Assessment Schedules
The 2007-08 through 2010-2011 Student Testing Calendars include all the International, National, State, and Local Assessments in which Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) students participated.
The Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT/FCAT 2.0) and new End of Course (EOC) Tests comprise the state’s standardized criterion-referenced testing system. The tests assess student achievement on selected benchmarks, which make up the state’s standards in each academic subject area. Beginning in the 2010-11 school year, the statewide testing program in Reading and Mathematics transitioned from the original FCAT, which addressed the state’s Sunshine State Standards (SSS) to the new FCAT 2.0 and End-of-Course (EOC) tests, which address the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards (NGSSS). The transition to the NGSSS in Science will take place in the 2011-12 school year. FCAT/FCAT 2.0 and EOC student results are used for the state and federal accountability systems (Florida’s School Grades and No Child Left Behind Adequate Yearly Progress).
In June 2005, a needs assessment determined that M-DCPS would benefit from a uniform assessment program that would provide valid and reliable tools that could be used to monitor student progress toward mastery of Florida’s standard. This resulted in the development of the Interim Assessment (IA) program, an integrated assessment system designed to help district administration, regional office staff, principals, and classroom teachers monitor their students’ attainment of the curriculum benchmarks outlined in Florida’s standards. The purpose of the IA program is to provide educators with meaningful and timely information about the academic achievement and needs of every student, in order to guide instruction. The IA program initially addressed the SSS in reading, mathematics, and science, transitioning to the NGSSS in concert with the implementation of FCAT 2.0 and EOC. Results are scanned and scored immediately at each school site to put the results directly into teachers’ hands.
The goal of the program is to improve the quality of student learning and enhance instructional practices by using data to make curricular decisions. The Interim Assessment tests provide valid, reliable information regarding content mastery, based on curriculum pacing guides produced by the Division of Curriculum and Instruction. All schools in M-DCPS participate in the IA Program which provides the following resources:
- IA tests are administered as Baseline, Fall, and Winter measures of progress, and
- Benchmark Assessment Item Bank, provided to classroom teachers for their use in creating classroom assessments.
Sample IA score reports and resources to help teachers to debrief with students and in grade level/content area teams are available at https://oada.dadeschools.net/IAP/IAP.asp .
In addition to the Interim Assessment Program, students also participate in the Florida Assessments for Instruction in Reading (FAIR) which is a screening, diagnostic, and ongoing progress monitoring assessment that measures phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. In grades K-2, the assessment is administered individually to students. In grades 3-12 the assessments are computer-adaptive and delivered on Internet-connected computers. Results are immediately available to teachers and schools for targeting instruction through the Progress Monitoring and Reporting Network (PMRN). The FAIR website is: https://www.justreadflorida.com/instrreading.asp.
Data Warehouse
M-DCPS has a comprehensive data warehouse that houses student, personnel, financial, facilities, and operational data. The M-DCPS Data Warehouse power point presentation will guide you through:
- why the data warehouse was created,
- the results and benefits of the data warehouse,
- the timeline of the development of the data warehouse, and
- future enhancements to the data warehouse.
The power point will also describe the M-DCPS Portal and all the reports that are available for parents, students, employees and the community members.
Sample Reports
M-DCPS DATA WAREHOUSE:
M-DCPS has a comprehensive data warehouse that houses student, personnel, financial, facilities, and operational data. The M-DCPS Data Warehouse power point presentation will guide you through:
- why the data warehouse was created,
- the results and benefits of the data warehouse,
- the timeline of the development of the data warehouse, and
- future enhancements to the data warehouse.
Sample Report Cards
M-DCPS has a portal that is accessible by Employees, Parent, Students, and the Community. The portal includes a single sign-on to the electronic grade book which allows parent and students to see upcoming assignments, homework tasks, and assignment/exam grades as they are posted by the teachers. The electronic grade book was piloted in 2005 for selected schools and is now standard across the district.
The table below includes the last 5 weeks of active parent accounts.
| Parent Account Registration | 3/01 | 3/22 | 4/05 | 4/12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parent Accounts | 237,386 | 239,321 | 240,683 | 241,229 |
| Parent Accounts with Registered Children | 179,098 | 179,978 | 180,635 | 180,900 |
Hard-copy report cards are issued to parents every 9 weeks. In this section you will find sample report cards from elementary, middle and senior high schools.
Student
Self-Assessment Tools
Miami-Dade County Public Schools understands that each step in the process of thinking critically is tied to a self-reflective step of student self-assessment. Because of the importance of self-assessment to higher-order thinking, it is important to allow teachers to develop and implement student self-assessment tools directly related to the design of their course. However, the District promotes a variety of student self-assessment practices that schools can implement.
The Division of Student Services created the curriculum, “Tools for Success,” to assist all high school freshman students in their transition from one grade level to another. A large component of the transition curriculum is the self-assessment piece where students reflect on their learning styles and organizational skills. A synopsis of “Tools for Success” is included as a sample of the self-reflection activities school counselors are encouraged to use with students. Student data chats are an important component of the Florida Continuous Improvement Model (FCIM which is implemented in all schools. Schools are therefore encouraged to include this practice into their School Improvement Plan strategies in order to assist students in increasing ownership of their learning by monitoring and discussing their achievement data. During the data chat process, student data is charted and students are taught how to determine their growth and/or decline on skills learned. Students set goals for performance expectations, thus empowering the student to not just know how they perform, but understand what they need to do to accomplish their goals. Sample student data chat forms, goal setting templates and a School Improvement Plan are included in this section.Project Citizen is a co-curricular program utilized in many Miami-Dade County Public Schools grades 5-8 classrooms. The program promotes competent and responsible participation in local and state government. It helps students learn how to monitor and influence public policy. Students work cooperatively to identify a public policy problem in their community, research the problem and through a political action plan, can enlist local or state authorities to adopt their proposed policy. At the end of the process, students participate in a self-reflection about their experience. The reflection questions from the program are attached for your perusal.
Curriculum and Instruction has created several documents, many of which are posted on the subject area websites, and facilitated professional development training on a variety of student self-assessment tools, including the state writing rubric. Several of those documents are included in this section, as well.