B3+Narrative

B3 Narrativetoc

Narrative Introduction
Below you will find Draft 1.0 of the narrative that was created by the WCEA-WASC Core Team, temporarily formatted in this Wiki. All comments and edits should be included at the **bottom of the document** below the narrative. In order to allow for continuity of the document and clarity of revisions, all focus group members should write bulleted notes below the narrative.

Category B 3: How Assessment Is Used

To what extent are... Assessment results the basis for the allocation of resources? For regular evaluation and improvement of curriculum and instruction? For measurement of each student’s progress toward achievement of the ESLRs? For the teaching/learning process? For over a decade, a variety of data and the careful assessment of them have driven the changes among all areas of the school. Administrators, teachers, support staff, and students have become in recent years increasingly familiar with and able to interpret various types and sources of data for their indications regarding the improvement of programs, facilities, performance, and achievement. The assessment of needs and capacities is an ongoing process throughout the areas of the school.
 * Focus Group Findings

**Allocation of Resources: ** The 21st Century Learning Skills are the basis for several significant curricular and programmatic changes in recent years and serve as a touchstone for decision-making and budgetary planning, from the master site plan to course development, course content, and pedagogy.

Since the WASC Self-Study process conducted in 2005-2006, teachers across all academic departments have designed curricula for both their existing courses and for newly proposed courses to include these skills and the use of technology in the teaching-learning continuum in order to promote collaboration, communication, and innovation.

After two years (2005-2007) of research and school visits conducted by members of the Technology Committee, the 1:1 laptop program was initiated in the fall of 2007 for all 9th and 10th grade students and became schoolwide by the fall of 2009 with the subsequent addition of the following two incoming freshman classes. The adoption of the 1:1 program has initiated and required a paradigm shift within the school from the vestiges of a more traditional teacher-centered classroom, to a student-centered, and ultimately to a learning-centered classroom. Efforts continue among administrators and teacher leaders to encourage and support all teachers in this shift. To varying degrees, teachers in all departments incorporate the effective use of technology into their lessons in a variety of ways by which they, along with their students, broaden and deepen their access to a variety of educational resources. The integration of educational technology into the classroom is one way in which all faculty participate in the development of research-based curricula, pedagogy, and learning-centered projects. For example, effective classroom uses for technology learning tools is an ongoing topic for professional development. Similar innovations have been initiated in the school's Technology and Media Arts program, science lab renovation, development of engineering program sequence, and proposed renovation of the physical education and athletic facilities.

In keeping with the school’s Mission and Philosophy, the Board of Trustees has ratified, upon the approval of Academic Council, the adoption of several new programs and the allocation of resources for them, whose purpose, content, and skills address 21st century capacities as well as contribute to school improvement.

**Curriculum and Instruction: ** In order to determine the need for new courses and programs, the annual process for designing and proposing new courses requires that each academic department assess the relevance and efficacy of its current course offerings in relation to the ESLRs and to the 21st Century Learning skills. This curriculum assessment is conducted in a variety of ways, both formal and informal:
 * 1) In planning the master calendar for each upcoming year, administrators have addressed teachers’ request for more department time by creating more early dismissals and also by reallocating the time that had been provided for faculty and staff in-services to increase the number of department meetings from eight to fourteen per year. The extra meeting time allows for each department to collaborate, pursue academic inquiries, assess curriculum, engage in professional development, and examine the data that emerge from these and related tasks.
 * 2) The English and mathematics departments annually assess the results of the PSAT, SAT, and ACT exams in order to determine the areas of strength and areas for growth in student achievement within all areas of the two disciplines.
 * 3) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">All departments with advanced placement programs annually assess the results of their students’ AP exams in order to increase the efficacy of their AP courses.
 * 4) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Academic Council annually reviews and analyzes all standardized test scores for their implications in relation to instruction, resources, and preparation.
 * 5) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">All departments assess the schoolwide distribution of semester grades and analyze the implications of the percentile spread, with recent attention focused on reducing the percentage of Ds and Fs.
 * 6) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">All teachers assess their own personal distribution of grades among all of their students through PowerGrade and assess the evaluations they receive from their students at the end of each semester and, from them, make whatever appropriate changes have been deemed necessary.
 * 7) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Department chairs and assistant principals conduct classroom observations, including pre- and post- observation conferences, of those teachers who are in their first three years at Moreau Catholic.
 * 8) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Walk-through classroom observations, conducted each semester by small ad-hoc teams made up of administrators and volunteer teachers, assess the data collected in “snapshot” fashion from every classroom in session.
 * 9) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Unannounced drop-in observations conducted by administrative supervisors and department chairs provide written feedback by which teachers may assess the effectiveness of their lesson and of their students’ responses to it.
 * 10) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Online curriculum maps include a column for teachers to reflect on the process and the results of each month’s instruction -- the content, the skills, and the assessments. These reflection columns allow teachers to assess the design of their content, the overall degree of skill acquisition, and the appropriateness of the assessment instrument used to measure it.

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Student Progress toward the ESLRs: ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Since their inception in 1998, the ESLRs have remained in the forefront of the life of the school and are included in all appropriate publications to students, parents, and the school community at large. The recent reconfiguration and reclassification of them clarify and affirm the school’s Holy Cross identity as well as update the language of the values expressed in them.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To varying degrees, teachers target most if not all of the descriptors articulated in the ESLRs. The results of all of those assessments that measure student learning within curricular and cocurricular areas are used, either explicitly or implicitly, to measure student achievement of the ESLRs. In 2005-2006, The WASC Core Team created a rubric of achievement descriptors by which to measure student achievement of the ESLRs. The ESLRs are at the foundation of the school’s purpose, which is based on the words of Blessed Fr. Basil Moreau: to “place instruction side by side with education” and to “prepare useful citizens for society” and “for eternal life.”

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Assessment of Student Learning: ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Several academic departments use some form of student work portfolios--both physical and electronic--in order to foster students’ assessment of their own learning and of their learning styles and strategies. In 2011-2012 several academic departments piloted the use of interactive e-portfolios for students, classmates, and teachers to assess student work processes and products. Through portfolio assessments students learn not only to identify but also to address their areas of strength and areas for growth within the discipline. The ESLRs figure in to most department portfolio and project assessment forms and exercises.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Increasingly, teachers employ metacognitive strategies to engage students in meaningful and authentic self-assessment and peer-assessment activities. In various departments, students are given the opportunity to conduct an errors analysis of their graded work, rethink their process, and submit revisions of their work toward mastery of the given skills. Peer response and peer editing strategies facilitate student improvement through appropriate means of guided collaboration. In cooperation with the diocese, the school is currently investigating the connection between homework and student achievement.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Many teachers design authentic assessments by which to assess their students’ knowledge, skills, and performances using real-life applications and simulations. The Academic Jeopardy initiative was designed as an intervention to support and assist students prior to entering academic probation.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Assessment design is evolving to the degree that teachers pursue challenging alternatives to traditional tests. Through professional collaboration, curriculum mapping, and the advent of technological resources, many teachers design alternative assessments that include higher order thinking and divergent thinking to measure the levels of student achievement in the identified skills. || <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">__Evidence__


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Academic Council minutes
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Department Meeting minutes
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Schoolwide Data Sources


 * Online Teacher Reflections (Curriculum Mapper)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Student work samples, simulations, live feeds, Skype interviews...


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">STEM program
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">MCTV program
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">New science lab
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Development of engineering courses
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">TAMA program
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Robotics course
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Gaming Design & Analysis
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Addition of Chinese language program
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Renovation of the Teves Theater for VAPA performances
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__Curriculum Maps__]
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">School calendar
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Schoolwide and Department Grade Distribution data
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Course Evaluations: Student Rating Questionnaires
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Standardized Test data (PSAT, SAT, ACT, AP)


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Grade distribution data (longitudinal and current)


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Teacher Observations, Pre- and Post-Conference Forms
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Walk-through Observation Form and Rubric
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Drop-in Observation Feedback forms


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Curriculum Maps


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">MCHS ESLRs


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">New Teacher Orientation Agenda


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Foundational Document
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Student Rating Questionnaires
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">ESLR Rubric


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Student work portfolios: art, English, science, theology
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Department Portfolio Assessment forms


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Writer Response forms
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Errors Analysis form
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Revision strategies


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">EVIDENCE NEEDED: List of examples of authentic assessments across departments? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Academic Jeopardy Program


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Curriculum Maps
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Teacher Assessment samples ||

**Focus Group Comments**
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">** For example, a **fter two years (2005-2007) of research and school visits conducted by members of the Technology Committee, the 1:1 laptop program was initiated ... Effective classroom uses for technology learning tools is an ongoing topic for professional development. ** Similar innovations have been initiated in the school's Technology and Media Arts program, science lab renovation, development of engineering program sequence, and proposed renovation of the physical education and athletic facilities. **
 * // Inserted. ~cjs //**


 * Curriculum and Instruction:**

... 10. Online curriculum maps include a column for teachers to reflect on the process and the results of each month’s instruction ... used to measure it. (<-- No change, but we'd like to add:)


 * In the context of these practices, teachers continue to request the development of professional resources for instructional diversity and flexibility. **
 * //To whom are these requests being made? What does "resources for instructional flexibility" mean? Is it the __provision__ of resources that is lacking or the __use__ of them? ~cjs// **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Assessment of Student Learning **

Peer response and peer editing strategies facilitate student improvement through appropriate means of guided collaboration. (** INSERT:) The school, in cooperation with the diocese, is currently undergoing a more rigorous investigation of the connection between homework and student achievement. **Many teachers design authentic assessments ...

**//Inserted. ~cjs//**
Assessment design is evolving to the degree that teachers pursue challenging alternatives to traditional tests. Through professional collaboration, curriculum mapping, and the advent of technological resources, some teachers are designing alternative assessments that include higher order thinking and divergent thinking to measure the levels of student achievement in the identified skills. **This evolution is not school-wide; evidence suggests that the general focus of assessments tends to favor the lower levels of the Bloom's scale, and there is little evidence that the results shape the instructional process. On** ** the departmental and individual level there continues to be a need to measure the extent to which assessments are comparable in scope and rigor across grade level and courses. **

** //This statement (above) has become the Schoolwide Action Statement: It will be featured prominently with the Self-Study Action Plan. ~cjs// **
// **We the Focus Group wonder about the need for representation of this content from our brainstorming page:** //

**As per Cheryl, the content below is in B1 and B2.**


 * * ===**Are the assessment results the basis for the allocation of resources?**===
 * Assessment results play a significant role in the allocation of resources on a schoolwide and departmental basis.
 * Professional Development time devoted to analyzing assessement results
 * Department Collaborative time for same
 * English Dept. Grade-wide Reading Comprehension Assessment as a direct product of Department time dedicated to evaluating curricular effectiveness.
 * New Teacher Support program promotes new teacher's ability to craft
 * Creation of a Interdisciplinary and Challenge-Based Learning Coordinator position
 * The is a need to explore the leverage that our commitment to electronic resources can provide us in the use of e-portfolios and other digital publishing tools in order to help students track and understand their growth as learners.
 * Strategic Plans
 * Library and IT Department Goal
 * Naviance as a personal and academic planning tool.
 * Insufficient resources have been allocated for hiring a Service Learning Coordinator, a position that has been identified as a school wide need, to integrate and assess the achievement of ESLRs with our community service program.
 * Observational Data
 * Student Reflection
 * Parent Survey Data ||  ||