Adrian Samara outlines expanded assessment strategy to target student supports

Adrian Samara told the Meridian School District board on Dec. 18 that the district is moving from isolated data checks to a more systematic set of baseline measures and frequent classroom assessments aimed at identifying students who need intensified supports.

"We're looking at how we're determining whether what we're doing is having the effect we wanted to have, sort of seeing where individual students are," Samara said, explaining that the goal is to use assessments both to evaluate district initiatives and to spot students who are not progressing.

Samara described three concrete examples from across grade spans. At Irene Rider elementary, three English-learner teachers compared students' scores with OSPI growth charts, isolated students who did not meet expected language growth and provided more intensive interventions for those students. "They took all the kids who didn't make the expected growth, and when they were designing their program, those kids have more intensive levels of support," Samara said.

At the middle-school level, a math professional learning community created formative assessments that target prerequisite skills (for example, ratio and proportional reasoning). Teachers use those diagnostics to form small "win groups" or pull-out instruction so students can master foundational concepts before they encounter grade-level material.

At the high school, Samara said the district has deployed a diagnostic reading tool (IRLO) used at the middle school to identify whether students need vocabulary work, phonics, decoding or fluency practice. Samara said a part-time specialist is using the diagnostic to design small-group instructional plans for high-school students who struggle with reading.

The presentation tied assessment work to the district's strategic-plan metrics. Samara said the district tracks a set of baseline measures from last year and expects to see clearer progress after January benchmark testing (I-Ready). "What'll be really interesting then is for the teachers to be able to say, here's what we saw in these daily little assessments — did we see that same kind of growth in that larger benchmark assessment?" she said.

Trustees asked about resources to support interventions, particularly for English learners. Samara noted state recommendations (for example, OSPI guidance on recommended caseloads) and said the district is close to recommended staffing ratios in many buildings. She also offered to provide the board with follow-up reports aligned to specific strategic-plan measures, including math and science results, after the next benchmark round.

The board did not take a vote on assessment policy at the meeting. Samara said staff will share additional data in January to allow trustees to compare in-class formative trends with larger end-of-term benchmarks.