Definitions:

DAP: District Assessment Plan
This is what we call the overall plan for assessing our students on a regular schedule.

Essential Performance Objectives:
These performance objectives guide teachers as they plan learning objectives and develop grade-level curricula that align with and support their current practices. They were created by our own teachers in Spring 2005 and are a working document.

Galileo:
Provides meaningful data for decision-making and facilitates communication between school and family - all with rapid access and flexible reporting formats. Developed by ATI in Tucson, AZ

Benchmark Testing:
An assessment that measures whether the performance objectives have been met. Tests are administered on a regular schedule.

A message about Essential Performance Objectives, the District Assessment Plan and Galileo

This past spring over 100 teachers spent more than four days identifying the Essential Performance Objectives in math, reading, and language arts. The Essential Performance Objectives are what is essential for all students to master at each grade level in order to pass AIMS and ultimately graduate from high school. These teachers did their best to align the benchmarks to the curriculum as they have traditionally taught it. The benchmarks will need revision every year as we try to determine which EPOs are our best indicators of predicting a student's success on AIMS.  It's important to think of this as a beta year - we are all learning how to make this powerful system work best for us. Assessing the mastery of these Essential Performance Objectives is key in the accomplishment of this goal. Galileo is the tool that will allow us to do this in better ways than ever before.

This fall teachers are being trained to use Galileo as this assessment tool. The program was already piloted at three schools (Tavan, Supai and Coronado) in May, but much more has to happen in this introductory year to make this online tool successful. Because this is the first year of the journey to achieve a reliable and valid District Assessment Plan, as well as the specific Performance Objectives that each student has mastered, there will be challenges to overcome.

We realize that because Galileo is a web-based tool, we will have technology challenges to address in this journey. This first year we will all learn much together. We all will need to work together to communicate and learn. This is a "beta year" which is a time for us to work together to be successful in the implementation of this fabulous tool, which in the long run will make all teaching and learning more meaningful.

Hang in there and work with us. The results will be magnificent, but will not come without hard work, some frustration and a lot of team work.

Katy Cavanagh,Interim Co-Superintendent

Dr. Ildi Laczko-Kerr, Executive Director of Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment