Introduction
Creating the environment that allows for efficient acquisition of academic knowledge and skills is crucial for the promotion of success among learners. Therefore, it is imperative that the school mission and vision should reflect the needs of students and set rigid standards for the quality of the learning process. The educational setting of the Washington Elementary School District can be defined by an elaborate assessment system, profound philosophy, and a focus on the needs of diverse learners, which means that its current strategy toward creating a positive environment for promoting knowledge acquisition and academic independence can be deemed as efficient. In the context of the Washington Elementary School District, the efficacy of the assessment framework is defined by the opportunities for identifying the problem areas and the availability of the information that helps shaped new and improved teaching strategies for catering to the needs of learners. For example, the existing assessment system helps determine the points at which the process of learning may have been hampered and, thus, locate the tools for managing the problem and encouraging the further development of a student.
Vision and Mission Statement
One must give the Washington Elementary School District credit for developing the vision and mission that promote opportunities for every child. It is admittedly difficult to build the environment in which educators will be capable of catering to the needs of every learner and take the unique characteristics thereof into account when designing teaching strategies, drafting the curriculum, etc. However, both the vision of the school and its mission statement promote the active focus on learners and their individual needs, thus, stating that equality, diversity, and the safety of learners are the key priorities of the Washington Elementary School District at present (Timm, 2014).
One could argue that the current vision and mission statement lack the introduction of opportunities for self-directed and independent learning. It is paramount to promote learners’ independence so that they could engage in meta-cognitive activities and, thus, develop lifelong learning skills. The significance of academic independence can be justified by the fact that students need to control their learning experience. Hence, they can adjust certain parts thereof so that they could become more confident and train new skills not only in the context of the classroom but also outside of it. Consequently, a better understanding of the subject matter and the ability to solve practical tasks by using theoretical knowledge will be developed in students. However, one could argue that the concept of lifelong learning is implied in the current mission and vision statement of the organization.
Narrative of the Assessment Chart
The assessment chart incorporates a range of tools for evaluating the learners’ progress at the Washington Elementary School District. The strategies used for monitoring the curriculum (e.g., the PARCC framework) must be deemed as essential since they shed light on whether the needs of learners from diverse backgrounds are met. Similarly, the tools for defining the students’ progress in Math and ELA must also be viewed as an important addition to the assessment framework. The specified elements of the evaluation chart contribute to a better understanding of possible developmental issues that the students may have and, thus, inform the teaching strategies used in class (Lazarus & Thurlow, 2015).
Assessment System
The assessment system adopted by Washington Elementary School District can also be deemed as rather efficient. For instance, the fact that several models of evaluation (PARCC, ACCESS, DLM (Dynamic Learning Map), COGAT, and ELA Comprehensive & Writing Assessments) are incorporated into the assessment framework should be mentioned. The use of the specified strategies allows for a systemic and all-embracive overview of the school’s system. Particularly, the focus on the curriculum, the learners’ progress, students’ overall cognitive development rates, problem-solving abilities, and comprehension levels create the environment in which the slightest issues with the learners’ academic progress can be identified and addressed at the earliest stages of development (Walsh et al., 2014; Troy, 2011). PARCC helps align the instructions for reading and math, ACCESS helps carry out a summative assessment of students’ math skills, and DLM offers an opportunity to connect the students’ life skills with ELA and math. COGAT, in turn, provides a chance to identify gifted learners for ELA and math, whereas the ELA Comprehensive and Writing Assessments tool offers a chance to build a link between ELA and the math program (Timm, 2014; Troy, 2011).
Alignment Capacity
Apart from meeting the needs of diverse students, a school must also create the environment in which the key processes such as the design of the curriculum, the provision of key instructions, and the assessment of learners’ progress, align with the state standards and quality requirements. While a school needs to adjust the existing standards to the specifics of its environment, the unique characteristic of learners, and other factors that require special attention, it is also paramount that the key standards should be met. Therefore, the issue of alignment capacity also needs to be addressed.
A closer look at the specifics of the school curriculum will show that the alignment capacity thereof is rather close. Despite the fact that some of the crucial standards are met, there is still enough room for improvement. For instance, the current SEDL instructions demand that a significant emphasis should be placed on the alignment with the state assessment standards (Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, 2004). The current student evaluation framework adopted at the Washington Elementary School District, in turn, incorporates the crucial elements that help determine the learners’ progress accurately, including their ability to meet the state-approved program and their ability to improve their current skills and knowledge. The specified phenomenon can be attributed to the multifaceted nature of the assessment system (Washington Elementary School District, 2017). In other words, the curriculum coincides with the instructions and the assessment, therefore, creating the environment in which learners can develop the necessary skills and acquire the relevant knowledge. Using direct assessment of academic skills and introducing the tools for matching the curriculum and the evaluation system are the primary means of making sure that the two align. For instance, observations are utilized to make sure that the assessment outcomes coincide with the requirements of the curriculum. Furthermore, the presence of the alignment between the identified items helps introduce new and more complex elements into the framework, thus, contributing to the promotion of diversity and catering to the needs of students from different backgrounds successfully.
By placing a strong emphasis on the needs of diverse students, as well as on the importance of the learners’ safety and security, the members of the Washington Elementary School District create the environment in which students can acquire the necessary knowledge and skills successfully. The focus on the learners’ health makes the organization’s policy especially efficient and meaningful. By promoting the well-being of its students, the school administrators build the path to the successful physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development of learners. The existing assessments test the learners’ skills and their ability to solve problems. However, closer observations and a more rigid model for matching the curriculum and the assessment framework should be introduced into the environment of the Washington Elementary School District so that a more accurate evaluation of students’ progress could be possible.
References
Lazarus, S. S., & Thurlow, M. L. (2015). 2015-16 High school assessment accommodations policies: An analysis of ACT, SAT, PARCC, and Smarter balanced. Minneapolis, MN: National Center on Educational Outcomes.
Southwest Educational Development Laboratory. (2004). Alignment in SEDL’s working systemically model (2004 progress report to schools and districts). Austin, TX: SEDL.
Timm, P. (2014). School security: How to build and strengthen a school safety program. New York, NY: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Troy, T. (2011). Comprehensive assessment systems: Purposes and implementation (E&R Report No. 11.10). Raleigh, NC: ResearchWatch.
Walsh, M. E., Madaus, G. F., Raczek, A. E., Dearing, E., Foley, C., An, C., … Beaton, A. (2014). A new model for student support in high-poverty urban elementary schools: Effects on elementary and middle school academic outcomes. American Educational Research Journal, 51(4), 704-737.
Washington Elementary School District. (2017).Vision, mission, and values. Web.