Student Performance & Assessment

 

Discovery Charter Schools are standards-based schools entwined with their own innovative educational concepts that coincide with the local district and state standards. The program focuses on a curriculum that contributes to the maximum development of the "whole" child, and will equip each student with the confidence and skills necessary to meet future challenges.

 

 

Measures of student performance and assessment with input from teachers, administrators, parents, and community members is created to ensure each student's needs are identified and being met. This is in addition to students taking the standardized assessments CAASPP California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress in all grade levels yearly. The DCS parent community and students understand the standards and performance expectations.

 

Beginning in September of each year, parents are expected to attend "Back to School Night" where they learn about the standards and how the curriculum addresses them.

 

In October of each year, students and parent examine their Personal Education Plan (PEP) as a benchmark for determining how to meet the needs for continued achievement and development in the new school year during parent/teacher conferences. Student-made portfolios will include rubric scoring of written and math work and will assist students in reflecting upon their achievement and progress.

 

In November of each year, parents receive the English/Language Arts and Mathematics standards for their child's grade level along with writing and math rubrics.

 

In February classroom meetings, activities are designed to assist parents in understanding assessments and their connection to the standards.

 

In April of each year, student-led conferences will provide students the opportunity to show case their work and present it to their parents.

 

 

Assessment data, including STAR/CAT6 and all other assessment tools are combined as a battery of multiple measures that are disaggregated annually by gender, ethnicity, language, categorical funding, etc.

 

Discovery Charter School works with many sources for aggregating data, including Community Training and Assistance Center (CTAC), Dataworks (contract services), and EdMIN, an online database program that provides teachers with instant access to data, literacy assessments, and multiple measures for every student. Teachers are able to review and reconfigure data so that the teachers have a detailed analysis of current students and new incoming student groups each year.

 

 

A committee of parents and staff determines yearly goals to include addressing the achievement of grade level standards across all grade levels. An annual assessment evening is held each year to explain the purpose of testing, the different assessments (multiple measures) which are given each year, and the factors which influence testing results.

 

The assessment goals are distributed to all stakeholders (students, parents, teachers, administrators, governing board, community members) in meetings, in newsletters, and on the school website.

 

 

The purpose of the assessment program is to revise instruction so that students are successful. To this end, an annual Calendar of Data Collection and Analysis, which links classroom, school, district, and state assessment programs, guides Discovery Charter Schools in using data to plan instruction throughout the year.