District 2024-2025 Assessment Calendar
Please click here for the complete Merton Community School District Assessment Window Calendar and here for additional definitions of the assessments utilized. For your child's specific assessment dates and times, please contact your child's building administrator or classroom teacher.
Tests…Tests…Tests!
When I was a student the word “test,” would make my stomach instantly drop and my brow start to sweat. Everyone needs information to plan. Doctors need information about patients to plan treatments. To understand assessment, systems and teachers need to ask the question, what is the purpose of assessment? In Merton, we like to say it is a way to provide results to inform decisions. It is a source of gathering information about a student so we can plan. We use the trendy word in education lingo, “assessment.” We can think of all assessments uses as falling into one of two general categories- assessments FOR learning and assessment OF learning. Both categories have their place in education and in the classroom- Merton has been doing both for years.
Assessment OF learning are those assessments that happen after learning is supposed to have occurred to determine if it did. State assessments, district assessments and college admission tests represent some examples. At Merton Community School District, we have consistently outperformed on State and National Levels, and often have led the way. Below is a list of these common type of assessments used for accountability ratings. Additional information about how we perform is available on the link located on the right side of this page.
- Wisconsin Forward Exam for grades 3-8 in math and reading with additional assessment of science and social studies in grades 4 and 8
- ACCESS- is designed to measure English language proficiency.
- Dynamic Learning Maps (DLM) for students students with severe intellectual disabilities who are determined unable to participate in other assessments established in the state assessment system.
The table below contains links to the District's most recent accountability reports, as issued by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction under section 115.385 of the state statutes.
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Assessment FOR learning happens while learning is still underway. These are the assessments that we conduct throughout teaching and learning to diagnose student needs, plan our next steps in instruction, provide students with feedback they can use to improve the quality of their work, and help students see and feel in control of their journey to success. It is about getting better! Below are some examples of how assessment FOR learning is used in Merton:
- Fountas and Pinnell (F&P) or Teacher's College Running Records (TC)- have three assessment windows for the year for all K-2 graders, along with students who are new to the district or students who we would like additional reading information on.
- The iReady Diagnostic- K-8th grade in reading and mathematics.
- Heggerty Assessment for Phonemic Awareness- 4K
- Classroom assessments can include end of the unit assessments, basic fact assessments and some final learning projects.
- Student goal setting
- Teaching students to use rubrics to guide decision making. Teachers using rubrics to guide instruction
- Showing models of strong and weak student work
- Use of ungraded homework, class work, test and quizzes
- Very specific teacher feedback on any student work
Although I have presented these categories very black and white, of course teachers and administrators use many of the Assessment OF Learning assessments to help evaluate programs and make instructional decisions on student learning.
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