Caleb Hatfield
Teacher, Mentor, Leader
Artifact 1: NWEA MAP Testing
Three times a year, the students at AIS take part in MAP (Measured Adequate Progress) testing. It is my job as a school administrator to collect, interpret, and communicate the data from the results. An updated version of the document you see displayed to the right is sent out to our middle school staff after each testing period. One of our overarching middle school goals at AIS is to have 90% of our students at or above what is considered the "norm" for their grade level. Sharing documents such as this one helps our teachers to understand where we as school are making gains and where we need to continue to develop and address our weaknesses.
Artifact 2: Assessment PD
As a coordinator of our Collaborative Monday meetings, I asked a fellow teacher leader to present on one of his strengths, assessments. He provided our staff with important information such as how to use essential questions to guide assessments. He discussed the differences between formal and summative assessments. Additionally, he talked about what made an assessment reliable or valid. I felt that this information was crucial in getting all of our teachers in agreement on what was effective assessment and how the might improve their current assessing strategies.
Artifact 3: Atlas Assessment Mapping
As a means to map out our curriculum within our school and make what our teachers are doing more transparent, we have adopted Atlas Rubicon. Atlas enables teachers to input everything from daily objectives to essential questions. One feature that I found extremely effective as a teacher was the targeting of standards based on my curriculum standards. I was able to upload specific assessments and then select which standards that assessment was actually assessing. Then at the end of the unit, I had documented evidence that showed whether I had taught the standard completely or not. Now as a principal, I find this information to be essential in knowing whether or not a teacher has actually appropriately assessed a standard that is part of their curriculum.
Within the modern school, it is of upmost importance to use data from assessments to provide the necessary information to drive student learning and achievement. Ignoring the importance of such data would only jeopardize the integrity of school initiatives and convolute goals.