This document summarizes a PTA meeting about standardized writing assessments at Smith Middle School. It discusses trends in writing test scores over the past 5 years which have generally increased but also decreased recently. It compares the school's scores to district averages and presents an improvement plan to increase professional development, assessment tools, and descriptive feedback to better prepare students. It recognizes a teacher, Mrs. Summers, for helping increase proficiency scores.

1. Smith Middle School
Standardized-assessments: Writing
PTA Meeting: September 26, 2014

2. Introduction
• Leadership at Smith Middle School:
– It is essential, as an administrator at Smith
Middle School, that I connect and
communicate with parents, students, and the
community. Communication is key when it
comes to successfully improving students’
progress and growth.
– An important topic we will cover in today’s PTA
Meeting: Standardized Writing Assessment.

3. Purpose
• The Florida Writing Assessment will be in
February 2012.
• Students must learn how to not only write an
effective five-paragraph essay, they must
receive a passing score of 3.5 or above.
• To better prepare for the new assessment, we
will review data from the previous five years.

4. Data Analysis: FCAT Writing Test
(achievement level percentages)
• As displayed below, there has been an overall increase in achievement
over the past five years. There was a major increase in achievement
levels from 2007-2008, and we’ve stayed in the 60-70 percentile ranks.
Smith Middle School Percent Scoring 3.5
and above
Grade Writing (3.5 and above)
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
6 NA NA NA NA NA
7 NA NA NA NA NA
8 44 68 64 76 69

5. Data Analysis
• However, there has been an inconsistency in the past four years. The
percentile ranks have increased and decreased (each year) for the past
five years. There was also a seven-point decrease from 2010-2011. The
largest decrease in the past five years.
Smith Middle School Percent Scoring 3.5
and above
Grade Writing (3.5 and above)
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
6 NA NA NA NA NA
7 NA NA NA NA NA
8 44 68 64 76 69

6. Data Analysis
• As a reference point, we will compare the school’s
proficiency level to the district’s proficiency level.
• How does Smith Middle School compare to others?
Smith Middle School
Percent Scoring 3.5 and
above
GradeWriting (3.5 and above)
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
6 NA NA NA NA NA
7 NA NA NA NA NA
8 44 68 64 76 69
District Percent Scoring three and
above
GradeWriting (3.5 and above)
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
6 NA NA NA NA NA
7 NA NA NA NA NA
8 55 68 67 76 79

7. Data Analysis
• As a reference point, we will compare the school’s
proficiency level to the district’s proficiency level.
• How does Smith Middle School compare to others?
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Smith Middle
School
District

8. Improvement Plan
• Goals: Increase student improvement, parent involvement, and
passing percentages.
• Recommendations:
– Increase professional development ; offer a variety of
professional development opportunities.
• Teachers must understand the assessment and know how to teach
the standards.
– Provide assessment tools in the classroom and
programs/activities that better prepare the students.
• using classroom assessments to build students’ confidence in
themselves as learners and help them take responsibility for their own
learning, so as to lay a foundation for lifelong learning (Stiggins,
2014).
– Translating classroom assessment results into frequent
descriptive feedback ( versus judgmental feedback) for students,
providing them with specific insights as to how to improve
(Stiggins, 2014).
• continuously adjusting instruction based on the results of classroom
assessments (Stiggins, 2014).

9. Recognition!
• We have a lot of work ahead of us to
consistently improve student growth, but
we have also improved tremendously over
the past five years!
• Teacher recognition:
– Mrs. Summers (increased assessment
proficiency) by 11 percent from 2010 to 2011.
Aided learning by tutoring and being
innovating in the classroom.

11. References
• “Improving Student Assessment at Comprehensive Intstitutions.”
(1999).
http://web.stanford.edu/group/ncpi/documents/pdfs/compinfosheet.
pdf
• Jones, P. (2014). Saint Leo University – Educational Leadership.
Module 5.
• Stiggins, Richard. (2014). “Assessment Crisis.”
http://beta.edtechpolicy.org/CourseInfo/edhd485/AssessmentCrisis.p
df