KELOLAND News has an update for you on a pilot program designed to give officials with the Sioux Falls School District a better idea of how well students are learning.
That pilot program is actually a test called the Measure of Academic Progress, or MAP, assessment. Right now fifth graders across the district take it. Additionally, all kindergarten through fifth grade students at three elementary schools also take the test, at Laura B. Anderson, Hayward, and Hawthorne. Soon, many more students could be taking it.
Students in the Sioux Falls School District started this “computer-adaptive assessment” in September.
“By computer-adaptive that means that the assessment adjusts the questions that it gives students based on whether they answer the previous question correct or incorrect,” Demi Moon, Director of Federal Programs and Assessment with the Sioux Falls School District, said.
The program gives school officials a better read on where students are in learning. So far, the pilot program is going well.
“The information that we have been able to gather from the assessment has been useful for the teachers, it’s been useful for instructional coaches, and useful for the administration,” Moon said.
The test assessment committee was set to recommend Monday night that all kindergarten through sixth grade classes across the district take the test.
The test measures not only how well students are learning, but also how well teachers are teaching.
“It really gives you a good idea of what I’ve taught well, what the kids have picked up on really well, and where I need to go yet,” Sue McAdaragh, Elementary Curriculum Coordinator with the Sioux Falls School District, said.
Quick feedback is also a benefit to the program.
“They get that information immediately,” McAdaragh said. “They’re not getting it three months, six months after the test was given. They’re given it that day.”
“I really think it’s going to help teachers at the classroom level differentiate their instruction, in order to meet the needs of all students where they are at, and help them grow,” Moon said.
The students involved this year will take it for the third and final time in May.
Sioux Falls District-Wide Assessment Looking To Expand To More Students
by: Dan Santella
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