Teachers assess their students every day in a variety of ways. Assessments are mainly useful to guide instruction and to give feedback to students and their parents. At the Shelburne Community School each team of teachers has its own form of reporting to parents. All teams send home some form of written report or hold parent/teacher/student conferences at least three times a year.

Local Assessment

The new Shelburne curriculum will provide learning standards for instructional units and the foundation for assessment. Standards-based units of study will have specifications for assessment criteria, assessment plans and tools. Criteria for excellence performance can now be made clear to students at the outset of a study. Information concerning student expectations can be conveyed to parents. What is assessed may be a product (e.g., a test) or a process (e.g., scientific inquiry.) Assessments will provide students with data to tell them how well they are performing in relation to standards and how they can improve. Assessment tools may be embedded in learning activities (teachers' observations and records) or they may be products (tests) or performances (reports and presentations.)

Local assessment plans will be developed at the district and school levels. For example, all portfolios at a particular level could be scored locally (in addition to the random sample scored by the state), and individual student results could be reported.

State Assessment

Vermont's Comprehensive Assessment Plan will be fully implemented by the year 2,000. Only the Early Reading Assessment at Grade 2 can be reported reliably by student. Other scores will be reported by district or state:

Return to the SCS Curriculum Main Web Page

Home Page maintained by Greg Thweatt
gthweatt@scsvt.org
Last updated: Aug. 12, 1997