden Effective Teaching Pt.2
• Dr. Slavin and Dr. Madden Effective Teaching Pt.3
• Cooperative Learning
• Teaching Matters-Engagement
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The Curriculum Framework can be used as a guide for selecting only that material from textbooks, reading materials, software, and any other instructional resources that are needed to fit the framework and match the standards. Any curriculum worth teaching should contain instructional materials that represent a balance between concepts and competencies, applications and problem-solving.
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has provided the following guidance to districts and schools when selecting research validated instructional materials:
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• evaluated in comparison to a randomly assigned or matched control group;
• in studies of at least one semester, involving multiple schools;
• found to improve achievement significantly better than the control treatment; and
• published in a peer-reviewed journal.
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In ED Hub, you can find links to some of the best, most trusted sources of what works in education specifically:
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• Best Evidence Encyclopedia
• What Works Clearinghouse
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The purpose of safety nets is to ensure students are provided with supports they need to meet and or exceed grade level standards as quickly as possible. The foremost safety net is to ensure that students attend school and are ready to learn. Decisions regarding student entry to and exit from safety net programs should always be made on the basis of data. What we know from data indicates that early intervention is essential; safety nets are those built into the structure of regular classroom. A comprehensive system of safety nets involves a graduated set of interventions.
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• School Talk Video: Successful Interventions
• School Talk Video: Inclusion-School Wide Intervention
• Response to Intervention
• National RTI Center
• PA Training and Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN)
• Intervention Central
• Universal Design For Learning
• LD Online
• K-8 Access Center
• The IRIS Center
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