Allison Simons

CIL 621

Comparing Assessments Used within the Clark County School District:

Aimsweb, SBAC, and MAP Growth
As a new teacher entering third grade, I have had multiple teachers tell me that the biggest
downfall with third grade is testing. I have had teachers describe the various assessments, such as the
SBAC, aimsweb, and MAP growth. Depending on the teacher I spoke with, I would hear a different
opinion of the test and reasoning for why the test is conducted. Since my future class will be partaking in
these assessments, it is important that I understand the purpose of the assessment and how to go about
preparing my students for them as well as how I can use them in my class. I decided to focus my
assessment review on AIMSweb, MAP growth, and SBAC.

According to the Aimsweb website, Aimsweb was designed as a formative assessment to help
teachers collect data on Student’s Rate of Improvement (ROI) in relation to their grade levels
benchmarking and goals. Within the platform of AIMSweb, students can also be screened for the
Shaywitz Dyslexia Screen and Bess Behavior Screening

Aimsweb can report students’ progress as often as weekly, if a teacher desires it, however
teachers would need to use the program multiple times each week to generate results. In order to gain a
General Outcome Measurement, according to Shinn (2002) [Aimsweb assessment] “is conducted 3 times
per year, allowing teachers to make data based and meaningful changes in their instruction 1-2 times per
year. Frequent formative evaluation may be as often as twice per week.”

There are many benefits of Aimsweb. According to the Reports section of the Aimsweb website,
It assists teachers to determine and report individual development by calculating the individual’s ROI in
comparison with others in the same grade who are at the same level. To do this, students must have
similar scores after their initial assessment. Aimsweb also allows teachers to view students results to see
what areas of benchmarks students are high achieving in and what needs to be taught more. As stated
before, Aimsweb allows teachers the opportunity to change their instruction based on the findings of the
assessment. It also allows teachers to group students for differentiated instructing by showing which
students are achieving the same results in different subjects.

After researching Aimsweb I think that it is a beneficial tool to teachers. Perhaps the teachers I
have spoken with were not shown all of its capabilities or are already overwhelmed with the many other
duties required of them, which is why they described it negatively. I think that this will be a great tool for
my first year of teaching, whether to determine students at risk of an RTI, to differentiatie instruction or to
focus on subjects that need to be taught more.
Allison Simons
CIL 621

Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) has multiple types of assessments, the
summative assessment that takes place at the end of the year and two formative assessments, which are
used depending on if the school/ district chooses to. The Regents of the Univeristy of California (2018)
described each of the assessments as being “aligned to the Common Core State Standards” and was
designed to “improve teaching and learning.”

The two formative assessments are the Interim Comprehensive Assessments (ICAs) and Interim
Assessment Blocks (IABs). The ICAs test students on the same content as the summative assessment. The
IABs test students on related content that is “focused on smaller sets”. Both assessments are similar to
Aimsweb, in that each are supposed to help teachers to understand what knowledge students have
acquired and where students need more instruction. The summative assessment is used to check if
students have gained comprehension of the targeted content for their grade level, which is determined by
the Common Core State Standards. As well as to check if teachers are providing enough instruction on
those subjects.

CCSD uses both of the formative and summative assessments, which I think is necessary if
teachers are to be judged on their performance based on the summative assessment. It would be pointless
to judge a teacher based solely on the summative assessment, without giving them the resources
(formative assessments) to see where students are, in regard to their CCSS knowledge acquisition,
throughout the year.

I feel that the SBAC and Aimsweb assessments are very similar in that their objectives are to
provide teachers with information to differentiate instruction through score reports generated by students
and to check whether a student is gaining the standards of knowledge appropriate for their grade level.

However, there are some key differentiations between the two assessments. Aimsweb is useful in
that teachers can use it multiple times a month and change their instruction methods or content to be
instructed based on the findings, whereas the SBAC formative assessments can not be used as often.
However, Aimsweb does not have a summative assessment. Also, Aimsweb is more focused on student
growth throughout the year, while SBAC is focused on determining whether a student has acquired the
necessary amount of knowledge of a CCSS for their grade level.

Measure of Academic Progress (MAP Growth) is another assessment used within CCSD. The
MAP Growth website (2018) states that “MAP Growth reveals how much growth has occurred between
testing events and, when combined with our norms, shows projected proficiency. Educators can track
growth through the school year and over multiple years.” When reading through the MAP Growth
website, I began to think, “This is ridiculous… another assessment that focuses on testing students on the
Allison Simons
CIL 621

same things to once again provide teachers with the opportunity to differentiate instruction.” I decided
that I needed to look more in depth about how CCSD uses MAP Growth within the district to better
understand why so many assessments were being used.

As briefly surmised before, like SBAC and aimsweb, MAP growth is designed to allow teachers
to view how their students are fairing in acquiring grade level knowledge and allows them the opportunity
to differentiate instruction based on the results of the assessment. However, within CCSD, MAP Growth
is only for students K-5 (Focus on Assessment, 2017). Unlike aimsweb and SBAC, MAP growth is used
by CCSD to test students within these grade levels on their reading foundational skills only. MAP growth
does have assessments available for other subjects and grade levels, but they are not used within CCSD.

Like the SBAC, MAP Growth adapts the difficulty of its questions based upon the users correct
or incorrect answers to previous questions. Upon reading this, I found that MAP growth was being used
for a logical purpose, rather than another redundant test. I think that using the assessment to test students
foundational reading skills is a beneficial tool, especially since it allows teachers to investigate what
might be causing students the most difficulty, such as phonics, comprehension, etc.

After researching the multiple assessments and how each is used within CCSD, I found that the
assessments are useful and do have a purpose in our school district. However, since each of the
assessments are conducted multiple times a year, I can’t help but to wonder how much time is being taken
away from the instruction to take these assessments and to prepare students for these assessments by
teaching study or computer skills. This time could be used to teach the subjects that students are being
tested on. While researching these assessments uses within CCSD, I found that there are many other tests
being used as well. I find myself torn between thinking that the use of these assessments in the Clark
Country School District is excessive or whether it is necessary and beneficial. However, I think that it is
best that I feel this way, as I have yet to use these assessments as an educator. Although, I do not yet have
an opinion of the effectiveness of these tests, I do feel more confident in knowing each assessment’s
purpose and how I as an educator can use each one for the benefit of my students and myself.
Allison Simons
CIL 621

References:

Shinn, Mark R. “Progress Monitoring [PDF].” Aimsweb Training Workbook, 2002, p. 6.,
www.cnyric.org/tfiles/folder1052/Progress%20Monitoring%20Guide.pdf.

Universal Benchmark Screening. (2018). Retrieved March 26, 2018, from

https://www.aimsweb.com/universal-benchmark-screening

Reports | aimswebPlus. (2018). Retrieved March 27, 2018, from https://www.aimsweb.com/reports

Demonstrating Student Growth | aimswebPlus. (2018). Retrieved March 26, 2018, from
https://www.aimsweb.com/student-growth

The Regents of the Univeristy of California (2018). Assessments. Retrieved from

http://www.smarterbalanced.org/assessments/

Instructional Services Unit. (2017, September). Focus on Assessment. Retrieved from

http://www.ccsd.net/resources/assessment-accountability-research-school-improvement-division/focus-
on-assessment-2.8.pdf

Assessment / MAP Guide for Parents. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.washoeschools.net/Page/854