Principals:
This year we have made a change to the format of the pretest and benchmarks for first-grade. Rather than a traditional paper/pencil assessment, the new format will allow teachers to give the test as a series of tasks where the teacher will ask students to give oral responses to questions. The reason for this change is that the core specifies that students will demonstrate their knowledge by reading words, responding orally, and producing words and sounds. A paper/pencil test does not lend itself very well to measuring these important standards. There are a variety of ways teachers could choose to administer the test to students. Teachers could give the tasks in a small-group setting or individually and they could choose to give a task each day or complete several tasks in a day. Each task is designed to take a very short amount of time and should be easy for teachers to administer. We are asking the coaches to meet with the first-grade teams at their respective schools as soon as possible in order to give the teachers the information they will need to make this a smooth transition.
Our kindergarten teachers will give the KEEP test as required by the state the same as last year. However, the kindergarten benchmarks will also be in the new format.
We appreciate your help and support and we are excited about this school year. Please let us know if there are ways we can support you and your teachers.