Thoughts on the Interim

So this is the year of technology!  Our local assessments (which we personally wrote several years ago) have been replaced by the Interim Assessment, which are taken on the laptop.  As with all changes, there are good and bad things that come with change.  We have to let go with how we've always done something, which can be a tough thing to do.  However, on the flip side, change brings new and exciting opportunities.

The interim assessment has both.  In some cases it is making me long for my ol' local assessment.  With the local assessment, I would be able to compare to past years to see where we are.  I always felt that the 8th grade local was a good predictor for the state assessment and felt some comfort when I got the results that I knew which way we were headed.  I would personally pull out indicator scores from the bubble sheets to include in a year-long report so that by the time March came around, we had a detailed picture of which indicators were the lowest and needed more instructional time.

You can probably see where this is headed.  With the new interim assessments (which are great as we get results in a quick timely manner...students are using the same testing system as the state assessment with the same online tools...it can test all the indicators at one time...and we can get a score for just the indicators taught in the classroom up to that point), even though there are a LOT of positives, I'm really going to miss the individual indicator results.  As I stated before, it was these results that drove both my classroom and the math enhancement classroom from about March to when we took the state assessment.  I guess I'll be able to look at our individual quiz scores to see which indicators needed more brushing up on.

It is what it is.  I'll move forward and find a way to get around this little obstacle that has moved me from my comfortable routine.  Being the data girl that I am, I'm sure I'll be able to find more numbers to crunch!  :)