Terms relating to testing and assessment
Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP): An annual threshold for academic performance and improvement that schools and district must meet, based on standardized test scores and other measures. Set by the state, AYP requirements increase over time and are aimed at ensuring that all students are proficient in reading and math by the year 2014 as required by the federal No Child Left Behind law. Schools must make AYP every year or face an escalating set of consequences. After six straight years of not making AYP, schools face major restructuring, which can mean reconstituting the staff, conversion to a charter, privatization, or closure.
Benchmark tests: Given to all students approximately every six weeks, these tests measure how well students are comprehending the material they are being taught. Test results help teachers plan their instruction and determine which students need remediation and which are ready for enrichment. These tests are not to be used to determine students' reading levels or report card grades. The School District's benchmark testing during the 2004-2005 school year is scheduled for the weeks of October 4, November 8, December 13, January 24, March 7, May 2, and June 6.
DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills): A test for beginning readers that determines students' ability to match sounds to letters, ability to pronounce the beginning sound and other parts of a word, and ability to blend letters together to make a word. Teachers use "nonsense" words to determine whether students can accomplish these tasks. The test is given to students individually.
DRA "Developmental Reading Assessment): A reading test for students in grades K-3 that determines students' reading levels to help teachers group students for instruction. Teachers use real texts to administer the DRA individually to students. The DRA is used to assign students' report card grades.
Gates-MacGinitie reading test: A test used to determine students' reading levels in grades 4-8. The test is one measure teachers use to determine a student's grade in English/Language Arts. It is administered to students during the first three report card periods.
PSSA: The Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) is a test of reading, math and writing ability given annually to all Pennsylvania students in selected grades. The PSSA is used to determine how well students understand the concepts and skills they are required to learn according to state standards. It is also used to determine whether schools are enabling their students to attain proficiency in reading, math, and writing.
PSSA checkpoints: Informal test items given to students during the course of a lesson. Teachers use these tests to teach students test-taking strategies and to get them used to the testing format. Within each school, checkpoints are standardized for all classes in a grade.
TerraNova: Standardized test that measures students' reading, language arts, and math abilities given to Philadelphia students in grades 1-10. Because the test is given across the country, it allows the School District to compare how students here measure up to their peers in other districts.
WRAP: An individual reading test that teachers must administer to all students in grades 4-8 who are two or more reading levels below grade level according to the Gates-MacGinitie reading test.