Assessment

ZPS class instruction works toward deeper understanding in academic areas that are measured by high-order assessments. These daily assessments take many forms (quizzes, short writing assignments, group projects, oral reports, etc.) and are the basis for differentiated instruction the next day. They also help ensure that students are progressing against their PLPs. This type of assessment helps demonstrate how deeply students have been able to think about the lesson’s essential questions and whether the teacher has been successful in building their understanding of the subject and targeted thinking skill, or if changes are needed.

The adoption of standards-based learning and grading will be followed to raise its academic standards and measure student growth in critical-thinking and complex-problem-solving skill. ZPS will begin mapping their curricula to the Cambridge framework content standards, and in their maps, teachers will identify the ways in which they intended to assess their students’ work against these standards. Standards-based grading is the natural and inevitable completion of this work – the means by which we share with students and parents the results of these assessments and align teacher Grade Books and student Grade Reports with our teaching standards.