Assessment Information

Public information regarding state testing is available directly from the state at EdSight

Teachers at Beecher Road School seek multiple methods to ensure all students are learning and progressing along established grade level standards. Teachers use data in a variety of ways to differentiate instruction, inform instructional decisions, and meet the diverse needs of learners in our classrooms. Teachers measure student progress toward standards with curriculum based measures like classroom activities, day-to-day information gathering, and performance assessments.

Formative assessments measure a student’s progress and also help teachers determine next steps in learning.  Examples of formative assessments include daily classwork, reading running records, informal checks for understanding, and even performance assessments.

Summative assessments are assessments which inform teachers of student mastery or command of standards. These may include end of unit writing samples, quizzes, tests, and in-class assignments which are scored by a rubric or assigned some form of a score.  

Occasionally, a grade level or teacher utilizes a Project Based Assessment – this is usually a larger performance-based project that allows learners to demonstrate knowledge and critical thinking skills they have mastered by applying them to content they have learned. 

District assessments are interim or summative assessments in nature and may include common assessments and end-of-unit assessments. At Beecher Road School, district assessments include STAR reading and math, reading/writing workshop unit assessments, math computational fluency checks, math unit assessments, and DIBELS.

State Required Assessments: Schools in The State of Connecticut participate in the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) and these assessments are used to show how students are growing within grade level standards and longitudinally, and are most often used at the state level for program and/or district comparison/evaluation through reports like the Next Generation Accountability Report which is issued annually.  Smarter Balanced assessments are administered to grades 3-6 for math and ELA. In grade 5, the students also take the Next Generation Science Standards assessment (NGSS).