Assessment

Greenwich Public Schools believes in a comprehensive and balanced approach to assessing students. The Academic Office and Research Manager work in coordination with the Connecticut State Department of Education and building administrators to coordinate the logistics, training and communication of centralized formative and summative assessments.

Our guiding principles ensure that:

The GPS assessment system reflects the vision set forth in the district’s strategic plan.
Reliable and valid assessments are available to support student learning and decision making.
The assessment system is without redundancies, preserve instructional time, and allow for the assessment of other constructs beyond Reading and Math.
The formative assessment process assists teachers in their ability to individualize instruction for students.
Teachers have access to data via the specific test publisher website or the district strategic dashboard.

2023-2024 Assessment Calendars

Overview

Families are our partners in learning. As such, our Curriculum Team works to ensure a transparent and thorough guide to our District Assessments and their frequency. This page communicates the district’s comprehensive approach to assessing students. GPS embraces the need for a more comprehensive, yet efficient way of assessing students with necessary, reliable, and valid assessments through the formative and summative assessment process. The tabs outline assessments by content at each grade level K-8.

Kindergarten

Grade 1

Grade 2

Grade 3

Grade 4

Grade 5

Grade 6

Grade 7

Grade 8

ALP

9-12

Framework

LinkIt FAQ

Additional Information

Additional Resources and Information

Types of Assessments

Types of Assessments

Universal Screener – All students, District-wide
Used to identify or predict students who may be at risk for poor learning outcomes. Universal screening assessments are typically brief, conducted with the students at a grade level, and followed by additional testing or short=-term progress monitoring. Teachers respond to theses results by following next steps as outlines in the district MTSS Assessment Pathway.

Benchmark -Student who take SBA/NGSS, District-wide
Used to evaluate students against specific grade-level standards. Unlike summative assessments, the purpose of benchmark assessments is not to determine content mastery. Instead the goal of benchmark assessments is to identify students’ academic strengths and weaknesses and use that information to guide further instruction to gauge student readiness to successfully perform on summative and high stakes tests. Teachers are able to act in response to these results by spiraling in repeated, differentiated instruction in upcoming units.

Pre-Assessment – All students in particular grade level/course, Classroom teacher or school- wide
Assess a student’s’ strengths, weaknesses, knowledge, skills prior to instruction in order to identify what a student already knows about a topic. Teachers proceed by designing specific teaching and learning experiences in response to pre-assessment results.

Progress Monitor -All students, Classroom teacher or school-wide
Progress monitoring is used to assess students’ academic performance to quantify a student rate of improvement or responsiveness to instruction and to evaluate the effectiveness of instruction. Teachers are able to act in response to these results by spiraling in repeated, differentiated instruction into the current or upcoming unit.

Formative- All students in a particular class, Classroom teacher
Quickly assess a student’s performance during instruction and should occur regularly throughout the instruction. Teachers are able to act in response to these results daily.

Summative- All students in particular grade level/course, School or District-wide
Measures a student’s achievement at the end of instruction in order to assess student mastery of a topic. Teachers are able to act in response to these results by spiraling in repeated, differentiated instruction into the net unit.

Organization or State Required Assessments- All students in particular grade level/courses, District-wide
SBA, NGSS, IB, etc. Teachers are not able to act in response to these results as students have moved to a different grade/course.

Placement (Achievement)- Some students in particular grade level/courses, District-wide
The purpose of placement testing is to determine a student’s current level of skills and knowledge in a particular content area and if they are more advanced than their grade level peers. These assessments do not have a ceiling, so students are able to show all of what they know. The results determine the most appropriate course/s for a student.

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