Fifth Grade District Assessments

Grade	Subject	Assessment	Section	Skills	NPS/NJDOE	Date
Fifth	LAL	Writing Tasks	Narrative Writing	Writing in response to prompt read by teacher	NPS	Fall & Spring
Fifth	LAL	Novels	Reading Comprehension	Reading Comprehension of a novel	NPS	November & May
Fifth	LAL	Harcourt Placement & Diagnostic Assessment	Multiple reading tasks	Comprehension, vocabulary, phonemic awareness, phonics	Harcourt	Fall
Fifth	LAL	Oral Reading Fluency	Oral Reading Fluency	Oral Reading Fluency	NPS	November, January, & March
Fifth	Math	Fall Problem Solving Tasks	Math Problem Solving	Math Problem Solving	NPS
Fifth	Math	Unit Assessments for Everyday Math Text	Standards-based Assessments	CCCS & CPIs for fifth grade	Textbook	Unit assessments
Fifth	Math	Midyear & final assessments	Same content & format as state assessments	CCCS & CPIs for first grade	NPS	January & June
Fifth	LAL & Math	SPA	Reading, writing, & math	Reading, writing, & math	NPS	Spring
Fifth	Science	Foss & FTC Modules	Foss & FTC Modules	Science	NPS

Language Arts Literacy Assessments

Student writes a narrative story for 25 minutes in response to a prompt read by the teacher. The teacher scores this narrative using the Registered Holistic Scoring Rubric method, where a student can earn 1-6 points. A rubric score of 4 is expected in the 5th grade. Review class data sheet for all students to see if selected student scores above/below benchmark and how they perform compared to classmates identify and address each student’s strengths and weaknesses in classroom instruction, school-based interventions, special education evaluations and reports, as well as IEP PLAAFP statements, goals and objectives, and addressed with lesson plans.

In addition to the overall rubric score we should note the criteria skills that were and were not exhibited from NJDOE’s rubric. This analysis can guide instruction, including setting goals and addressing weaknesses. In this endeavor, note the following skills from NJDOE’s rubric:

1. Content / Organization - communicates intended message to intended audience; relates to topic; opening and closing; focused; logical progression of ideas; transitions; & appropriate details and information

2. Usage - tense formation; subject-verb agreement; pronouns usage/ agreement; word choice/meaning; & proper modifiers)

3. Sentence Construction - variety of type, structures, and length; & correct construction

In addition, NJDOE’s Editing & Revising Rubric, Author’s Self Reporting Form, as well as Cumulative Progress Indicators can be utilized to identify strengths and weaknesses to be addressed in lesson plans, school-based interventions, special education evaluations and reports and integrated into IEPs (e.g., PLAAFP Statements, Goals & Objectives, & Supplementary Aids and Services).

The following research-based instructional strategies can address identified weaknesses and included in lesson plans, school-based interventions, and/or as supplemental aids and services to address IEP goals and objectives, based on a student’s needs:

4. Provide student with frequent writing experiences in all content areas to build confidence and competence.

Reading Assessments

Format & Tasks

All students in the 5^th grade read the same novel in the fall and another novel in the Spring. There are classroom activities where the text is discussed, multiple perspectives are shared, & insights are gained. In December & May all 5^th grade students are given the same assessment on these two books. The assessments are given on the same day throughout the district and take place during a 40-minute period. The assessments also follow the same format as the State's standards-based assessments. There are 10 multiple-choice questions worth 5 points each and 2 open-ended questions worth 25 points each. Each open-ended question utilizes the NJDOE scoring rubric with the following point allocations: rubric score of 4 = 25 points; rubric score of 3 = 15 points; rubric score of 2 = 10 points; rubric score of 1 = 5 points; & rubric score of 0 = 0 points.

Knowledge/skills being assessed

4. Paraphrasing, retelling, or interpreting words, phrases, or sentences from the text

The student’s performance on the above skills can assist in identifying strengths and weakness, which can be addressed in lesson plans, school-based interventions, special education evaluations/reports, and integrated into IEPs (e.g., PLAAFP Statements, Goals & Objectives, & Supplementary Aids and Services). The district’s curriculum and the Harcourt textbook resources can be utilized to enrich skills where strengths are noted and address weaknesses.

Instructional Implications

Based on the item analysis of the reading skills being assessed, strengths and weaknesses will be identified. The district’s curriculum and the Harcourt textbook resources can be utilized to enrich skills where strengths are noted and address weaknesses. In addition, NJDOE’s cumulative progress indicators, framework activities, as well as vignettes can be utilized to enrich identified strengths and address areas of weakness. These reading strengths & weaknesses can be addressed in lesson plans, school-based interventions, special education evaluations and reports and integrated into IEPs (e.g., PLAAFP Statements, Goals & Objectives, & Supplementary Aids and Services).

Format & Content – The student is presented with multiple reading tasks that assess performance in reading comprehension, reading vocabulary, phonemic awareness, & phonics.

Instructional Implications – This assessment identifies student’s strengths & weaknesses, which can be addressed in lesson plans, school-based interventions, special education evaluations and reports and integrated into IEPs (e.g., PLAAFP Statements, Goals & Objectives, & Supplementary Aids and Services). .

Students are required to read appropriate grade level narrative or expository text within a timed interval. The Oral Reading Fluency assessment provides a teacher the opportunity to assess oral reading fluency, compute a fluency score, interpret the score, and make comparisons of progress at intervals throughout the school year. This individualized assessment requires the teacher to take a running record of student performance measuring accuracy as well as reading rate. This observable and measurable data should be identified as strengths and weaknesses in school-based interventions, special education evaluations and reports, as well as IEP PLAAFP statements, goals and objectives, and addressed with lesson plans.

Math Assessments

These assessments are designed by the district and are similar in format to the New Jersey Standardized assessments.

On the mid-term and finals, there are both multiple-choice and open-ended questions. Most of the questions are multiple-choice, where the student chooses the best answer from among 4 choices and uses an answer sheet to darken in the circle of the correct choice. For the open-ended questions, the student writes and/or draws answers to these questions in the open-ended booklet provided with the test.

The open-ended questions are scored with specifically designed Scoring Rubrics for math that gives 0 to 3 points for each answer. The rubrics help ensure that students are scored in the same way for the same demonstration of knowledge and skills regardless of the scorer. The open-ended questions require students to construct and explain their own written or graphic responses. Students earn points by showing their work and clearly explaining how a solution was reached.

The unit assessments are part of the Everyday Mathematics series published by McGraw Hill. These assessments are closely aligned to the NJCCCS and are administered at the end of each unit. The questions on these assessments contain both pure computation and word problems. In addition, teachers may use the Assessment Assistant (a component of Everyday Math) to tailor computer-generated assessments formatted in the same way as the unit tests to the needs of the class.

As part of the Grade 5 Everyday Math Kit, each teacher receives an Assessment Handbook. The handbook contains masters for individual student profiles and class profiles correlated to the objectives unit by unit. Teachers are encouraged to use this as part of daily on-going assessment in conjunction with portfolio assessment of students.

Performance assessment tasks for children in grades K-8 that meet national standards to improve assessment and instruction have been downloaded to all networked Newark Public School computer labs. Each EXEMPLAR includes a performance task and the context for the assignment, a specific rubric, annotated benchmark papers at Novice, Apprentice, Practitioner and Expert levels, concepts to be assessed and skills to be developed, interdisciplinary links and teaching tips, possible solutions, suggestions on how students might carry out the task, and the estimated time required.

The SPA assessments are similar in content and design to NJ-ASK, GEPA, and HSPA. It is a standards-based assessment given to all Newark’s 5^th grade students in March; however, it assesses CPI expectations for the end of the 5^th grade. In addition, although it utilizes multiple-choice and open-ended questions, evaluated with scoring rubrics, the reporting out doesn’t provide this type of differentiated feedback, nor an item analysis on how each student performs on each assessed skill. Consequently, the ability to identify each student’s strengths and weaknesses is very limited.

The various subjects are reported as scale scores that range from 100 to 300, and help identify various proficiency levels of our students in each assessed subject. If the student is in the "Advanced Proficient" or "Proficient" level, he/she has met the state standards for that content area. A student needs to achieve a minimum score of 200 to achieve proficiency in that subject. On the other hand, scores below 200 are in the "Partially Proficient" level, which means that the student has not met the state's minimum level of proficiency in that subject. Clearly, on a global level, the proficiency level in LAL and Math can identify strengths and weaknesses.

In addition, each student’s Individual Student’s Report (ISR) allows for a cluster analysis for each subject. Each subject (Language Arts Literacy & Math) has subtotals for all the clusters of skills that make up that subject.

This section of the ISR compares the student’s performance in each particular cluster skill to other students who just achieved proficiency (score of 200) on the overall assessment. Therefore, relative strengths and/or weaknesses may be cautiously identified for students performing above &/or below this “Just Proficient Mean” respectively. These relative strengths and weaknesses should be integrated into special education evaluations and reports, IEP PLAAFP statements and goals/objectives, and classroom instructional activities. (For a more comprehensive analysis of a student’s assessment results see the Example of an analysis of Individual Student Report (ISR)

However, to get a true picture of each student’s strengths and weaknesses in the general education curriculum his/her scores on the SPA must be supplemented with class work, homework, teacher-made tests, district wide assessments discussed above, and the Cumulative Progress Indicators, which specify the expectations by the end of the 5^th grade on learning New Jersey’s Core Curriculum Content Standards (CCCS), referenced on the bottom of this page.

Science:

Foss & FTC Modules

-FOSS assessment takes the form of informal teacher observation and teacher questioning. The teacher guide suggests behavior to watch for during investigations and questions to ask about the content. Assessments fall into two categories: formative and summative. Formative assessments are integrated into instruction. Based on these two means of assessment, teachers will know how to adjust their teaching for individual students or for the whole class. A recording system is included.

The above district wide and statewide assessments are aligned with New Jersey's Core Curriculum Content Standards. Therefore, teachers, parents, administrators, school-based intervention teams and/or IEP teams can utilize the hyperlinked CPI (cumulative progress indicator) checklists developed by the Newark Teachers Union (NTU) for reading, writing, math, and science to identify strengths and weaknesses, in the corresponding grade's knowledge/skills. These strengths and weaknesses can be integrated into teachers' lessons, school-based interventions, special education evaluations/corresponding reports, and IEPs (e.g., PLAAFP statements, goals/objectives, and supplementary aids and services.

Subject	Cluster Skills
Language Arts Literacy	Writing and Reading
Math	Number sense, operations, & properties; Spatial sense & geometry; Data analysis, probability, & discrete mathematics; Patterns & algebra