(June 1, 2015) The Hudson City School District’s Teaching Is the Core team has developed an Assessment Action Plan. The plan is guided by recommendations resulting from the use of the Assessment Rubric Scoring criteria by the Regional Assessment Review teams that examined the following four attributes of assessments used in the district: rigor, comparability, supports learning goals, and diverse assesment techniques. Another factor considered within the recommendations includes timeliness of assessment results.
The TitC Action Plan is a commitment to the school district to review recommendations from the Assessment Rubric Scoring Tool alongside district assessment policy, practices, and instructional goals then identify strategies to implement recommendations, including professional development to ensure faculty and staff receive support.Click here to download HCSD’s TitC Assessment Action Plan
(April 1, 2015) Hudson City School District (CSD) is part of a consortium of local school districts led by Questar III BOCES that received a $399,314 “Teaching is the Core” grant from the New York State Education Department to review and improve student assessment practices this school year. Hudson CSD will work with Brunswick CSD, Cairo-Durham CSD, Catskill CSD, Coxsackie-Athens CSD, Hoosick Falls SD, New Lebanon CSD, North Greenbush CSD, Questar III BOCES, Rensselaer City CSD, Tech Valley High School, and Wynantskill UFSD.
As part of this grant, each district has organized a review team comprised of teachers and administrators to identify and improve assessments. Through the assessment review process, a total of 453 teacher created assessments were collected and reviewed throughout the Questar III region. Hudson CSD submitted 93 assessments for review. The recommendations given to Hudson CSD as a result of the 93 assessments reviewed were to keep 12 assessments, revise 58 assessments and eliminate or significantly revise 23 assessments.
As the process continues, districts will now develop an action plan to address the results of the assessment review including identifying and implementing performance-based assessments that can be used to measure student learning and school and educator effectiveness. This may include essay writing, completion of projects, real-world problem solving skills, and experiments where students demonstrate knowledge and skills.
Districts will also establish a parent engagement program to share information concerning how parents can support learning at home and how assessments inform instruction and help children learn.
“Assessments are an essential way for our teachers and administrators to identify areas where we can improve our instruction,” said Coordinator of School Improvement April Prestipino. “The Teaching Is the Core grant will help us ensure that we are using assessments to their full potential, guiding our curriculum and shaping the conversations we have about instruction and student learning. ”
(October 1, 2014) A consortium of local school districts led by Questar III BOCES will receive $399,314 in grant funding to review and improve student assessment practices this school year. The Hudson City SD is part of this consortium.
Questar III received a “Teaching is the Core” grant from the New York State Education Department to work with Brunswick CSD, Cairo-Durham CSD, Catskill CSD, Coxsackie-Athens CSD, Hoosick Falls CSD, Hudson City SD, New Lebanon CSD, North Greenbush CSD, Rensselaer CSD, Tech Valley High School, and Wynantskill UFSD.
As part of this grant, each district will organize a review team comprised of teachers and administrators to identify and improve high-quality assessments. This grant will advance a priority of New York’s Commissioner of Education John B. King and the State Board of Regents to eliminate or modify locally adopted tests that are redundant or do not advance teaching and learning.
“The objective of this grant includes limiting the amount of testing our students take and insuring that each test administered is of high-quality. Quality tests help us to use accurate data to drive our instructional decisions to improve student achievement,” said Superintendent Maria Suttmeier.
Through this process, districts will identify and implement performance-based assessments that can be used to measure student learning and school and educator effectiveness. This may include essay writing, completion of projects, real-world problem solving and conduct of experiments where students demonstrate knowledge and skills.
Districts will also establish a parent engagement program to share information concerning how parents can support learning at home and how assessments inform instruction and help children learn.