Educational Research Service Making a Difference in Our Children’s Future 
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Educational Research Service Making a Difference in Our Children’s Future
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ERS Successful School Practices
A selection of successful practices, programs, and ideas contributed by school districts to the ERS Successful School Practices Collection and announced in the ERS periodical, Successful School Practices, mailed to ERS Comprehensive subscribers three times a year.
Fall 2000
Learning Is the Outcome; Test Scores Are Just the Measure
Mesa Public Schools, AZ
The goal of the Mesa, Arizona, Public School’s test preparation efforts is not just to raise test scores. Rather, the district staff is dedicated to “making sure test scores reflect what students know.” Faced with extensive testing requirements, the district has chosen to use test data to diagnose student needs and to improve the delivery of curriculum and instruction.
The Testing Program
Like all school districts in the state of Arizona, Mesa Public School District is required to administer the Stanford 9 in grades 2 through 11, as well as the state’s standards-based criterion-referenced tests (called the AIMS) in grades 3, 5, and 9, and in high school beginning at grade 10. Mastery scores on the reading, math, and writing sections of the AIMS are a requirement for high school graduation.
In addition, Mesa Public Schools administer district-developed end-of-year tests in reading, math, and writing in grades K-6, and in English, math, science, and social studies at the secondary level. Secondary teachers often use these assessments as the “final exam” for their courses; scores on these assessments can figure into students’ overall grades.
Since the AIMS assessments were mandated several years ago, “it sometimes seems as though kids are taking test after test after test,” says Joe O’Reilly, Director of Assessment and Special Projects. The district struggles with a certain level of test “burn-out” on the part of both students and teachers. To make all this testing worthwhile, the district staff feels that it’s crucial that test results be used in meaningful ways to improve instruction.
That’s why Mesa Public School District has instituted a comprehensive program to assist principals and teachers in aligning curriculum, instruction, and assessment, and analyzing test results to guide teaching and learning. Test preparation in the district is not an isolated activity designed to boost scores on a particular test or set of tests. Instead, it is an ongoing part of instructional practice designed to raise actual student achievement and to ensure that test scores accurately reflect what students know.
Educators as “Educational Detectives”
At the beginning of each year, central-office staff meet with principals of all schools. Each principal is given a data book that presents the school’s achievement indicators from the previous year (Stanford 9 scores, district test results, AIMS results, etc.). The data are organized and analyzed to enable the school staff to answer the following questions:
Central-office staff can provide the data, but it’s up to the school principal and staff to develop hypotheses about the reasons for strengths and weaknesses revealed by the data. In this sense, they are asked to be “educational detectives.” As O’Reilly says, “We don’t say, ‘You must raise your test scores.’ Instead, we’re saying, ‘Look at the patterns, see what areas you can improve, and develop improvement strategies.’”
Based on their analysis, each school staff develops improvement goals for the year and targets one or two goals, which are open for review not only by school district personnel but also by the public. In schools that achieve their targeted improvement goals, all employees receive an incentive reward (typically one or two percent of salary, plus an additional $550 for each teacher).
Test Preparation to Achieve Accurate Test Scores
About every other year, the district holds a presentation for principals to review effective and appropriate test preparation. The district has developed a simple equation that sums up its approach:
The basic understandings and beliefs that form the basis for this approach are shown below.
Good Test Preparation IS:
Good Test Preparation IS NOT:
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All principals and teachers are provided with written materials and resources detailing aspects of test preparation. In addition, instructional improvement staff (called “basic skills” staff at the elementary level) are available in each school, using the district-prepared materials to work with teachers in whatever areas are needed. The following sections describe in detail the strategies the district uses to strengthen all parts of the equation.
Content Knowledge
To improve the area of content knowledge, it is vital that curriculum and instruction be aligned with assessment. The district end-of-year assessments are closely aligned with curriculum and instruction in the schools. Teachers are involved on an ongoing basis in reviewing all test items and confirming that they are appropriate and reflect what students should know in the various subject areas.
Mesa Public School District also makes extensive efforts to ensure that curriculum and instruction are aligned with the state standards-based tests. After the standards were released and approved in 1997, Mesa teachers were brought in to analyze whether the district curriculum was aligned with the standards and to suggest adjustments. As state standards are revised, the district continues to examine the curriculum against the standards.
The content standards established by the state have really “raised the bar” for student mastery, and have made it more important than ever for teachers to use the best instructional practices to enable all students to achieve high levels of learning. The central-office staff and school improvement specialists work intensively with teachers to that end.
For example, Language Programs Specialist Kathy Black continuously meets with individual teachers, looking at addressing classroom practices to engage students and raise their achievement in areas of weakness. “Teachers feel very fortunate that they get such good information about how their students are performing, and are shown how they can use the data to assist each student,” she says.
Familiarity
Both staff and students need to be familiar with the tests. For staff, that means:
For students, familiarity means knowing what to expect on the test and having the opportunity to practice test-taking mechanics. Even if students have mastered the content of an assessment, their test scores may not reflect what they know if they are unfamiliar with the test format. The assessments administered in Mesa cover a wide range of formats. The Stanford 9 is a multiple-choice test; the district language arts end-of-year tests are writing tests; and the AIMS assessments include multiple-choice, short-answer, and extended writing exercises.
Teachers are encouraged to give students practice in all of these formats throughout the year. The district has prepared detailed materials and assessment items that are directly linked to currricular and instructional units the teachers are presenting. These materials are distributed to all teachers, and the school instructional improvement staff are available to help teachers in using the materials.
Motivation
Motivation of both staff and students is a crucial component of test preparation. The incentive pay provided for staff when their school achieves its goal is one motivation, of course. Equally if not more motivating, however, is the way educators are empowered to use assessment results to improve their practice and help students.
Kathy Black has found that teachers are highly motivated by the district’s philosophy that “it’s not just about taking a test and being judged by your students’ scores—instead it’s about working together as professionals to find ways to use test data to improve learning.”
Motivating students to take the tests seriously has been a struggle. Parents are urged in an announcement in the monthly newsletter to make sure that their children have eaten a good breakfast and are well rested on testing days, as well as every school day. The Nutrition Department supports the program by providing healthful snacks for students on assessment days. Overall, teachers and principals try to emphasize to students that the assessments are a way to show what they have learned, and therefore should receive their best efforts.
Like many educators today, teachers and administrators in Mesa Public Schools might be justified in feeling over-burdened by testing. It is true that assessment mandates pose a challenge for both educators and students. But in this district, educators take a positive approach and maintain that test data can be an essential tool if we keep in mind that “tests don’t give answers—they raise questions.” Test preparation as an ongoing and integral part of instruction and use of test results to guide instructional improvement are the keys to this district’s success.
For more information about Mesa Public Schools’ comprehensive approach to preparing students for tests and using test data to improve instruction, contact:
Joe O’Reilly
Director of Assessment and Special Projects
Mesa Public Schools
549 N. Stapley Drive
Mesa, AZ 85203
Tel: 480-472-0241
E-mail: joreilly@mpsaz.org
The ERS Member Services Information Center and request Successful School Practices Collection Item #4255. You will receive copies of three handouts from slide presentations (totalling 44 pages) describing the district’s approach.
Contributed by:
Mesa Public School District
Mesa, AZ
Superintendent:
Dr. Dale Frederick
(enrollment: 73,000)
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Copyright © 2001 Educational Research Service. All rights reserved.
