2 of 12

Zachary Elementary School’s ELA Performance on LEAP 2025 Exam

	Student Proficiency	ZES 2025 Goal
2014-2015	50%	87%
2015-2016	53%	87%
2016-2017	55%	87%

Note: Students must score “Mastery” or Advanced” on the LEAP 2025 in the ELA section to be considered Proficient

Source: Zachary Community School District, 2017

3 of 12

Zachary Elementary School’s ELA Performance on LEAP 2025 Exam

Note: Students must score “Mastery” or Advanced” on the LEAP 2025 in the ELA section to be considered Proficient

Source: Zachary Community School District, 2017

4 of 12

Zachary Elementary School’s Goals for the School Improvement Plan

First Goal:

Improve student performance in ELA on the LEAP 2025 exam and class assessments

Second Goal:

Improve all student literacy abilities on classroom assignments and assessments

Third Goal:

Develop a higher level of parental involvement with student literacy and ELA skills

5 of 12

Zachary Elementary School’s Goals for the School Improvement Plan

School Mission Statement:

“Zachary Elementary School commits to fostering each child’s full academic potential, building each child’s self-esteem and empowering each child to become a responsible, respectful, and contributing citizen”

Focusing on student literacy and ELA skills will increase the performance of students in all subject areas and make them the best students they can be
Formative assessments will allow teachers to meet the needs of all diverse learners and tailor instruction to each student
Equitable Opportunities allow all students to become responsible and respectful citizens

6 of 12

Zachary Elementary School’s Strategies for Improvement

First Strategy:

Improving parent communication and hosting a parent night early in the school year to discuss ELA skills and literacy
ZES will advertise a parent-night in August to review student ELA and literacy from previous school years
Presenters will map out tutoring programs, incentives for reading, and formative assessment strategies that will go on throughout the year
The presentation will be livestreamed and a copy of the meeting will be digitally uploaded to the school’s social media and website
“Studies have found explicit connections between increased academic student achievement and parent participation” (Ferlazzo & Hammond, 2009, p. 3)
The effort of the school to involve parents with their students’ performance will create “trusting relationships between the parents and teachers and the school’s commitment towards involving parents as a stakeholder” (Ferlazzo & Hammond, p. 74)

7 of 12

Zachary Elementary School’s Strategies for Improvement

Second Strategy:

Provide professional development on practical formative assessment strategies for literacy and ELA skills to use during the school year
Administrators and teachers research and hire a professional development group to come present during in-service week
Formative Assessment training is needed because many teachers lack “adequate backgrounds and understandings of the fundamental principles of formative assessment to fully capitalize on the uses of these practices” (Robinson et al., 2014, p 142).
Goal is to utilize resources the school already has and avoid using expensive programs
PD would be used to train teachers in formative assessment strategies for literacy and ELA skills:

“Teachers’ participation in the professional development efforts did strengthen their understanding of both general knowledge of formative assessment and the use of formative assessment practices” (Robinson et al., p. 141).

8 of 12

Zachary Elementary School’s Strategies for Improvement

Third Strategy:

Implementing formative assessment strategies throughout the school year and holding on-going, in-house training for formative assessments
Administrators and department heads will ensure teachers are utilizing formative assessment strategies for literacy with fidelity
Faculty and department meetings will be held monthly to review formative assessment practices and provide in-class examples for training
Develop common formative assessments within departments to assess students’ ELA and literacy skills
Continuous use of formative assessments are beneficial because they are used “as an ongoing measure of how students are doing in their learning trajectory”, and teachers can then utilize the results to adjust instruction, which will allow them to “double, triple, and quadruple the learning that goes on” (Zalaznick, 2017, p. 29-30).

9 of 12

Research on Formative Assessment Combined with Summative Assessment

Researchers’ Names:	Fasih Ahmed, Shamim Ali, and Rashid Ali Shah
Describe the design type of research:	The research studied the variation in summative assessments for students in different classes: one where the teacher did use formative assessments in class and one where the teacher did not use formative assessments in class. The teachers from the two groups had to mark and grade the students’ papers.
Identify the participants:	Language teachers and students who were divided into two groups. The first group of teachers had full knowledge of their students’ classroom performance for six months. The second group had no familiarity with their students’ classroom performance.
Describe the research method used:	Each group utilized a test created by language teachers which focused on the written proficiency of their students. The test incorporated reading comprehension, letter writing, and essay writing. Once the common assessment was completed, the two groups tested their students, and the tests were graded.
Describe the outcome:	The researchers asked the teachers with six months’ experience with their students to grade the tests and to keep in mind each student’s overall performance involved in the test grading process. The other group simply graded the test based on their experience with the test itself. According to the research, “the group of teachers who were familiar with students’ classroom performances were noticed having higher means values [of grades] as compared to the group of teachers who were unfamiliar of the learners’ classroom performances” (Ahmed et al., 2019, p. 117). The teachers who were more familiar with their students “stressed that summative assessment should be linked to formative assessment as it provides a better understanding of students’ performance” (Ahmed et al., p. 116). The researchers argued that “one of the reasons for this higher mean value may be teachers’ awareness of students’ formative assessment”, and there is “a synergy between summative and formative assessment” (Ahmed et al., p. 109).

10 of 12

Results of SWOT Analysis for Formative Assessment Strategies for Literacy & ELA Skills

Strengths	Weaknesses	Opportunities	Threats
Formative assessments provide instant feedback to students about their abilities and comprehension with material	Formative assessments are very time consuming for teachers to implement	Teachers would create more meaningful assignments that contribute towards literacy and ELA skills	Teachers would not finish covering necessary content or skills prior to the LEAP 2025 exam
Formative assessments inform the teacher how well students have grasped the material being taught	Teachers will extend a unit’s time frame by constantly grading formative assessments as opposed to a summative assessment	Lesson planning and teaching would evolve and build upon each lesson to serve student needs in literacy and ELA skills	Parents would not encourage literacy or students to adapt to formative assessments at school
Formative assessments allow a teacher to redevelop their lesson plan to better suit the needs of individual students or class periods	Since formative assessments take more time, that means there is less time for teaching	Equitable opportunities are being provided for diverse learners with literacy and ELA skills	Administrators do not enforce formative assessment strategies with fidelity in the classroom
Formative assessments do not encourage students to just memorize facts or content for a test, like summative assessments	Students may be confused or unmotivated by formative assessments as opposed to points and grades of a summative assessment	Students would develop a deeper understanding of literacy concepts and vocabulary	Teachers and students fail to buy-in to the new formative assessment strategies

11 of 12

Zachary Elementary School’s Evaluation Plan for Implementation of the Strategy

LEAP 2025 Exam

Third and fourth graders will be assessed at the end of the year on their literacy and ELA skills on the state’s standardized exam

Common Formative Assessments

Subject-area teachers will work together to create common formative assessments to monitor student progress with ELA & Literacy skills

Administration & Dept. Head Observations

Administrators and teacher leaders will observe classes to evaluate the progress and implementation of formative assessments for ELA & Literacy skills

12 of 12

References

Ahmed, F., Ali, S., & Shah, R. A. (2019). Exploring variation in summative assessment: Language teachers’ knowledge of students’ formative assessment and its effect on their summative assessment. Bulletin of Education and Research, 41(2), 109-119.
Ferlazzo, L. & Hammond, L. A. (2009). Building parent engagement in schools. Linworth.
Kumar, B. & Spector, M. (2017). Formative assessment in complex problem-solving domains: The emerging role of assessment technologies. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 20(4), 312-317.
Robinson, J., Myran, S., Strauss, R., & Reed, W. (2014). The impact of an alternative professional development model on teacher practices in formative assessment and student learning. Teacher Development, 18(2), 141-143.
Zachary Community School District. (2017). Zachary Elementary School Improvement Plan. https://zacharyelementary.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/ZES-School-Improvement- Plan-2017-2018.pdf
Zalaznick, M. (2017). Assessment shift: Districts increase focus on formative approaches to generate real-time data, reduce high stakes exams. District Administration, 53(10), 29-32.