Assess, Analyze, Act

Most of our schools have either been with Skills Iowa for more than a year, and have a pretty good idea of how our programs operate. Those that have joined this year, have, by in large, been fast learners and have made impressive implementations of the programs. The next step is to make sure you are using the data to impact student achievement by allowing the data you gather from Assessment Center and other sources to drive the instructions in your classroom.

Formative assessment has the ability to increase student achievement by a factor of .7. In other words, a student who may have gained a whole year of progress in a school year could gain 1.7 years of progress. How? By knowing what your students already know, and what they need to study, lessons can be planned that concentrate on deficiencies and which do not focus on what students already know. Knowing who in your class has mastered a skill allows the teacher to offer intensive study for those who are still in need of help, practice for those who are almost there, and enrichment activities for those students who have already mastered the skill.

Skills Iowa offers many tools to help you gather this information. We offer all of our member schools monthly reading benchmark assessments at grades 3-11 as well as three math benchmark assessments during the year covering grades 3-11. The reading benchmark assessments can be used formatively to help you make instructional plans. The math benchmarks can help you monitor progress on the skills that are covered in these assessments. All of our tests are aligned with the Iowa Core's essential skills and concepts. The reports included in Assessment Center will assist you in deciding if a skill has been mastered or if it needs to be retaught to the entire class or to portions of the class. For those who need more practice, we offer the lessons in Skills Tutor as well as many activities which can be found in Assessment Center's Skill Resources.

Of course, making and using the assessments you create in Assessment Center will allow you to gather even more data that follows your curriculum. Using pretests and midway testing allows the teacher to make an informed decision about when it's time to move on to the next concept in the plan.

Skills Iowa's project leaders and trainers are ready to help you use our programs to make educational decisions. We are ready and able to come to your school to work with your teachers to create assessments, read reports and plan lessons. If you need help, please contact your project leader.