The core business of the school is teaching and learning. In recent years much greater attention has been placed on accurately assessing student achievement with the express purposes being to report on individual achievement and cohort (year level) achievement in comparison to school and national levels and to plan for the teaching needs of individual students and groups of students. We have researched and selected high quality assessment tools that provide us with very useful information. This information is conveyed to you at interviews in terms one and three. You will see examples of the curriculum data, with accompanying analysis of the data. Further examples of student achievement data and analysis can be found by accessing the pages down the side of this page. The information below is a summary of student achievement data that is typically shared at parent interviews and when reporting mid year and end of year.
Stanine
A stanine indicates a student's rank in comparison with other students who took the same test. Stanines are expressed as a scale of nine units with a low of one and a high of nine. The scale follows a bell-shaped curve, where 20 percent of the students fit in stanine 5, four percent in stanine 9, and four percent in stanine 1.In simple terms - if you stood 100 typical NZ students in a line, a student who is wroking at stanine 5 would stand somewhere between number 40 and number 60.
Assessments Using the Stanine Scale
This test measures the child's ability to understand orally presented material of the kind commonly heard. Each stimulus passage contains approximately 100 to 300 words, depending on its type and placement in the test, and is typically followed by five or six multiple-choice items each with four or five options. Recall and inferential questions are included at each class level. In addition to helping teachers detect children whose listening skills are inadequately developed, these tests are useful in identifying those children whose listening comprehension performance is sufficiently different from their reading comprehension to suggest further analysis.
The test is primarily designed to help classroom teachers determine the achievement levels of their students in the knowledge, skills, and understandings of mathematics prescribed by the New Zealand curriculum. The test results will also help teachers to make informed decisions about the kinds of teaching materials, methods, and programmes most suitable for their students.PATMathematics includes questions from all strands of the curriculum. Within each test questions are organised according to 5 categories; number knowledge; number strategies; algebra; geometry and measurement; and statistics.
- STAR (Supplementary Test of Achievement in Reading)
The STAR test provides supplementary assessment in reading. There are 4 subtests; word recognition; sentence comprehension; paragraph comprehension; and vocabulary range.
National Curriculum Levels
The National Curriculum is developed in
levels that cover approximately two years work. elow is the level diagram produced by the Ministry of Education in the New Zealand Curriculum, 2007.
In order to provide you with more accurate data, we have created our own school expectations using data from Schools Like Mine (urban, decile 10 schools). The following table represents the achievement levels expected of students at Campbells Bay School.
The above table is designed to give you an indication of where we reasonably expect students at CBS to be at any given year level. The lighter shading indicates that we would expect a few children to be working at this level, while the darker shading indicates where we expect the majority of students to be. The school uses “
basic, proficient and advanced” to indicate a students progress within a level.
Assessments using the National Curriculum Levels
The majority of teacher assessment within the classroom uses the national curriculum levels as planning is directed by these.
asTTle stands for Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning (He Punaha Aromatawai mo te Whakaako me te Ako). It is an educational resource for assessing literacy and numeracy (in both English and Maori) developed for the Ministry of Education by the University of Auckland.
asTTle enables teachers to create and analyse tests for literacy and numeracy (in English and Maori). The resulting reports show what students know, what gaps they have in their learning, and what they need to learn next. The results also indicate how well students are learning in comparison with other students nationwide. An Internet link is provided to help teachers choose resources that will help move the student learning forward.
asTTle has the edge on other assessment tools worldwide because of its rich interpretation of student performance, and the choice and control it gives teachers over both tests and interpretation of results.
asTTle has the ability to immediately analyse the performance of both individuals and groups, displaying the analysis graphically. Teachers can identify subsequent learning steps for individuals, groups, or classes by linking to an indexed online catalogue of classroom resource (What Next). asTTle software also provides information on the strengths and weaknesses of individuals and groups, and can be used to identify whether progress is being made.
If you have any questions regarding student achievement please contact Teresa Burn, Director of Student Achievement - teresab@campbellsbay.school.nz or 09 4107444