Running Records

Most of the testing team started testing in the middle of week two in term 4.

The team was:

Irene Wilson - Y 1 - 4

Helen Squires - Y1

Cate Densiova - Y1 + Junior Catch ups

Jenni Clarke - Y5 and 6 + Catch ups

Alex Donaldson - Y 7 and 8 + Catch ups

Andrea Bakulich-Tele'a - Extension

Throughout the year teachers had continued to closely monitor the progress of their students so they had a more accurate instructional level for testers to begin with. This still proved challenging with a number of students needing to be tested across multiple levels which all takes time.

During 2017 there had been a Clusterwide agreement around the protocols for Junior Data collection which meant that all children were tested on an unseen PM Benchmark Text (Fiction). This meant that for the Year 1 - 3 students we were looking to determine an Instructional level and that they would complete the comprehension questions as well. Previously only used the PM Benchmarks from Level 16 upwards and below this we had used an Instructional text that had been seen in the classroom programme. For Years 4 - 8 students were tested until they failed a test or it was obvious that they had reached their level by passing the decoding and/or comprehension at the minimum level required to be counted as a pass. As in the past, there were a number of students who had either not been fully tested at mid-year or they had made significant progress in the second half of the year.

Reflection

There were initial meetings with testers in which we discussed the parameters, expectations and next steps for different children prior to the start of testing. This needs to happen in Week 1 of Term 4 with all testers sharing in this. It has been great to have Jenni, Helen and Irene testing again to maintain consistency. There were as always many collaborative conversations that helped to ensure there was consistency and rigour in this process. Data was entered in most cases by testers and this was mostly done prior to report writing so that the data could contribute to Reports. We need to ensure that enough preparation time and thought goes in to this process so that once testing commences it can run smoothly.

We were very fortunate to have the assistance of Cate Densiova and Alex Donaldson as testers. With an influx of special needs new entrants Helen needed to remain in class rather than test. This is a huge job to complete in a timely fashion and we need to try to maintain consistency across the Year Levels and clean data collection. Processes have been robustly discussed by the team towards the end of this years testing. One very valid point the team aim to implement in 2020 - teachers of small special reading groups will NOT test these same students in start and end of year testing.

The testing of Extension children was started by Andrea then completed by Jenni. It would be beneficial to have this testing completed again by Jenni in 2020 as the reality of Toni's very busy role at this time of year does not provide the calm and settled testing space students require.

The huge amount of time that it takes to input the data and to ensure this is done accurately needs to be acknowledged, special mention of Jenni who continuously cast an eye over the whole school spreadsheet to ensure data was entered and correct. Kent Somerville's initial set up of the spreadsheet gave clear guidelines to what terms/levels to use when entering data. We have agreed that in Years 1 -3 there needs to be clarity around the understanding of passing an Instructional level and an Independent level so that we can ensure children are being taught at the appropriate level in class. This process has also highlighted the need for Junior classroom to have an explicit focus on comprehension alongside decoding to ensure of children are well set up for success. Along with this there needs to be regular and ongoing testing throughout the term when children are being promoted through the levels to ensure that they have the appropriate strategies scaffolded.

It would be great to be able to have an alternative Probe Kit for teachers to use for the Mid Year Testing as when children have not passed a level it can become problematic to put an unseen text in front of them. It may be worthwhile exploring the RR Benchmark Software to see whether this helps us to streamline this process.

It is to be celebrated that there was general agreement and reflection from those who had tested previously that the children were generally much more elaborative and able to discuss in more depth the comprehension component of the texts.

Andrea Bakulich-Tele'a