Chap 3 D: Learning and Assessment 

EHS utilizes a number of assessments around student performance data. In the 2021-2022 school year English and Math teachers started to use Renaissance for benchmark assessments. This data gave us important information like their grade level in these areas and the areas of intervention. This year we have extended the Special Education and ELD teachers to have access to the benchmark assessment administration. All teachers were trained on how to access Renaissance and what pertinent information and data can be accessed there. Admittedly there is still more training to do to have the information and data contained in Renaissance to be part of PLC data analysis. In the Spring of 2023 teachers began to work on the PLC question: what do we want our kids to know? This idea is centered around one of our site goals which is   benchmark tests on essential standards in every subject. Tests given at regular intervals to meet essential standards in order to move to the next level. Intervention support will also be given to attain the essential standards. Additionally, each teacher gives formative assessments throughout every lesson. Through informal and formal observations Kahoot, Blookit, and Pear Deck can be seen in classes as an assessment. Teachers give a variety of summative assessments which include essays, projects, and more to determine student learning. There are a variety of assessments that staff use to collect data on student learning and performance. In the Spring of 2023 site goals around academic skills were created. Some of the actionable items will touch on how to assess. The goals in question are: Students will be able to follow multi-step instructions in all subjects within the first two times of directions being explained and students will be able to write a summary from a passage with appropriate grammar, spelling, and sentence structure. The next steps for EHS staff are to analyze, and use data to help inform decisions about instruction and student support in all classrooms and with individual students.

EHS has systems in place in order to determine and monitor all students' growth and progress. The counselor creates and monitors students' through the small learning community nature of the EHS campus. The counselor works with students on their four year plans. They work with each student to track graduation progress and college and career readiness and use this to assess when additional supports are in place. The master schedule  is created based on student needs in order to support them in getting credits to graduate. Since the last self-study, EHS has trained all its staff in the Multi Tiered System of Supports. The creation of our Tier 2 team is another avenue in which there is a space to catch students who are having difficulty being successful. EHS prides itself on providing individualized support and interventions to students and meets regularly for case conferencing to discuss and create action plans with additional interventions for students that may be struggling academically and/or socially emotionally. With the number of systems and programs in place to monitor student growth and success, the next step EHS plans is to make this process more systematic by using common protocols and rubrics in order to monitor, assess, and analyze student growth among all staff members to inform instructional practices and collective and individual student support. 

EHS is in the initial process of using assessment results to make changes in the school program, professional learning to inform instructional decisions, and resource allocations. With the introduction of the PLC model and K-12 assessment tool like Renaissance this process is gaining a framework. A superintendent change, a new principal, and the pandemic put a pause in the data driven decision making process.  As previously mentioned, all teachers have access to monitor and analyze student results and progress in Renaissance. The developing goal is more training for the staff so the information is more accessible and digestible when providing student support and intervention. Spring Semester to gauge learning throughout planned units. While there has been progress for many students through Intervention, additional analysis is required to know if after school intervention is successful and if there are other forms of intervention that could be more successful. There needs to be a greater, concerted  and systemic effort to collaboratively analyze the data and use it to inform decisions and changes to instruction, and support students collectively and individually through common instructional practices, intervention, and differentiation. Luckily it is not an issue of resistance but of time.

 Individual teachers at EHS use formative and summative assessments to guide, modify, and adjust curricular and instructional approaches. Teachers use formative assessments through simple think-pair-shares, Kahoot, Khan Academy, on Illuminate, Crash Course, StudySync, Edgenuity, CommonLit, PLT4M, and more. Through our PLC development and created goals teachers are beginning to collaborate on tasks and assessments for academic skills we want to see in all classrooms. Topics like summarization, writing structure, and assessment taking or all topics that our staff see as important. Additionally, teachers in the area of Math and English use the Renaissance diagnostic assessments as baseline assessments to measure student levels and then to monitor progress. Greater collaboration among all teachers will be effective in providing support and identifying patterns to inform instructional practices across campus. The school administration can help guide this process in identifying common protocols and practices to identify and use data focused on common assessments to engage in this process. 

Teachers at EHS provide a variety of different feedback through assessments, class conversations, and individual conversations. Teachers also use assessments to re-teach when necessary as a way of feedback. With being a small staff, our teacher team has the ability to meet weekly and can discuss student feedback and individual students in need of additional support. The goal is to be able to make the identification, support, and intervention more systematic. Often through our weekly PLC meetings we discuss how to support individual students through tier 2 and tier 3 support. EUSD leadership is also exploring adopting a universal screener to gauge feedback around students' mental and academic well being. In the fall of 2021 the PBIS team created an anonymous school climate survey but we still lack in the area of individual screeners.  EHS teachers have also begun to discuss the importance of providing systematic and common forms of feedback through communication and during Professional Learning time. This is also a process we have begun working on with the middle school through vertical articulation. EHS teachers are beginning the process of how re-teaching is necessary and if it should be done collectively or if differentiation should be used to re-teach and support individual students. EHS is looking forward to continuing to build common protocols and standards for providing feedback to students both academically and socially emotionally. Not only at our site but district wide.