Educators Share Strategies for Successful VKRP Spring Term
Ah, spring-the season that brings flowers, showers, and… assessments! You and your students have worked together all year learning new concepts and skills. Spring brings the opportunity to assess student growth and address where additional instruction may be needed before the school year ends.
This week’s blog highlights strategies and tips shared by teachers and administrators across the Commonwealth to practice, plan for, and implement assessments. While not every strategy shared will work for every school/program, we hope you will find nuggets of wisdom to facilitate a smooth assessment season.
Practicing
As teachers complete the recommended steps for preparing for assessments, they have consistently shared that reviewing the Child Behavior Rating Scale (CBRS) items and using the Early Mathematics Assessment System (EMAS) practice assessments were extremely helpful when preparing for assessments.
Reviewing the CBRS items helps to keep those behaviors and skills you will be rating in mind while observing students in the weeks leading up to the assessments. (Spoiler alert: The next blog will take a closer look at best practices and strategies for observing children’s behaviors and skills on the CBRS.) To access a copy of the CBRS, visit the Assessment Guides tab in the VKRP web portal as shown below and navigate to Essential Documents.
Additionally, accessing the EMAS practice assessment not only allows you to familiarize yourself with the script but also helps you with organizing the manipulatives and materials for smooth administration and giving you the chance to double check you have all materials. To locate the EMAS practice assessments, visit the Assessment Guides tab and click on Access Practice Assessments.
Planning
A familiar theme from programs and divisions was an emphasis on planning for VKRP assessments.
Location:
For the EMAS, many teachers designate a space in or near their classrooms to conduct the assessments, which allows them to organize the manipulatives and to create a quiet space where students are free from classroom distractions.
Schedule:
Teachers expressed the importance of developing an assessment schedule. Some teachers spread their assessments over the course of the assessment window, conducting a few assessments each day. Other teachers work in teams with one or two teachers leading instruction for a larger group of children while another teacher assesses for the day. Some administrators encourage teachers to frontload their schedule at the start of the assessment window to allow for student absences or unexpected events that could interfere with assessments later in the window.
Class List:
Prior to the opening of the spring assessment term, teachers reported checking their rosters on the VLP (Virginia Literacy Partnerships) and VKRP sites to ensure student names were all entered correctly. Any students who moved were deleted from their class rosters and newly enrolled students were added. Managing classroom rosters takes place on the VLP site. Please keep in mind that once this information is entered on the VLP site, it takes 24 hours for it to sync to the VKRP database, so planning is important to ensure all current rostered students are accurate prior to starting assessments.
Implementing
Many teachers, especially in pre-k, noted that they use the module-by-module approach for the EMAS administration. Teachers complete module one, Geometry, with all students and then move to module two, Patterning, with all students and then continue this method on to module 3 and later module 4. The EMAS assessment in the VKRP online system is programmed to save the responses entered as you progress through the assessment, letting you exit the assessment and resume later.
VKRP guidance is that lead teachers complete VKRP assessments. However, we know that many individuals work together to support students’ development. Whoever supports students can review data together and develop plans for additional instructional support for their shared students.
For the CBRS, teachers often confer with other teachers or staff who regularly interact with or observe a student to capture their abilities across contexts. It can be helpful to incorporate the behaviors and skills they notice into your ratings. Different teachers interact with students at varying times of the day and during different activities and therefore, incorporating others’ observations into your ratings can be helpful in assessing behaviors and skills from many perspectives.
Teachers have shared that their administrators/directors are a source of support during assessment season. They help to collaborate on scheduling, classroom coverage, and protected time for preparation. Teachers and administrators work together to track completion progress, so assessments are completed within the program/division’s specific assessment window.
These are only a few of the creative implementation ideas from divisions, schools, and programs across the Commonwealth. If you and your colleagues have any strategies that have worked for you, please share with us and we will include them in a future blog.
During your preparation for the spring 2024 assessment term, the VKRP recommends reviewing the previous two blogs if you have not already: Review of the VKRP Online Modules and Preparing for the VKRP Spring 2024 Term.
In the meantime, please know the VKRP Team is here to support you as you prepare for and conduct assessments. If you have questions, please reach out at vkrp@virginia.edu or 866-301-8278 or via the support chat in the VKRP system.
More Questions for the VKRP Team? VKRP provides support via the online chat feature when you are in the system, via email vkrp@virginia.edu, and via toll free 866-301-8278
