District Assessments

Assessment Name & Description

 


Time Needed to Administer Assessment


Kindergarten Literacy
– A district developed one-on-one assessment of emerging literacy skills: Letter Identification (upper case & lower case), Letter Sounds & Sight Words.  Administered 3 times a year with end of year benchmarks.  Teachers have results as they complete the assessment.  Results are used to direct instruction to meet student needs as well for report card reporting.




Times vary by student.  Approximately 15 mins across the trimester, not all in one sitting.


Kindergarten Math
- A district developed one-on-one assessment in beginning math skills: number recognition, counting, identifying 2 dimensional shapes, basic addition & subtraction.  Administered 3 times a year with end of year benchmarks.  Teachers have results as they complete the assessment.  Results are used to direct instruction to meet student needs as well for report card reporting.

   

Times vary by student.  Approximately 15 mins across the trimester, not all in one sitting.

Grade 1 Math
– A district developed assessment that builds on the skills of the Kindergarten assessment and includes comparing values (less than/greater than), building and continuing patterns, 3 dimensional shapes, identifying & adding coins, telling time, measurement, using place value and creating graphs.  Administered 3 times a year.  Parts administered as a group and parts administered one-on-one.  Teachers have results as they complete the assessment.  Results are used to direct instruction to meet student needs as well for report card reporting.

 


30-45 minutes each trimester.

Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA)
 – A one-on-one reading assessment that allows teachers to evaluate reading skills & comprehension and target instruction.  Used in grades K – 3, and in grades 4 & 5 if the student has not reached level 40.  Up to 3 times a year if the student has not met the grade level benchmark.  Teachers have results as they complete the assessment.  Results are used to direct instruction to meet student needs.

 

About 20 minutes per administration.

Oral reading Fluency (ORF)
– A one-on-one timed 60 second reading of a grade level passage to assess the student’s ability to read accurately at an appropriate rate with expression and phrasing.  Used in grades 1 – 5 and administered 3 times a year.  Teachers have results as they complete the assessment.  Results are used to direct instruction to meet student needs as well for report card reporting.  

 

3 to 5 minutes per administration.

NWEA MAP
 – Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) is a nationally normalized assessment developed by the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA).  It is a computer delivered adaptive assessment that provides immediate results of student achievement and academic level.  Farmington Schools administers MAP tests in reading and math in the fall to gather diagnostic data for teachers to use for instructional planning, in the winter for monitoring progress and in the spring to evaluate growth from fall to spring and from year to year.  The MAP tests are given to all students in grades 2 – 8 and some students 9 – 12.  Teachers have access to results the day after the students test.  Fall results are used to plan instruction.  Spring results are used to monitor growth and achievement.  More information about the NWEA MAP tests can be found at https://www.nwea.org/


 

Tests are not timed, but m
ost students complete a test between 45 and 60 minutes.

Pre ACT
 – Developed by ACT for students in grade 10 to prepare for the ACT.  2016-17 will be the first year that Farmington Schools administers the Pre ACT.  Students are assessed in English, math, reading and science.  Results will be used to guide students in individual preparation for college readiness and ACT testing as well as for summary evaluation of curriculum and instruction.  Results are expected about 4-6 weeks after testing.  More information about the Pre ACT can be found at http://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/preact.html

 

Test takes four hours on one day.  All five subjects are timed.

ACT
 with Writing – A national standardized test developed to determine college readiness for high school students and college admissions.  The test has 5 sections: English, Math, Reading, Science & Writing.  The state of Minnesota requires all public high schools to offer a college entrance exam to all students in either their junior or senior year.  Farmington Schools will offer the ACT to all FHS juniors free of charge during the April statewide administration.  The ACT is also available to be taken at FHS multiple times during the school year during the national administrations (not free of charge).  Contact the FHS guidance office for further information on the national ACT administrations.  Students have access to results 4 – 6 weeks after testing.  Summary reports are provided to the school in late August.  More information about the ACT can be found at http://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/the-act.html

 

Test takes four hours on one day.  All five subjects are timed.