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Mel Parham, 3-5 Interventionist, Moulton Elementary School, DMPS

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Mel Parham, 3-5 Interventionist, Moulton Elementary School, DMPS

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Standard Assessments:
Students utilize FastBridge testing for reading and math in the fall, winter, and spring. They take aMath and CBM Math Automaticity. aMath is the district prescribed assessment while CBM Math Automaticity is the district approved progress monitoring so students participate in both for baseline data and then proceed forward with progress monitoring if necessary for at-risk students. They take aReading and AUTOReading along with CBM Reading. aReading is the district prescribed assessment while AUTOReading gives additional information so we participate in both. Again, CBM Reading is the district approved progress monitoring format so we participate in that for baseline data for our at-risk students.

MLL students participate in ELPA standardized tests each year in the spring.  I do not have much information regarding how this test is scored or the information it provides however I do know that it shows the development of English Language for writing, speaking, listening, and reading.

Classroom assessments:
Teachers utilize EL and IM curriculums for reading and math and therefore use the assessments provided with each curriculum.  In my specific classroom, I use 95% Phonics for my reading intervention.  It has a screener given at the beginning and periodically through the year to check for development.  For my math interventions, I am currently using IM curriculums from previous years, so I use those assessments provided. These screeners and assessments are given before intervention, in the middle of intervention, and post intervention to provide information on the effectiveness of the interventions as well as to examine possible disabilities (very rarely the case).

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Ruth Grace, 9-12 ELL, North High School, DMPS

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Ruth Grace, 9-12 ELL, North High School, DMPS

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ISASP is a district assessment that my sheltered ELL English 1 students have to take, despite many of them not reading at the grade level expected of them. It has both reading and a writing/language assessments within it. ISASP data helps see where students are making progress since data/scores can be broken down into specific skills. It helps us see where students may be struggling for specific skills; however, for ELL it's hard to take this data into consideration since they are being assessed on something sometimes multiple grade levels ahead of where they're at.

ELPA is a standardized assessment taken in the spring by any student whose family has checked a box saying there is another language other than English spoken in their home. It has 4 domains: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. The purpose of this assessment is to see what progress students are making in each domain in hopes that they are moving towards proficiency. To "pass" the ELPA, you need at least a 4 in all 4 domains. We as ELL teachers use ELPA scores as a starting point when placing incoming 9th grade students each fall in the correct level of ELL classes for their skills. We also compare scores from previous years to see how much growth students are making, and to monitor students who may not be making much growth or even scoring lower than previous years. In my school, students that have a specific ELL class are given this test in their regular classroom while any gen-ed student labelled ELL takes it in a large group setting in the library.

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Benjamin Anderson. 9-12 Social Studies & At-risk. Indianola, IA

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Benjamin Anderson. 9-12 Social Studies & At-risk. Indianola, IA

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At the high school level, 9th, 10th, and 11th grade students take the standardized ISASP assessment each spring.   ISASP features 2 literacy assessments; one on reading and another on writing & language. ISASP results allow us to gauge a students ability compared to their peers and measure their growth since testing the previous year. These results also us to monitor the skills and learning of specific groups within the population and look at how successful districts are at developing these skills for their students. Hopefully, students that need special education support have already been identified before high school, but the ISASP test results would help identify students in need of that support.

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Cheyenne Holliday, HS Options Academy Alternative Pathways, Des Moines Public Schools. 

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Cheyenne Holliday, HS Options Academy Alternative Pathways, Des Moines Public Schools. 

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I work exclusively with 17-21 year olds who are credit deficient. Options prepares students to take the HiSET exams to "test out" of high school. This is comparable to the GED, but students receive a regular high school diploma.

When we get a new student, I look through all assessment data that is in Infinite Campus, but that often does not paint an accurate picture of what a student knows or is currently able to do. Instead, I give students three HiSET pretests: reading comprehension, grammar, and essay writing. The tests mimic what students have to be able to do to pass the exam. The challenge is determining what instruction is needed based on how they answer the multiple choice questions. It does not break down the assessment like the MAP test does, so it does take time to figure out the missing pieces needed to guide instruction.

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Ben Sinnwell 9-12th Social Studies, DMPS North HS

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Ben Sinnwell 9-12th Social Studies, DMPS North HS

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We use ISASP and Mastery Connect. Mastery Connect is given twice a year to let us see student progress. ISASP is yearly and can compare our students to other groups within the district or state. This data can ultimately be used to monitor growth or even potentially identify a student who might need SPED services.

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The school district where I taught for almost 10 years has just now started implementing a new reading program.  For many years it was whatever we came up with and supplemented.  This past year they implemented Fountas and Pinnel’s Phonics and Reading Curriculum.  We also use their LLI program. It was very overwhelming the first year and it didn’t come in until November so we had a hard time implementing it well as we were in the middle of the 1st 9 weeks already.  We also began implementing Patterns of Power by Jeff Anderson.  A lot of teachers had already been using their own mentor sentences but this helped the entire district get on board with this exemplary way of teaching grammar and writing.

The next year we received a 2 day training overview of the Fountas and Pinnell Classroom curriculum at the end of the summer.  We didn’t really have any time to sort our materials though.  Covid hit and everything was just survival mode after that.  We also did not have any followup training or anyone that came in to see if we were following the components correctly.

The mode of instruction was varied.  Usually we had whole group mini lessons, and individual or partner work as the teacher worked with small groups.  We didn’t really use the assessment portion of the curriculum, but used MAP and our district weekly check-ups.

ELLs were serviced through our Dual Language program.  SPED was served through a push-in model, however, every once in a while they were pulled out as well.

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Calvin Alger, 6th Grade Math, Harding Middle School DMPS

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Calvin Alger, 6th Grade Math, Harding Middle School DMPS

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DMPS used interim assessments that measure reading and writing, they have done the fast assessments to measure students words per minute read. There is also an EL curriculum that focuses on reading, writing, speaking and vocabulary skills.

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Ken Halford, Strat II: ID SPED, East High School in DMPS 

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Ken Halford, Strat II: ID SPED, East High School in DMPS 

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The literacy assessments that I give in my classroom are very different than almost everyone else who has posted.  Due to their intellectual disabilities, my students do not participate in MAP/ISASP testing.  Instead, they are on alternative assessment through dynamic learning maps. Twice a semester, I administer English tests through essential element blueprints.  Each student is on a different essential element, therefore I do not know what the literacy assessment will be about.  I do know the essential element that is being tested. For example, a 9th grade essential element question during our first testing window was "Determine how characters change or develop over the course of a text."  One particular student's blueprint has her tested over identifying character feelings.  These literacy assessments do allow me to read for them.  In the classroom, we use easyCBM for progress monitoring students.  This could be grade level k  (letter name, sounds, phonemes, word read fluency) or CWPM for grade level text in a 1 minute time span.  These assessments are used for IEPs and are required for progress monitoring goals.  I have a few students who are not ready for these assessments and are currently on a phonics checklist #1 or #2.  These were created by the district.

Alternative Assessment through Essential Element questions drives my instruction.  I teach all of the Essential Elements (Math, English, Science) and gauge what my students know/don't know from their alternative assessment mastery.  There isn't a set curriculum in EE, so Dynamic Learning Maps are where I get my standards and goals for students.  From an IEP standpoint, I base which progress monitoring for literacy from numerous avenues.  First, I have to see what their goal was in 8th grade.  I had 3 new freshmen this year and their literacy goals were written vaguely and did not offer opportunities to make future decisions on instruction. These were rewritten using easyCBM 1st grade assessments to drive instruction though data collection.

Questions are answered immediately in my classroom. I have 9 ID students who range academically from 5th to K. Each student has a specific lesson modeled around their deficiencies. While each student may be practicing phonics, one may be with consonant blends, while the other is clapping out CVC words.

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•What literacy assessments are you giving at the district/building/classroom/department/program level?
•What is the type and purpose of the assessment?
•What question is being answered or what decision is being made?

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Megan Smith, 3rd Grade Des Moines Public Schools

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Megan Smith, 3rd Grade Des Moines Public Schools

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The literacy assessments we administer at our school are the FAST CBM and ESI (Early Spelling Inventory) to help guide small group interventions. We administer the FAST CBM screener three times a year (spring, summer, fall) and use the data to determine whether a student does or does not meet the goal. If a student does not meet the goal, they are placed in fluency interventions and progress monitored. The ESI assessment determines our students ability to use phonics when spelling words. This also helps guide small group instruction. We also administer ISASP in the spring, and to be honest, we do not even see the scores which is disheartening and does not provide any kind of feedback to student growth.

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Eric Coop English 2 Teacher, AC/GC High School, Guthrie Center, IA

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Eric Coop English 2 Teacher, AC/GC High School, Guthrie Center, IA

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Currently at AC/GC High School, we use ISASP and aReading testing. ELPA21 is also used for ELL students to determine placement and proficiency in reading.
ISASP is standardized while aReading is diagnostic.
The decision being made from the use of these assessments is two fold. First, the English Department examines this data to determine how to best serve students. Second, the data is used to make informed decisions about special education placement as well as TAG placement. At the classroom level, this data is used to make decisions on content being taught and how to help students who traditionally struggle with reading in the gen ed classroom.

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Nolan Burns 4th Grade Des Moines Public School

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Nolan Burns 4th Grade Des Moines Public School

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For literacy we administered the Fast Bridge CBA assessment 3 times a year (Fall, Winter, and Spring).  For students who do not meet the goal, we progress monitor them and diagnose deficiencies.  We also administered the ISASP test in the spring. Our district has a curriculum called EL that we use their assessments throughout the year. We use to administer the MAP reading assessment, but we do not anymore.

The type of these assessments are Standard Assessments (ISASP, Fast Bridge CBA). The reason we use these assessments is to see student progress. We want to see how they have grown as individuals throughout the year and throughout their whole school career. We base interventions base off of the Fast Bridge score and try to diagnose their deficiencies.

The EL assessments are used as Classroom Assessments to ensure students are meeting the standards. We alter our instruction base off of these assessments.

The questions we answer with these assessments is that we group our students based off of their needs. We differentiate our instruction to ensure it equitable for all. We diagnose our students deficiencies and try to fill in the gaps.

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Alexie Mobley 11th grade English at Lincoln High School in DMPS

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Alexie Mobley 11th grade English at Lincoln High School in DMPS

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•What literacy assessments are you giving at the district/building/classroom/department/program level?
Currently as a district level, the main literacy assessments for high school students are the Mastery Connect: District Interim Assessment (previously known as the MAP Assessment), and the ISASP tests. The Mastery Connect tests are given twice a year, and the ISASP test is given once a year. However, in each English PLC, the teachers decide on various assessments for students to demonstrate their understanding of each target. The district does offer common CFA's on the district resource page, but it is up to the PLC if they choose to use that assessment or create their own common assessment to compare student data.

•What is the type and purpose of the assessment?
The purpose of the Mastery Connect Assessment is to show where students are at, and since this assessment is given twice a year, the hope is that students show growth from their fall score to their spring score. This test also helps determine the students' Lexile levels and where they are at compared to their peers. The ISASP test is another standardized test given that shows where students are at compared to other students in the district. It points out specific areas that each individual student may be struggling with, and it is a way to gage growth from several years. Then, the purpose to each PLC deciding on various assessments is to gage where students are at in meeting each learning target. With each assessment, teachers also use that data to determine next steps for instruction.

•What question is being answered or what decision is being made?
With Mastery Connect and ISASP, students may need Tier 2 intervention supports. It can also be used for Special Education goals, and may help show which students need services/ which can exit from special education services. In the classroom, an assessment for the various targets helps show which students may need scaffolds/ various interventions and which ones have already mastered the target.

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Amy Steuber K-5 Librarian, Bondurant, Iowa

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Amy Steuber K-5 Librarian, Bondurant, Iowa

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This is my first year as a teacher librarian.  We, obviously do not give assessments in my area of teaching.  However, I came from 30 years in a kindergarten classroom.  During that time we have given many assessments that were standardized from the state.  They currently give the FAST assessment in reading and early math.  This assessment is given three times per year (fall, winter, spring).  The areas of focus are letter names, letters sounds, nonsense words, segmenting, onset sounds, and sight words.  After these assessments are given, the students who do not meet the benchmark are placed in intervention groups and progress monitored weekly.  This is a standard assessment, but I feel like it gives us more information than a typical standard assessment.  We are able to see errors and make good judgements on where our students need the most help and even what letter/sounds are giving them the most trouble.
Students are also assessed after each reading unit.  They are given a pre test and then a post test.  This is a combination of the actual test from the curriculum with some added assessments developed by the teachers.  These are helpful to see where our students are with the sight words taught at that point.  The sounds and letters taught and which children are gaining information as it is being taught.
The question that is being answered is where are our students struggling and how can we focus our attention so that they can gain the knowledge as quickly and efficiently as possible.

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Jackie Nichols, Kindergarten teacher, Linn Mar CSD, Marion, IA.

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Jackie Nichols, Kindergarten teacher, Linn Mar CSD, Marion, IA.

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We give the EarlyReading assessment from FASTBridge three times a year. This assessment has 4 different subtests that gives us great information for what students need. For example in the Fall we test onset sounds, letter names, letter sounds and concepts of print. Each of these subtests are weighted differently and that guides our instruction for struggling readers. After giving the Early Reading assessment students that are not at benchmark are given a diagnostic assessment called the PAST to see what areas they need to work on. I feel that the PrePAST would give us better information in Kindergarten as those skills are more developmentally appropriate. One thing our district has provided teachers is a flow chart with what is expected if students are below benchmark and what assessments are to be given to these students. This has helped teachers navigate and figure out more information about how to help our struggling students.

Another assessment we are giving at the Kindergarten level is the assessments from our new reading curriculum. These are given every two to three weeks and are more of a checkpoint to make sure students are retaining what is being taught. With this assessment information teachers are identifying students that are missing an already taught skill and then reteaching that skill.

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Maria Bagley, 5th Grade teacher, Ames, Iowa

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Maria Bagley, 5th Grade teacher, Ames, Iowa

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Currently, we administer the MAP tests three times a year for reading and math (new switch this year from FAST assessments previously) and ISASP assessments in the spring. We also have assessments created by PLCs in the district that are centered around assessing our grade level standards essential standards that we call CFA (Common Formative Assessment). They are standard specific, and we administer them shortly after teaching that standard. For our students that have fallen below the standard for our MAP assessments, we administer interventions for them and also progress monitor them weekly on the FASTBridge system.

The type and purpose of the ISASP and MAP assessments are to help screen the students to see where they are at and where they are at related to their peers. The MAP and ISASP are both used to show growth and are used as standardized assessments. The purpose of these assessments is for teachers to get an idea of where the students may be at and to keep them on our radar. Some students are students who have persistently fallen out and some this is their first time falling out, so is helpful to know that so that we can make sure to get them the support they need where they are at. The purpose of the CFAs is to assess their understanding and ability to meet the grade level district essential standards.

The decision being made based on the MAP and ISASP are whether or not these students need Tier 2 intervention support with their literacy skills. This is not solely based on MAP and ISASP data, but we do use it as a point of reference when making those decisions. The question being answered as far as the CFAs go is whether or not they are understanding the essential standard and whether or not reteaching needs to be done. Those tests are helpful to know if there are only a couple students who need some more targeted support or maybe the whole class or a majority are not understanding it and reteaching to the whole class needs to occur.

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Mary McDonald, 4th grade teacher, Bondurant, Iowa

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Mary McDonald, 4th grade teacher, Bondurant, Iowa

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We give the aReading (and the aMath) assessment three times a year, fall, winter, and spring.  For those students scoring “at-risk” or “persistently at-risk,” weekly progress monitoring fluency assessments are given through FASTBridge to keep track of student progress.  We also give the ISASP standardized tests in the spring.  For our grade level, we give classroom assessments, aligned with our state standards.

The aReading and aMath tests are standardized “state” assessments, which are regulated for students by the correct answer.  The ISASP tests are taken on the computer and are a combination of multiple choice and writing.  Our classroom assessments are written. The purpose of the standardized assessments is to see how students score related to other students their age level.  The purpose of our classroom assessments is to see student progress.

The question that is being answered with standardized assessments is:  What do students lack knowledge in and which students need remediation?  The question that is being answered with classroom assessments is:  What do the teachers need to reteach students?  Which students need this reteaching?

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Chelsea Ware  K-12 Home Instruction, Des Moines Public Schools

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Chelsea Ware  K-12 Home Instruction, Des Moines Public Schools

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The only literacy assessment currently being used and offered to our families this year is the MAP Growth Reading Assessment and ISASP.  It is my understanding that the District has access to FASTbridge, but our program has not been provided access at this time, and it appears that we will not have it any time in the near future.  This year, none of my families have requested testing. So I have not used any of these assessments this year.  Both of these assessments are Standardized Assessments and are used to show student growth throughout the year.  The question that we are commonly answering, "Is the student making adequate progress?"  is often answered by using these assessments.  Sometimes we also use the map assessment to determine what areas or strands students need more instruction in.

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Kevin Newton, High School ESL, Urbandale High School, Urbandale, Iowa

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Kevin Newton, High School ESL, Urbandale High School, Urbandale, Iowa

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At Urbandale High School, we use the MAPS Assessment at the beginning and end of the school year, the ELPA21 assessment once a year, and the ISASP assessment once a year. The MAPS provides data on how students are progressing in Math, Reading, & Science. The ELPA21 assesses ELs in their proficiency with the English language (reading, writing, speaking, & listening). Additionally, the ISASP is another assessment tool to measure students' skills in Reading, Science, and Math. These assessments are all standard assessments; they show growth over time.

Another focus of assessment at Urbandale High School are classroom assessments. Administrators encourage us to use CFAs (Common Formative Assessments) created by teachers in our PLCs. While there are other EL teachers, we all teach different levels of classes, so I create CFAs on my own based on where my students are at in their proficiency levels. The purpose of the CFAs is to monitor student progress throughout the week or unit before summative assessments. The summative assessments serve as a diagnostic tool to decide which students might need intervention.

All of the assessments indicated help in the decision-making of class placement, intervention needs, or possible data in special education placement or IEPs (if student is already placed in SPED).

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Stefanie Kirk 8-12 ELA Teacher, Storm Lake St Mary's, Storm Lake, IA

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Stefanie Kirk 8-12 ELA Teacher, Storm Lake St Mary's, Storm Lake, IA

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I have recently moved from GT-RA public school district to a private school.  I absolutely love where I am at, the resources for assessment are not the strongest that I've observed so far.  We give iXL, STAR, and ISASP assessments.  All of these cover reading, language, writing, and math.  ISASP covers science in addition to the other pieces.  We also give the ELPA21 for ELL to determine proficiency in reading, writing, listening and speaking. I was excited to learn recently that the Dioceses is looking into adopting FASTBridge for next year. What I liked about the FASTBridge were the interventions and how easy they were to give. The purpose of each of these tests is to determine where the student is related to proficiency in reading. Each gives a breakdown of different areas in which the students are successful and struggling.  Interventions are created and given with fidelity.  We then test again to see where the improvement is and/or where the student is still struggling.  From there we move on to a different intervention or even a different skill.  The question I am always looking at is what skill is the student(s) struggling to understand and become proficient while consistently using that particular skill. The decision made on my team is that the data drives the teaching in the classroom. It determines what skills are being reviewed, practiced, and taught. We also look to determine what small groups can we pull back (even in HS) to teach skills to or even better what 1:1 teaching needs to take place.

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Stephan Maras, MS/HS ELL Teacher, Clarke Community Schools, Osceola, Iowa. 

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Stephan Maras, MS/HS ELL Teacher, Clarke Community Schools, Osceola, Iowa. 

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Currently, at Clarke MS/HS (Osceola, Iowa), we give the iReady, ISASP and ELPA21 exams.  iReady covers reading and math, ISASP covers reading, language, writing and mathematics, and ELPA21 is for ELL students to determine proficiency in reading, writing, listening and speaking.  iReady and ISASP is for all students to determine individual and overall school diagnostics.  ELPA21 determines if ELL student needs services along with mainstream education.