Progress Monitoring Assessment in Texas

Recently one of our TestHound Account Managers, Lara Miller, hosted Andrew Lawver, Coordinator of Assessment in Birdville ISD, in an EAI webinar series called Conversations with Educators. During the conversation, Andrew discussed the benefits and best practices of effective progress monitoring and what progress monitoring looks like today in Texas.

Q: What is the current state of student assessment in Texas?

I think most of what we see in education is cyclical. Initiatives come and go, and then come back again. In general, Texas is still ingrained in a summative assessment approach, giving one statewide assessment, the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR), at the end of the year. However, the state has launched the Texas Through-year Assessment Pilot (TTAP), a 3-year progress monitoring system that consists of three, short testing opportunities – one in the fall, winter, and spring.

Q: How is Birdville ISD using the data from the assessments TEA currently provides for progress monitoring?

Although our district opted not to participate in the TTAP, we are administering interim assessments in November and in March to inform academic and instructional conversations on our campuses. This puts student growth data at the forefront and helps us identify areas of concern and areas of growth. It has also given us a predictive value for students at the end of those assessments. This has been a real shift for teachers – to navigate instructional plans based on where students are predicted to be at a particular point. We are having rich conversations and asking questions like:

• What is the best way to monitor student progress?
• How do we empower our teachers with this data?
• Are we fostering a culture of testing or growth?

What we aim to do is use this assessment data to improve teaching and learning and help our students navigate where they need to go.

Q: How has TestHound helped you navigate the changing landscape of student assessment?

We use it – maybe even abuse it – because we use it so often! One of the biggest things we’re doing right now is mass uploading all our student accommodations into our testing vendor, Cambium. We wouldn't be able to do that without the TestHound reports. It also saves our testing coordinators a great deal of time on seemingly simple things like seating charts and running state required reports. Q: How do you communicate the importance of progress monitoring?

When we discuss progress monitoring, I always try to give our teachers a real-world example. We all have these smart watches and fitness trackers now that provide us with real-time health and fitness data. Progress monitoring assessments do the same thing for our kids – they empower teachers and education leaders with real-time data on student performance so we can ensure our students achieve their academic goals.

When I was a campus administrator, I always tried to encourage my teachers to chart the path that the students are going to take before they take it. Sometimes I wonder if our students feel like they’re in the driver’s seat, but they don’t know where they're going. When we talk about progress monitoring with students, we share the path with them so they can see the connections, achieve the milestones, and connect all the dots.