Assessment Guides Restructuring :: Collaborative Learning Centers Project

Five-Week Assessment Program

Realizing that assessment is a critical element of the State of Illinois and the Chicago Board of Education's improvement process, the McCosh Team developed an assessment program that is directly linked to State Goals and Citywide Standards of Learning, as well as the School Improvement Program. Local assessments are administered every five weeks at all levels in reading and math. McCosh's well-developed assessment program gives teachers a glimpse of student achievement (individual and group) in specific skills or knowledge at a specific time.

This assessment program allows teachers to:

monitor student programs more systematically and frequently to learn whether students are meeting state and local goals.
More effectively plan for future instruction
Meet legislative requirements by providing our students with a variety of valid and reliable assessments that are aligned to state, citywide and local goals and curriculum.

Assessment Leads to Restructuring

In 1996 first grade teachers used feedback from the five week assessment program to design a major change in their reading program. Results from the five week assessments brought home what teachers already realized: that the range of skill levels was enormous for first graders. Some began the school year already reading while others were still struggling to recognize letters. So that student needs could be more adequately addressed, teachers decided to form five homogeneous skill groups across the first grade classrooms

With this new organization students remained in their heterogeneous homerooms for basal instruction but went to one of five skill groups for instruction in phonics and other reading skills. The highest skill group did enrichment activities while lower groups focussed on more basic phonic skills.

The five week assessments were used to keep the skill groups fluid; students were moved into higher groups as quickly as possible. By the end of the first year of the program the highest concentration of first graders was in the top two groups.

Teachers Explore New Approach

McCosh primary teachers were interested in direct instruction as a possible approach for the lowest achieving readers. They read articles about direct instruction in Breakfast Club and some teachers followed up with visits to other Chicago schools that were using direct instruction. By Fall '96 several teachers had been trained in direct instruction and they began using it in the first grade skill groups as well as in the higher primary levels. Teachers also increased their knowledge about direct instruction through a colleague's presentation as part of the Teacher Leadership Project. Today McCosh uses direct instruction with low achieving second graders and third graders who are repeating the grade. Initial results from this approach are promising.

Themes addresed on this page
| Teacher Leader Meeting Topics | Teacher Leader Project Assessment |
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| Main Page | Primary Language Arts | Math | Middle School |
| Breakfast Club | Teacher Leadership Project | Assessment & Instruction | Real Men Read |
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Teachers Explore New Approach
	McCosh primary teachers were interested in direct instruction as a possible approach for the lowest achieving readers. They read articles about direct instruction in Breakfast Club and some teachers followed up with visits to other Chicago schools that were using direct instruction. By Fall '96 several teachers had been trained in direct instruction and they began using it in the first grade skill groups as well as in the higher primary levels. Teachers also increased their knowledge about direct instruction through a colleague's presentation as part of the Teacher Leadership Project. Today McCosh uses direct instruction with low achieving second graders and third graders who are repeating the grade. Initial results from this approach are promising.