Provincial Achievement Testing

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Provincial tests tell parents

• how their child compares against provincial
  standards
• whether the child is learning what he or she is
  expected to learn

• Benefits

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Provincial tests help schools

• monitor student progress in relation to school
  achievement targets
• improve classroom instructional practices by
  identifying relative strengths and weaknesses
• develop action plans to increase student
  understanding in specific areas of the curriculum

• Benefits

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Provincial tests tell Albertans

• how well Alberta students are learning the
  Alberta curriculum
• which areas of the curriculum need improvement

• Benefits

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Achievement Tests - Grade 3
English Language Arts
Part A - Writing
70 minutes
May
Part B - Reading
June
60 minutes
Mathematics
Timed Number Facts
May
6 minutes
Multiple Choice
June
60 minutes
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Achievement Tests - Grade 6
English Language Arts
Part A - Writing
120 minutes
May
Part B - Reading
June
60 minutes
Mathematics
Operations and Number Sense
May
30 minutes
Multiple Choice
June
60 minutes
Science
Multiple Choice
June
60 minutes
Social Studies
Multiple Choice
June
60 minutes
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Tips for parents

• achievement tests are like any other test
• excessive test rehearsals and coaching should be
  discouraged
• one way parents can help their children is by
  supporting their development of strong reading
  skills

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Achievement tests

• achievement tests are aligned with the curriculum
• the best preparation for achievement tests is
  classroom instruction based on the full range of
  learning outcomes in the Alberta curriculum

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Test accommodations

• may include larger print, Braille, audiotapes, a
  scribe, more time
• help students with special test writing needs do
  their best
• are aligned with daily instructional practice as
  outlined in the individual program plan

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Teacher involvement

• writing, revising and reviewing questions
• setting standards
• developing scoring guides
• field testing
• validating the tests
• administering the tests
• marking the tests

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Use of test results

• no single test can assess everything
• large scale provincial testing is intended for
  use in conjunction with classroom assessment
  strategies
• the clearest picture of student growth and
  development is gained when a wide variety of
  assessment information is considered

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Report cards

• the teacher is responsible for classroom
  assessment
• teachers and school jurisdictions decide whether
  or not to use the results for the students final
  grades

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Sample Question Grade 3 Mathematics
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Sample Question Grade 3 Mathematics
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Sample Question Grade 3 Mathematics

• Core Learning Outcomes
• estimating mass
• using a standard unit (kg)

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Sample Question Grade 6 Science
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Sample Question Grade 6 Science
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Sample Question Grade 6 Science

• Core Learning Outcomes
• Air, Aerodynamics and Flight theory
• Identify elevators as the structure of an
  airplane that controls its descent

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Provincial Expectations Achievement Tests

• Alberta Learning has shifted away from an
  expectation on achievement tests that 15 of
  students achieve the standard of excellence and
  at least 85 achieve the acceptable standard.
• emphasis now placed on continuous improvement
  comparing results to stated targets and
  performance over time

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School Results Grade 3
School Targets SchoolResults 2005 ProvincialResults
English Language Arts Acceptable 93.0 91.1
Excellence Below Acc. 9.3 7.0 18.0 8.9
Mathematics Acceptable 95.3 88.5
Excellence Below Acc. 16.3 4.7 29.0 11.5

• Results

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Participation Report

• 43 students wrote both parts of the test
• -5 were ESL
• -4 were Special Education
• -36 were regular
• Some students were double coded.

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School Results Grade 6
School Targets SchoolResults 2005 ProvincialResults
English Language Arts Acceptable 90.5 85.9
Excellence Below Acc. 4.8 9.5 17.2 14.1
Mathematics Acceptable 90.5 85.7
Excellence Below Acc. 19.0 9.5 19.9 14.3
Science Acceptable 85.7 88.1
Excellence Below Acc. 19.0 14.3 29.2 11.9
Social Studies Acceptable 81.0 87.2
Excellence Below Acc. 4.8 19.0 24.4 12.8

• Results

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Participation Report

• 21 students wrote the tests
• -4 were ESL
• -5 were Special Education
• -13 were regular students
• Some students were double coded

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Next Steps School Councils and School Staff

• What are the strengths of our instructional
  programs?
• balanced literacy teacher commitment to
  guided reading daily
• students are higher on informational items due
  to deliberate purchase of non-fiction resources
  for guided and home reading
• lots of hands-on materials, use of Blanche
  Lamont resources and purchase of Key Materials
  for test-taking practice
• student support team that provides ESL support
  and modified programming

• Discussion

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What are the areas requiring improvement? how
to retrieve information from a passage i.e.
opinion to support a statement character
motivation authors purpose increased focus
on visual literacy i.e. graphic organizers,
pictures, graphs and charts to interpret,
organize and present knowledge writing-conventio
ns (Gr. 3) -sentence structure (Gr. 6)
-organization and content
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Areas requiring improvement

• Math-number concepts
• i.e. fractions, regrouping, decimals
• Social Studies-skills and knowledge

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What factors could be contributing to our
students performance? More children are writing
the test- higher populations in both Grade 3 and
6 More movement of children into the school
especially in Grade 5/6 More ESL students
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Next Steps School Councils and School Staff

• What are our school achievement targets for this
  year?
• 5 more students will be at the acceptable
  standard
• 5 more students will be at the excellence
  standard

• Discussion

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• What plans address the areas requiring
  improvement and help students succeed?
• Following the Class Size Initiative
• Support in target areas-Guided Reading and
  Guided Writing
• AISI- staff PD to explore most effective ways of
  using inquiry to improve student achievement
• casino money used to purchase home reading
  materials, to sponsor an artist in residency and
  to purchase Blanche Lamont materials

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Continued

• Professional development for teachers in Math
• Focused work on writing by bringing in authors
• Purchase of new Social Studies materials