April 5, 2007 - Unapproved Minutes

Quality of Education Quantitative Information Sub-Committee

April 5, 2007, 4:35 p.m.
Ray School Library

Present: Kari Asmus, Bill Bender, Pam Force, Bill Mlacak (4:00).

Topics of discussion:

Pam reviewed her work on the Ray School Assessment Grid by grade level with information entered for Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies, and Science. (These are assessments that ALL children are given and do not include either class unit tests or specialized testing given on an "as needed" basis.) She also brought information on assessments for Mosaics, Art, Music, French, and Physical Education.

Pam kindly explained the limitations of trying to fit all the information into the little grid cells and explained that something like the 4th grade, Mathematics, K-12 Curriculum Tests actually is comprised of 20 different assessments. She also pointed out that when asked to indicate whether or not these assessments were useful, that she had put both "yes" and "no," because the sheer number of assessments sometimes interferes with the teaching.

Kari asked if for our purposes, if we shouldn't try to winnow the list down to what we consider to be the most important assessments. THE CONSENSUS was no, that if our goal is to bring transparency and an understanding of our educational program to the community, then the list should be inclusive.

Bill Mlacak reported on his revisions to the Ray School Assessment Inventory. A significant addition is a section entitled "Notes." It starts to explain, for example, what Benchmark Books are and the purpose of the Gates-McGinitie Reading Test. THE CONSENSUS was that this was useful information.

Bill Bender asked how the K-12 Curriculum Tests are administered (Answer: depends on the teacher) and how the K-12 curriculum is communicated to parents at the Ray School (Answer: newly revised "blue sheets" with "mapping-circles"--still need to integrate sheets vertically.)

Bill Bender also expressed his thoughts about the unevenness of teaching in certain areas in certain grades and how these assessments could be used to detect that unevenness. Others pointed out that "structures of governance" were key in addressing this issue.

Finally, the issue turned to the task at hand, which is to "Review existing quantitative information collected and analyzed at each school" and to determine its effectiveness and comprehensiveness. Kari suggested that the sub-committees interim report due in May comprise of the grade level assessment grids along with annotated Assessment Inventories.

Assignments:
Bill Mlacak will work on the RMS grade level assessment grid.
Kari will pick up where Pam left off on the Ray School grade level assessment grid.
Pam will work on a Glossary for the Assement Inventory.

And in their absence, it is assumed that Deb Gillespie and Stan Williams will continue their efforts on the HHS and MC grade level assessment grids.

The meeting ended at 5 p.m.