Amplify & Regional Assessments

Amplify Assessments

The Amplify Science curriculum contains two types of embedded assessments: Chapter Focus Tasks and Progress Build Assessments (see Master Teacher KIPPSTE Site for more information and supports for both).

Additionally, in 2018-2019, we will pilot new Amplify Science Benchmark Assessments (also called Amplify Science Interims, terms are used interchangeably by KIPP Foundation and KIPP Bay Area).

There are three levels of assessment for every Amplify Unit- daily lesson, chapter, and unit. The format and administration directions vary by grade-level due to the structure of Amplify and the NGSS.

Illuminate Assessments

Below are all the available Illuminate assessments ready so far. An "X" denotes that particular assessment shared with schools/teachers on Illuminate.

UNIT ASSESSMENTS: Grades K-5 have their unit assessments on Illuminate, whereas Grades 6-8 must take the unit assessments on Amplify.

CHAPTER TASKS: Chapter tasks for Grades K-8 are all on Illuminate.

If you have questions on accessing and using Illuminate, please reach out to your school site's Illuminator.

Regional (and National) Science Benchmarks (Interims)

Amplify Science is offering all KIPP Regions (regardless if you are an Amplify user or not) access to their new science interims this year for FREE.

Why we are excited: We hope to work with Amplify long term to create interims that allow us to…

1. Compare student mastery of NGSS standards both inside and outside of KIPP in order to continuously evaluate and improve our instruction
2. Provide a predictive and informative assessment for teachers in order to best prepare students for state testing.
3. Identify potential gaps in curriculum which need to be addressed to more fully cover NGSS.

Managing expectations: Amplify strategically hired an outside company, Six Red Marbles, to write these interims according to the NGSS standards. Amplify’s curriculum does not directly instruct or cover ALL selected material in these interims. Mastery may be lower on these interims than on Amplify Assessments. It is up to schools on how to best use for these interims, as this is our pilot year of administration.

All interims will be available in Illuminate for paper or online administration by 9/15.

Note: "Forms" is Amplify's language for whole assessments. "Form 3A" refers to the assessment for Grade 3 first unit.

CONTEXT

In the 17-18 school year: Science teachers in grades 5-8 focused in on high-quality questioning at our Regional Learning Days. As a part of that development, we co-created our own interims with guidance from the Lawrence Hall of Science. Our intent was to build one interim last year, and then use our RLDs this year to develop two more to complete our suite of teacher-made interim assessments.

For the 18-19 school year: Due to shifting priorities, we shelved the teacher-made interims, though these are still available to use for anyone in our region (but are no longer used as regional interims). Furthermore, based on our regional interim work and due to great demand from other KIPP regions, Foundation began working with Amplify and a company called Six Red Marbles to build NGSS-aligned interims to pilot this school year. I made the call to shift from our teacher-made interim initiative to these new, Foundation-provided, NGSS-aligned interims.

WHERE ARE THEY

All interims for the entire year are available now on Illuminate. The naming conventions can be found on the STEM Website’s Assessment Page under “Illuminate Assessments." Additionally, there is guidance on which “Form” should be administered. Interims have been developed for Grades 3-8, however we are just focused on Grades 5-8 as a Bay Area region.

Note: Interims should be administered after teachers have fully completed the units specified. It is not recommended that teachers administer any interims before they specific units are complete. Part of the reason why the Regional Assessment Calendar didn’t have “testing windows” for science interims is for this reason! It is fully up to school-sites to decide when they administer these interims, especially since teachers are at varying places with unit completion.

HOW DO I USE THEM?

Assessments should be delivered blind, meaning students and teachers should not be looking at these assessments prior to administration. They are meant to act as benchmarks aligned to CAST and NGSS as a way for us to monitor our progress and students’ learning in accordance to the standards. These were intentionally created by a separate third-party and completely blind from Amplify’s curriculum.

After administration, the data from these interims should be used by teachers to consider additional content or skills to be covered in addition to Amplify lessons, or to remediate for students who may need additional work. It is not expected that teachers backwards plan from these interims, nor should they be adjusting their instruction before administering the interims in any way.

The best way to monitor student progress over time is through our Amplify unit-based assessments (the Pre-, Critical Juncture, and Post-Unit assessments) as evidenced by movement in Progress Builds. Our Master Teacher Initiative has also crafted supplemental Chapter Focus Tasks for each grade-level and chapter to help provide insight into skill progression (SEPs).

HOW DO WE ADMINISTER

Unlike our previous interims, these new interims are fully computer-based and ready to be administered online. They are a combination of selected and constructed response questions, but some items have been designed to be dynamic and, therefore, are best administered online.

Check out these How-To Guides on Illuminate Assessment Administration.

WHAT MUST BE GRADED

All selected response questions will be automatically graded on Illuminate. Scoring guides are available to download from Illuminate, and it is up to each school to determine how they would like to utilize the constructed response questions (whether to grade them all, or a sample set). Since the assessment is independent from Amplify’s curriculum, teachers may discover gaps between the curriculum and the interim. In resources that will be provided for Interim Data Analysis, there will be an exercise for teachers to reflect on these gaps. At Data Day (or at a department meeting for those who choose to go this route), teachers will have an opportunity to collaboratively grade the constructed response questions of a high-medium-low student sample set of their choosing. It is highly encouraged that teachers grade all constructed response questions.

DATA ANALYSIS

Phil will still be providing schools with resources to leverage for interim data analysis. However, note that not all teachers may have completed their necessary units and may not have administered any interim before a specified Data Day. Therefore, Phil will also be providing resources for data analysis for Amplify unit assessment data in lieu of interim data analysis.

Interim Data Analysis Resources

Teacher-Made KIPP Bay Area Interim Assessments

In the 17-18 School Year, Science teachers across the region collaborated within their grade-level teams to create their own interims! In partnership with the Lawrence Hall of Science, these NGSS-aligned interim assessments were a product of our PD series centered around high-quality and aligned questioning.

Though these assessments will not be used regionally moving forward, teachers are welcomed to use them if they choose.

PLEASE MAKE YOUR OWN COPY OF THE STUDENT VERSION TO ADD IN YOUR SCHOOL AND NAME.

Grade 5

TEACHER | STUDENT

Grade 6

TEACHER | STUDENT

Grade 7

TEACHER | STUDENT

Grade 8

TEACHER | STUDENT