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Policy ILA
Maine law requires that every school board adopt and fully implement a student assessment system as the measure of student progress toward achievement of the content standards of the system of Learning Results.
A student assessment system is defined as a coordinated collection of assessments administered to students that, as a whole, provides information on individual students, the school, and the school administrative unit with respect to achievement of the content standards of the system of Learning Results.
Through this policy, the Board adopts and directs the Superintendent to implement the South Portland School Department District Student Assessment System. The Superintendent shall be responsible for reviewing the Student Assessment System for compliance with applicable statutes and rules.
The purpose of the District Student Assessment System is to provide information that will be used to guide and enhance classroom instruction and monitor student progress with respect to the school system curriculum and Maine’s Learning Results. In addition, the Student Assessment System is designed to provide information on student achievement in order to evaluate educational programs and practices and to make informed decisions related to curriculum and instruction, professional development, and the allocation of resources to better meet students’ needs.
The following general principles apply to the District Student Assessment System.
Assessments will be aligned with the curriculum and with the performance indicators of the content standards of the Learning Results.
The District Student Assessment System will use multiple measures of student learning for each grade span (K-5, 6-8, and 9-12). The assessment measures shall be developmentally appropriate for the age span.
The System is intended to provide for a fair and equitable opportunity for students to demonstrate knowledge and understanding.
The System will include at a minimum classroom, school, school administrative unit, and state levels of assessment. Regional and commercially produced tests may be used, but commercially produced tests may not carry a majority of the weight in determining student performance.
Neither the Maine Educational Assessment (MEA), the SAT, nor a commercially produced test may be the only measure of student achievement.
Efforts shall be made to see that testing contributes to the learning process rather than detracts from it.
Accommodations may be made in an assessment based on the needs of a student as established in the student’s Individualized Education Plan, his/her Section 504 plan, or, as is typical within classroom instruction, in accordance with MEA accommodations guidelines.
The Superintendent, through his/her designee, will be responsible for the design of the District Student Assessment System. The Board expects that there will be input from teachers and administrators in the development and refinement of the System.
The Board recognizes that teachers and school administrators will be primarily responsible for administering assessments and for collecting, organizing, and interpreting information. School personnel should be appropriately trained to develop, use, and adapt assessment data.
The Superintendent will be responsible for ensuring that provisions are made for review and analysis of information obtained through the District Student Assessment System and for appropriate instructional intervention when individual students or groups of students fail to achieve performance standards.
The Superintendent will be responsible for implementing a record-keeping and reporting system that will be used to provide understandable information to the Board and to students, parents, teachers/professional staff, administrators, and the community. Data will be presented in a way that conveys school and school unit performance on the content areas of the system of Learning Results and allows for comparison to statewide performance.
The Board will annually review the results of the District Student Assessment System.
Legal Reference: 20-A M.R.S.A. § 6201-6205
Ch. 127 §§ 2, 4 (Me. Dept. of Ed. Rules)
Adopted: June 9, 2003
Revised: June 14, 2004
Revised: December 10, 2007
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