The Board of Education will assess student achievement and needs in order to determine the progress of students and to assist students toward attainment of the learner outcome goals of the district. The Board believes that testing programs can provide a meaningful source of information about the curriculum and overall student achievement. Student proficiencies and needs will be assessed by staff members on the student's entrance into this district. The Board, therefore, authorizes a program of testing to help accomplish the following objectives:

1. to evaluate strengths and weaknesses of the current curriculum and methods of instruction;
2. to provide one means to evaluate student growth through individual, interdistrict, and intra district comparison;
3. to provide teachers with information which will enable them to better address the instructional needs of their students;
4. to provide parents/guardians with early indicators of their child(s progress in meeting the new learning standards; and
5. to provide a basis for longitudinal study of student achievement.

The Superintendent of Schools shall develop and maintain an assessment program that collects data which will enable meaningful analysis of student achievement of district standards of excellence and other learner outcomes.

Information gained through the use of testing programs will be used to design educational opportunities for students to better meet their individual and collective needs. It shall be the responsibility of the Building Principal to notify the parents or guardians when remedial instruction is required and of the plan for such remediation. Notification will be made to students in the June report card mailing.

Measurement of student progress and student achievement shall be based on aligning student assessment data with instruction. The district(s testing program shall seek to promote instructional alignment between student assessment and teaching decisions and improved instructional intervention and services for both groups of and/or individual students.

The Board recognizes that tests provide only a limited source of information, and will therefore be used only in conjunction with all other information known about a student or to assist the student in improving his/her work.

Parents/Guardians shall be informed of the testing program of the schools and of the special tests that are to be administered to their children. Parents/Guardians of any students, and where appropriate, students themselves, who have been identified to receive supplemental reading, writing and/or mathematics instruction shall be informed of the goals of the service that is to be given during the student(s pre-scheduling conference.

Records of the results of school-wide, program-wide and district-wide standardized tests shall be maintained in accordance with the Board(s policy on student records. An annual report containing the results on student performance on standardized achievement tests will be prepared and disseminated in accordance with the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education.

Reference

Adoption date

November 12, 1992

Revised

11 Boice Road
P. O. Box 2033
Hyde Park, NY 12538
(845) 229-4000
For Emergency Information (845) 229-4001
District Fax: 229-4056
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