Assessment Schedule 2023

St. Joseph’s School Payneham Assessment Schedule 2023

St. Joseph’s School Payneham

ST JOSEPH’S SCHOOL PAYNEHAM ASSESSMENT SCHEDULE

Purpose:

All assessment outlined in the Assessment Schedule, is used to gather data on all students for the most accurate representation of their learning. Teacher judgements are still important, and you need to remember the work you do in the classroom is relevant and crucial for student ongoing development.

The assessments used are performed at various times throughout the year. These do not include individual assessments to ascertain program placements, or specific areas of learning needs. Assessment is useful as it is unbiased and can at times identify gaps we can’t always see in the classroom.

Any account of a student’s learning and development needs to be rich, robust and comprehensive. Quality assessment design ensures that multiple sources of data and evidence are collected.

Data triangulation - that is, using at least three sources of assessment data – capitalises on strengths, and reduces weaknesses that can stem from using a single source.

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Purpose: ACER's Progressive Achievement (PAT) assessments provide objective, normreferenced information to teachers about their students’ skills and understandings in a range of key areas.

The Progressive Achievement approach provides reliable measures that enable a variety of interpretations about attainment and progress such as:

• what students attaining specific levels of progression are likely to know, understand and be able to do;

• how much students have improved over time and what skills, knowledge and abilities they have been able to develop; and

• how a student’s level of attainment compares with other students.

This will allow for teachers to document individual and school growth comparisons and targets. This type of testing is a standardised test and needs to be administered in the same way for consistency. This will allow for comparative data to be utilised each year and correctly measure growth of individual students.

Each PAT assessment has its own proficiency scale with descriptors outlining the content and skills students are consolidating at any given point on that scale. Each PAT assessment provides quantitative and qualitative data on student performance, making PAT ideal for understanding students’ current strengths and weaknesses, informing teaching and learning, and monitoring progress over time.

Administration:

Students’ focus and energy levels are important factors in their capacity to accurately demonstrate their ability on the assessment. For this reason, it is generally best to test students in the morning and not immediately before, or after an exciting school event.

When completing any PAT tests, these should be completed without a review prior. It is also important not to use PAT questions for problem solving in your regular classroom reviews. The data is used to track achievement and growth as a trend at the cohort level and student results are compared to the PAT Reference Norms.

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Early Years Reading

The PAT Early Years Reading Framework covers five strands of pre-reading and early reading skills, and aligns to the Australian Curriculum. It has been specifically designed for the first two years of formal schooling (Reception and Year 1), a time when students are building their foundational literacy skills to become independent readers.

The five strands are:

• PR (print conventions and environmental print)

• PH (phonics and phonemic awareness)

• VO (vocabulary)

• LC (listening comprehension)

• RC (reading comprehension)

These strands reflect a mixture of constrained and unconstrained skills (Paris 2005). Constrained reading skills relate to the ‘mechanics’ of reading and require a level of automaticity to be effective, as demonstrated in the skills required to decode written letters and words into sounds (Clay 1989). Constrained skills have a ‘ceiling’ and once they have been mastered, all learning is complete. Other skills, such as vocabulary and comprehension, continue to develop across a lifetime and are therefore referred to as unconstrained skills.

The PAT Early Years Reading Practice requires 5 to 10 minutes. Students should be exposed to the Practice test twice in the week prior to administering the test. Teachers should allow approximately 30 to 45 minutes for students to complete the test. It is possible for young students (including emerging readers) to complete the tests independently and at their own pace as the assessment uses audio to read the questions to each student.

Early Years Maths

PAT Early Years Maths is an assessment covering the early development of mathematical skills with a strong focus on number. A range of measurement, geometry and statistics skills are also assessed, with limited coverage of algebra and probability. The assessment has been specifically designed for the first two years of formal schooling (Reception and Year 1); a time when students are building their foundational mathematical skills.

The PAT Early Years Maths Framework covers six strands of early Mathematics and aligns to the Australian Curriculum. The six strands are:

• N (number)

• A (algebra)

• M (measurement)

• G (geometry)

• S (statistics)

• P (probability)

Early Years Maths

The PAT Early Years Maths assessment data is reported on the same scale as the PAT Maths 4th Edition Assessment; enabling longitudinal tracking of students from the Early Years of school through to Year 10. The PAT Early Years strands are the same as those reported in PAT Maths.

The PAT Early Years Maths Practice requires 4 to 8 minutes. Students should be exposed to the Practice test twice in the week prior to administering the test. Teachers should allow approximately 25 to 30 minutes for students to complete the test. It is possible for young students (including emerging readers) to complete the tests independently and at their own pace, as the assessment uses audio to read the questions to each student.

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PAT Reading 5th Edition

PAT Maths 4th Edition

PAT Reading 5th Edition assesses students’ reading comprehension skills, vocabulary knowledge and spelling. Comprehension assesses retrieving directly stated information, interpreting explicit information, interpreting implied information, and reflecting on texts in multiple-choice format. These skills reflect comprehension skills described in the Australian National Curriculum for English.

Schools should take care in planning the administration of PAT Reading to ensure consistency. PAT Reading 5th Edition is a standardised assessment that must be completed in 40 minutes.

PAT Maths 4th Edition assesses students’ skill and understanding in multiple-choice format in the six strands of Number, Algebra, Geometry, Measurement, Statistics and Probability. The assessments also address the mathematical processes of understanding, fluency, problem solving and reasoning. The skills assessed by each question are mapped against the Australian National Curriculum for Mathematics.

Schools should take care in planning the administration of PAT Maths to ensure consistency. PAT Maths 4th Edition is a standardised assessment that must be completed in 40 minutes.

Students can be supported by having questions read if they require support to access the curriculum. Questions cannot be elaborated

PAT Spelling Written Spelling requires students to correct a misspelt word in a written sentence. Half the questions in each test have the misspelt word identified, and half do not identify the misspelt word. PAT Spelling assesses spelling skills using tasks based on written sentences containing a misspelt word that must be corrected. As recommended in the national English curriculum for Australian schools, each spelling test includes an assessment of a range of phonetic, visual, and morphemic relationships, in words that are likely to be both familiar and less familiar for the focus year level.

It requires 20 minutes of testing time, plus approximately 15 minutes administration time. Students are to complete the assessment independently. Questions cannot be read or elaborated.

PAT

Grammar

and Punctuation

Punctuation and Grammar assesses a range of language convention skills including the usage and purposes of grammar and punctuation at the word and sentence level. The skills reflect those outlined in the Australian National Curriculum for English. Students are to complete the assessment independently. Questions cannot be read or elaborated.

It requires 30 minutes of testing time, plus approximately 15 minutes administration time. Students are to complete the assessment independently. Questions cannot be read or elaborated.

eWrite eWrite provides instant diagnostic feedback on students’ skills across a range of writing genres eWrite tasks are designed for students in Years 4–10. The following writing genres are available:

• Task A Persuasive (Years 5–6)

• Task B Narrative (Years 5–8)

• Task C Report (Years 5–8)

• Task D Description (Years 5–8)

• Task E Persuasive (Years 7–8)

• Task F Persuasive (Years 5–10)

• Task G Persuasive (Years 5–9)

• Task H Narrative (Years 4–8)

Teachers can choose from four different writing genres, and assign specific tasks to individual students and to groups of students. eWrite can be used for the assessment of a whole year level, a class or any select group of students. Each eWrite task is assessed on the following criteria: ideas, vocabularaly, paragraphing, sentences, sentence punctuation, punctuation within sentences, spelling, orientation and engagement (Description, Persuasive and Narrative tasks), text structure (Report, Persuasive and Narrative tasks) and register (Report tasks only). This test provides an individual report where students are located on the writing measurement scale which is calculated from their total score.

Assignment of Assessments

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skills necessary to be successful readers and are able to help determine whether instruction and intervention efforts are working as intended to improve student reading outcomes.

The DIBELS reading assessment system provides a set of measures that are able to track the trajectories of a students’ reading success or reading failures. DIBELS provides indicators of reading trajectories of beginning reading through the ‘Big Ideas’, consisting of:

- Phonemic Awareness: The understanding that spoken words are made up of individual speech sounds (i.e., phonemes).

- Alphabetic Principle: The explicit awareness of the letter-sound structure of written language. This is based on two parts:

o Alphabetic Understanding: Knowing that words are composed of sounds that are represented by letters; and

o Phonological Recoding: Using systematic relationships between letters and phonies (letter-sound correspondence) to retrieve the pronunciation of an unknown printed string of letter or to spell a word.

- Accuracy and Fluency in Reading Connected Texts: The ability to apply letter-sound correspondence accurately and quickly to reading connected texts. This comprises of accuracy, prosody, and rate.

- Vocabulary: The ability to understand (receptive) and use (expressive) specific words to understand the meaning of text.

- Reading Comprehension: The complex cognitive process involving the intentional interaction between reader and text to extract meaning.

The DIBELS reading assessment system helps to make informed decisions about individual students and whole school systems. It provides assessments that are directly linked to instructional objectives and able to successfully predict reading outcomes in relation to critical benchmarks.

Administration: The DIBELS reading assessment system provides benchmark materials for students to be tested three times throughout the year Allowing for frequent repeated measurement of student learning, enables educators to frequently modify instruction to meet student needs and it creates a common language for educators to problem solve.

For students performing below benchmarks for their year level, or for students involved in supplemental intervention, the DIBELS reading assessment system provides additional resources for progress monitoring.

Assessment Guidelines

Phonemic Segmentation Fluency

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The PSF task is administered by the examiner orally, presenting words of three to four phonemes. The student verbally produces the individual phonemes in each word. For example, if the examiner says "sat," and the student says "/s/ /a/ /t/" he or she receives three possible points for the word. After the student responds, the examiner presents the next word, and the number of correct phonemes produced in one minute determines the final score.

Letter Naming Fluency

Letter Naming Fluency (LNF) is often used as a measure of a student’s rapid automatised naming (RAN) skill. RAN is the ability to quickly name aloud information from memory, such as numbers, letters, objects, or colours. RAN is correlated with skills necessary for rapid visual and verbal processing connected to learning the alphabetic principles.

The student is presented with randomly ordered lower-case and upper-case letters in a dyslexiafriendly font, in which they need to correctly identify as many as possible in sequential order. The student is allowed 1 minute to produce as many letters as he/she can, and the final score is the number of letters produced correctly within the minute.

Nonsense Word Fluency

The Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF) measure is an individually administered test of the alphabetic principle including letter-sound correspondence in which letters represent their most common sounds and of the ability to blend letters into words, in which letters represent their most common sounds.

The student is presented with randomly ordered VC and CVC nonsense words (e.g., sig, rav, ov) and asked to verbally produce the individual letter sounds in each word or read the whole word. The student is allowed 1 minute to produce as many letter-sounds as he/she can, and the final score is the number of letter-sounds produced correctly within the minute Word Reading

Fluency

Word Reading Fluency (WRF) is an assessment of real words that may help identify reading risk through providing information on student knowledge of regular and irregular “sight” words. The test for each year level includes words that are typically acquired orally in or before a given grade.

The student is presented with a page of words and asked to read the individual real words, processing the words from left to right. The student is allowed 1 minute to produce as many lettersounds as he/she can, and the final score is the number of letter-sounds produced correctly within the minute.

Oral Reading Fluency

Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) is a measure of a student’s skills with accurate and fluent reading of connected text and is an indicator of a student’s reding comprehension. If a reader has not developed fluency, the process of decoding words drains attention, and insufficient attention is available for constructing the meaning of texts.

The student is presented with a passage and asked to read aloud for 1 minute. The assessor is required to follow along in the scoring booklet and stops the student after the minute has passed. MAZE Year 2 – 6 ONLY

Maze is a multiple-choice cloze task which assesses a student’s reading fluency and comprehension. Maze requires students to read a passage which has approximately every 7th word omitted and requires the student to read the passage and select the correct answer for a missing word from an array of options. Students have 3 minutes to complete as much of the passage as possible. Maze is a reliable and valid measure of comprehension that gradually becomes more sensitive the higher the grade.

For all tests in the DIBELS reading assessment suite, it is important the assessor directly follows the script. The scripted administration procedures, as well as the scoring and timing rules should all be followed exactly how they are stated. This allows for consistent administration of the tests and valid results to be collected.

Assignment of Assessments

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Letter Naming Fluency Beginning Middle End

Beginning Middle End

Beginning Middle End Nonsense Word Fluency Beginning Middle End

Word Reading Fluency Beginning Middle End

Oral Reading Fluency

Beginning Middle End

Beginning Middle End

Beginning Middle End

Beginning Middle End

Beginning Middle End

Beginning Middle End

Beginning Middle End

Beginning Middle End

Beginning Middle End

Phonics Screening Check

Phonics Screen Check

Beginning Middle End

Beginning Middle End

Beginning Middle End

Beginning Middle End

Beginning Middle End

Beginning Middle End MAZE Beginning Middle End

Purpose: The phonics screening check is a yearly assessment of phonological awareness in Year 1 only. Assessment Guidelines

Students undertake the check one to one with the teacher in Weeks 3 – 6 of Term Three, with results needing to be uploaded for system collection by Week 9, Term Three. After the screening check and scoring, students who do not meet the expected standard being 28/40 will require further intervention and be retested at the end of year. Words at the begininning of the ceck ar ethe simplest and then become increasingly complex.

Benchmark Pass = 28 words correct

Assessment Schedule Term 3

Week 3 – 6 (Data to be entered by Week 9)

South Australian Spelling Test (SAST)

Purpose: the purpose of this test is to provide a screening instrument to determine the spread of spelling ability in classes and to identify students who may require further support. Used in this way SAST can provide a quntatitive measure of a student’s current standing within the age group.

Assessment Guidelines

South Australian Spelling Test (SAST)

The South Australian Spelling Test (SAST) is a standardised test of spelling achievement for students in the age range of 6 to 16 years. It is available in two forms, A and B. Ensure that the correct norm tables are consulted when interpreting the forms. Table 1 and 2 and for Form A; Table 3 and Table 4 are for Form B. It is only to be used once a year to give an indication of the progress in spelling development made by students over a period of time.

Access here: http://staff.anzacterrace.wa.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/SouthAustralian-Spelling-Test.pdf

Foundations of Early Literacy Assessment (FELA)

Purpose: Assess phonological awareness and grasp of the alphabetic principle. For children beginning school and others as applicable.

Assessment Guidelines

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FELA FELA is designed for students who are in the earlystages of literacy instruction. It is administered individually for around 30 minutes. Stimuli for the tests are presented on a computer screen. The FELA conists of 6 subtests: syllable clapping, syllable isolation, first sound identification, letter name identification, esser ound identification and name writing. There is an ‘advanced probe’ item after the 6 subtests which provides more information about the students ability levels. Results are categorised as ‘beginning’, ‘emerging’ or ‘competent’ and can be put against grade expectations.

Assessment Schedule

Term 1, Week 2 – 5 (repeated for students at risk in Term 3 and continued for those required up until Grade 3) Mid Year Reception Term 3, Weeks 3 – 6

Reception

Whole School Scope and Sequence Spelling Test:

Designed by Linda Clune, each year level is to administer this test in Week 7 of Term 4. Each grade will only test up to the sounds/rule that have been taught for that respective year. The test is made up of nonsense words and real words – please use the tips in brackets to assist the students when required. Once marked, teachers will enter the data on an excel spreadsheet which will then be used to determine the scope and sequence of sounds/rules taught for the next year . This is a school wide commitment to ensure all students are able to grasp concepts prior to moving on.

Assessment Schedule

Term 4

Complete spelling test up until relevant sounds, according to what has been taught in the Year Level.

Week 7, Term Four (Reception – Year 6)

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YEAR LEVEL SCHEDULE AND LINKS

YEAR LEVEL TERM ONE TERM TWO TERM THREE TERM FOUR LINKS

Mid-Year Rec. FELA

Reception DIBELS FELA DIBELS EY Maths EY Reading

Year One DIBELS

Westwood Spelling Westwood Math

Year Two DIBELS MAZE

Westwood Spelling Westwood Math

Year Three DIBELS MAZE

Westwood Spelling Westwood Math

Year Four DIBELS MAZE

Westwood Spelling Westwood Math Tablesathon

Year Five DIBELS MAZE

Westwood Spelling Westwood Math Tablesathon

Year Six DIBELS MAZE

Westwood Spelling Westwood Math Tablesathon

DIBELS EY Maths EY Reading

FELA (if AT RISK) DIBELS

SSS Spelling Test EY Maths /EY Reading

Year One Phonics Check DIBELS

SSS Spelling Test EY Maths / EY Reading

DIBELS MAZE Westwood Math DIBELS MAZE

SSS Spelling Test PAT-R/PAT-M

DIBELS MAZE NAPLAN PAT Grammar

DIBELS MAZE PAT Grammar

PAT Spelling Westwood Math DIBELS MAZE SSS Spelling Test PAT-R/PAT-M

PAT Spelling Westwood Math Tablesathon

DIBELS MAZE SSS Spelling Test PAT-R/PAT-M

DIBELS MAZE NAPLAN PAT Grammar

DIBELS MAZE PAT Grammar

PAT Spelling Westwood Math Tablesathon

DIBELS MAZE SSS Spelling Test PAT-R/PAT-M

PAT Spelling Westwood Math Tablesathon

DIBELS MAZE

SSS Spelling Test PAT-R/PAT-M