Assessment in secondary schools

Shapiro (2004) stated that progress monitoring has now become a crucial element in the enhancement of pupil academic outcomes. It has been concluded that literature has evidently shown the concept of progress monitoring that can across different domains such as spelling, mathematics, composition, reading and writing (Hosp & Hosp, 2003)

Activity description and Summary

The progress monitoring program that is being designed focused more on the performance on the pupils according to the curriculum that is designed for them. This performance is basically measured and monitored across a period of time. Technically, this measurement is carried out through every three or every six terms.

The best way to ensure measurement of school wide data is through online software's that can be accessed by not only teachers but by parents as well. By making this data available on the net, it can also be accessed easily by other schools in the county and city. This will make it easy to compare school performance across both counties and states.

Program Outcome Rationale

The major outcome rationale is to ensure efficient communication with the families and increased motivation for the student. The main theme therefore tis to ensure that that the communication that the teacher has established with the family is more detailed. Merely saying that the performance of the student is either bad or good is not good enough. With proper software monitoring the progress of the child, the teacher will be able to represent progress in a very efficient manner. They can show where the child falls as opposed to other children in the class and in the state. This will enable the parents to understand where the child is and how they should work with him. Brooks (2002) stated that parents play a very crucial rule in the academic performance of a child. Due to this reason, it is important to get the parents actively involved in this process.

Therefore, one outcome indicator is the involvement of parents and the other indicator is the curriculum-based measurement of the child. The latter will show how the child is coping with the curriculum and whether he will require any further intervention or not.

Data Analysis

In order to ensure that progress monitoring is carried out in a fair way, it should be carried out against some standardized tests. These tests should assess the average pupil's ability to perform in the different areas. After these standards are set and established, the progress of the pupil should then be measured.

The curriculum-based measurement that was mentioned above basically assesses the child's performance according to the relevant subjects in the curriculum. The major subjects that should be attended to include Math, English, Reading and Writing. The standardized tests will therefore clearly provide scores and results.

Along with looking at student grades, student learning outcomes will also be considered along with their performance in the tests. For instance, a certain score in a test or the answering of certain questions will demonstrate that the student has attained this learning outcome. In the long run, this will show that where the student needs more help and the teacher has to put in more effort.

Educational Leadership Response

The plan at the moment is to initiate the process of standardized testing so comparison of the test results can be done in a fair way. Progress monitoring alone is not useful if it is not analyzed and critiqued by teachers, family and even the student himself. Therefore, a major recommendation would be the addition of certain goals and objectives that the student has to reach. As mentioned earlier, every student has his or her capabilities that are assessed according to the standards established. Therefore, goal should be in sync with the academic expectation that is gained by looking at the test results or performance of a certain pupil. It is also recommended that these tests should be carried out on a two weekly or monthly basis so that the student keeps on getting feedback on his or her performance.

After the standardized tests have been carried out in this method, it is recommended that the software should be introduced to the teachers in all the schools. After the teachers have a decent idea about the functioning of the software, they should hold seminars that would explain the progress monitoring in detail. The principal and the teachers have to be the major initiators of this software so that it can be implemented in the proper way.

After the implementation in the schools done, the progress monitoring should be introduced to the families of the students and the students themselves. Classes and seminars should be arranged in an organized way so that they can learn about the software in detail. Furthermore, the students should be taught clearly about the use of the software.

Impact on Student Achievement