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Middle school principal outlines assessment plan, says district aims for 97% testing coverage
Summary
Dan Adams, principal at the Grand Rapids middle school, briefed the board on the building's approach to equitable education, explaining the district's use of STAR (academic benchmarking), SABERS (social-emotional screening) and statewide MCAs. He reported fall STAR completion at about 94.5% for grades 6'8 and SABERS at about 88% and said the goal
Dan Adams, principal at Grand Rapids Middle School, told the board during the Jan. 6 work session that the building is working to reduce variability between classrooms and to increase assessment coverage so the district can reliably measure student progress.
Adams said the district aims to assess 97% of students in its selected measures so the resulting data are useful for instructional planning. For the fall testing window Adams reported a combined STAR assessment completion rate of 94.5 percent for grades 6'8 in reading and math. He said SABERS (a social-emotional screening) had lower fall completion, about 88 percent, noting that participation can dip around winter activities, vacations and attendance challenges. He said a second STAR testing window was open the week of Jan. 2'16 to raise coverage.
Adams emphasized strategies to reduce variability across classrooms: using common curricula, adopting research-based instructional strategies, building in shared time for staff collaboration (early-outs on Wednesdays) and maintaining cycles of district-to-building-to-classroom strategy deployment. He described three assessment cycles: long-cycle (annual, e.g., MCAs), mid-cycle (benchmarking such as STAR given quarterly), and short-cycle (weekly checks used by interventionists to monitor targeted instruction). Those shorter-cycle checks are used to measure whether an intervention is working and to adjust instruction quickly.
Superintendent Gross and other board members echoed that complete and high-quality data are necessary for valid decision-making, noting the district has worked to tighten testing protocols to reduce inconsistencies (for example, limiting assemblies during testing windows and standardizing proctoring procedures).
Adams said the district continues to refine procedures and will keep the board informed of assessment fidelity and results.
