Assessment at Urban Choice Charter School
Assessment and instruction are inseparable. Assessments must be comprehensive, ongoing, diagnostic, and tied to the school’s learning standards.
The public may have a narrow view of assessment as defined by high-stakes standardized tests, but the educators who developed the educational plan for the Urban Choice Charter School believe criterion-reference examinations given once per year to measure student performance must be used along with additional assessments. It is a mistake to disregard formal assessments and rely only on portfolios or other internal measurements.
The Urban Choice Charter School has adopted a comprehensive assessment strategy that will improve student learning and achievement and show the community how successful the school is.
In addition to specific grade-by-grade, subject-by-subject assessments, the Urban Choice Charter School employs the following general assessment:
- Baseline measurements to determine what students know before instruction begins.
- Ongoing, formative assessments that can shape tomorrow’s lessons such as informal daily teacher initiated assessments that allow teachers to get a snapshot of what students know at that time. Running reading records (for primary teachers) allow teachers to track reading performance regularly.
- Benchmark assessments to determine student growth at the end of a unit of study including subject specific, publisher-developed measures that accompany text are used to measure learning after a chapter or unit is completed. These often require the language arts to be integrated.
- Value-added measures that chart student learning over time. Portfolios show a collection of student work over time. Presentations or exhibitions that allow students to explain and/or show what they have learned.
- Absolute measures such as standardized exams.
- Writing rubrics that show students and parents how the writing process is progressing.
In summary, the Urban Choice Charter School believes the primary role of assessment is to improve student learning. This requires measurements that are closely aligned with instruction, continuous, progressive, direct and authentic. We embrace useful assessment practices because they ultimately help our students.
