Frequently Asked Questions
Do you have a question about the DAP, Essential Performance Objectives, or the benchmark testing process? Read the questions below and if you still have a question, email us to get your answer! (CLICK HERE!)
[Ildiko Laczko-Kerr] The district is required to have a district assessment plan that covers k-12. This plan requires that we offer opportunities to all levels, 11 th grade gets a benchmark and 12 th grade has the "research paper" even though its not on our calendar we can still count it. Additionally, while one of the purposes of ATI is to increase AIMS scores, we certainly still want to provide students opportunities to show that they can produce good writing. We also want to continue to provide high expectations for our students who are preparing for university and post secondary work.
First of all - we are using Galileo to see who does not master the benchmarks for the quarter and then we will reteach that PO to them to make sure they master it. This will help us make sure no one is LEFT BEHIND. We have this tool to make sure that we do not leave a child behind BEFORE they take AIMS.
[Ildiko Laczko-Kerr] NCLB does not allow any other data to be used for evaluation, AIMS is the only indicator that the State evaluates.
[Ildiko Laczko-Kerr] It is a diagnostic indicator to determine if students are mastering State Standards. Of course as students master standards (all grade levels) they will be better prepared and more likely to pass AIMS.
[Ildiko Laczko-Kerr] The data is not collected at the district level per se, unless I don't understand your question. Rather it is individual student data that can be aggregated to the school and district level. We certainly need to be sure all students are prepared to be successful. The intent is always to get back to the student level results to impact instruction and learning. To that end, the district goals that were approved by the Board earlier in the year ask the district to provide evidence and data that we are identifying students who are in need, are at risk, or who might benefit from different programs or instruction. Galileo, in addition to other data, will help the district do that. The district evaluation of Galileo data is also helpful in determining curriculum needs, alignment and professional development opportunities for our teachers. As you can see, the robust nature of the information that can be gleamed from Galileo makes it a truly amazing tool for our district.
K-2 grade students are assessed using Galileo for several reasons. We are doing benchmark testing in Grades K-2 because we want to nip it in the bud and find out if they are not mastering a standard BEFORE they take the AIMS for the first time at third grade. Look at Benchmark Testing as an instructional tool. It provides us great data to us to make changes in what we do with kids to make sure they are not left behind. As part of the K-3 override, the district is required to assess our students to determine the effectiveness/impact and performance of our full day kindergarten. As our students move into first and second grade it will be important to track their performance on the State standards overtime. Additionally, the State has a K-3 reading initiative (AZ READS) that requires all schools to assess students in these grade levels, specifically in Reading. The District has chosen Galileo as our tool for this assessment rather than implement another testing program at these grade levels.
ATI has reasons for the way they write the questions. The number one reason an item might be on a test and not have been changed in accordance with our suggestions it because THAT IS THE WAY IT LOOKS ON AIMS.
ATI has determined that questions need to mimic the ones that are on AIMS. Many questions that seem odd are on the benchmarks because THAT IS THE WAY THEY LOOK ON AIMS.
Please refer to your testing calendar, but for this next benchmark it is 2/1 for all scoring including writing.
A: For grades 3-HS, the testing booklet (writing) is the EXACT length of pages, number of lines and line length as the writing booklet for AIMS; therefore students must contain their written responses to the writing booklets that are provided. We need to have students practice/prepare for the length of writing required for AIMS; no supplementing of pages is allowed.
The last data import was on December 21st. Teachers should see all students in their classes who were registered prior to that date. If there are students who need to be added prior to the testing Jan 9th, that will need to be done in Galileo by the teachers, Testing Coordinators, or the Master Teacher Trainers. An additional data upload will happen around January 13th.
Remember that all student changes need to be done in Genesis / SASI and that information will then be uploaded to Galileo about every three weeks. Keeping the correct information in Genesis / SASI is very important to make sure that information is correct in Galileo.
Right now, as of Quarter 2, the goal is for all teachers of Language Arts, Reading, and Math, as well as EIS and LRC teachers, to be trained. We do not have the capacity to train all other subject area teachers at this point in time. There is really no direct correlation for them just yet. The report feature is awesome and could be something other subject teachers might be interested in, but they are not required to do so. We need to have computers available in the trainings for the teachers who have administered the tests right now. If there is room in a workshop, others are certainly welcome to attend!
What we do want is for the other subject area teachers to attend Essential Performance Objectives training later on this year, if they can fit it in their schedules. These will be choice workshops presented by our Master Teacher Trainers. These workshops will help them understand ways they can incorporate the Essential Performance Objectives into their curriculum to help support the areas of math, reading and writing. There will be lesson plan templates shared and ideas generated for them to use in their weekly teaching and learning activities. We also want to get feedback from these areas as to how Galileo can be used to assist them in their teaching and assessment tasks. We will then be designing the future implementation of Galileo.
No definite determination has been made as to where this all will go next year. Remember - this is a beta year. We are testing the system and starting to understand how powerful this kind of a tool can be. We want to make sure we have it "right" before we expand. The other subject area standards and PO's are not even loaded at this time.
The #1 purpose of Galileo is to provides teachers with an instructional tool that gives them accurate information about whether students have mastered the Essential Performance Objectives in math, reading and writing. The use of assessment directly reflects the AZ Teaching Learning Standards.
The reality is that we are all evaluated with this data. For example, if a report shows that 90% of students are consistently not mastering a standard, we have one very important piece of information about how effective the instruction is going in the class.
A: The items used in our district DAP/benchmarks are written by Assessment Technology Incorporated (ATI) staff for the purposes of measuring performance objectives identified by the district. Their item writing staff is made up of Arizona teachers who have experience with the State's standards as well as experience writing items that measure those standards. Once an item is written it is field tested, which means that it is given to students as part of a real testing experience, in order to determine if it is a "good" item. These items have undergone psychometric review for bias as well as reliability and validity to determine if it is "good". "Good" specifically addresses whether the item biases some students over others; whether the results from that item are reliable (or consistently measures what it is suppose to measure) whether the item measures what it is supposed to measure and permits appropriate interpretation of the results/scores.
A: Of course, even though these items reviewed by ATI prior to being used in our district DAP/benchmark, there may still be items that don't fit for SUSD. Therefore, the district has a review process designed to review and weed out items that "don't fit" for SUSD. The Galileo Implementation Committee is made up of teacher from across the district by grade level and content area. These members have been trained to review the items and are familiar with the Galileo tool and process. This committee provides a critical review of the items to make sure they provide the best fit. Once an item appears on a district DAP/benchmark, it will not be used in another benchmark. If teachers would like to make comments about specific items, please contact Fredda Campbell at FreddaC@susd.org
Back to top
