When we created our Learning Specialist department in 2004, we envisioned it as a program to help all learners at Saint Clare School. One of the most important ways the program reaches students in grades K-3 is through our Tri-Annual Assessment Program, administered through the Learning Specialist Department. Three times a year – September, January and May – all K-6 students meet one-on-one with their teachers to check basic reading milestones. The assessments take anywhere from 5 – 15 minutes per student, depending on the grade level; we collect more data in kindergarten, for example, than we do in 3^rd grade. At the same three times each year, teachers should do a whole-group math assessment and collect a short writing sample from each student.

The goals of this effort are three-fold:

1) Parent Communication: We recognize that parents are the primary educators of their children. We want to make every effort to identify shortfalls in your child’s learning as early as possible, and communicate them to you. Falling behind in one or two areas doesn’t necessarily indicate a serious problem, but we want parents to have the maximum opportunity to help their children master classroom skills. When we tell you about a discrepancy we see, it gives school and home the opportunity to concentrate our energies in the same areas. You can relax knowing we are looking for problems – big and small – and reporting them promptly.

2) Objective Data: While subjective experiences are at the heart of the student-teacher relationship, it’s also important to base educational judgments and decisions on objective data whenever possible. Our assessment supports this goal.

3) Early Identification: Finally, and most critically, regular assessment allows us to seek and find kids who struggle in school as early as we can. Current research tells us that students with learning differences who are identified and helped by the end of first grade have stunning educational and psychological advantages over their later-identified peers. We are committed to casting a wide net in the hopes of finding problems before school failure occurs.

As we become more comfortable with the new assessment program, you will be hearing more from us because we are committed to sharing data and even minor concerns with you. Please do not let what we hope is an increased level and quality of communication worry you; the goal of our program is more calls home, more e-mails, more parent conferences.

Our program includes “Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills” (DIBELS) monitoring K-6, a program developed at the University of Oregon and used with over 1.5 million students across the country. Using this program allows us to look at our students in a more national context, and use assessment based on the most current academic research. As you can imagine, the logistics of a single teacher testing each student one-on-one three times a year is a hurdle we are still trying to overcome, but we are committed to reaching this challenging new educational standard.