MONROE - Parkside Elementary School and the Monroe Charter School have been selected as scientific pilots for the new Smarter Balanced Assessment.
Dan Keyser, the Monroe School District's director of curriculum and instruction, said the district has volunteered to pilot the Smarter Based Assessment, and each school will take one version of test in the spring as the Department of Public Instruction pilots the test.
The Smarter Balanced Assessment is a new computer-adaptive online test in English and math that will replace the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examination in the 2014-15 school year. Keyser sees it as a win since the district and students can become more prepared with the expectations of the new assessment.
"We feel strongly that with the Smarter Balanced Assessment pilot we will get a sneak peek of what it looks like and feels like, and it's in the best interest of our students," Keyser said.
Wisconsin is in the third year of development in a four-year transition from the current WKCE assessment to the Smarter Balanced Assessment system. The state will start limited field testing in third grade through high school Feb. 20 to May 10, 2013.
Parkside School students will be a part of the scientific pilot of the English Smarter Balanced Assessment and the charter school students will take the math assessment. The other schools in the district will be part of a voluntary pilot. These schools will administer one version of the test in the second half of testing in the spring.
Keyser said only about 10 percent of schools in the state will be part of the scientific pilot and will have input on tweaking the test.
"By participating in this pilot, each school has the opportunity to provide feedback and influence decisions regarding the design and administration of the actual assessments," he said.
All schools in the pilot whether on a voluntary or scientific basis will have training opportunities through webinars.
In other action, the board:
• Approved to cap virtual school advertising at $15,000. The district plans an online advertising campaign and won't advertise on TV or radio.
"We are only going to focus on the online component," Monroe Business Manager Ron Olson said.
Last year the district spent about $50,000 on virtual school advertising and two years ago they spent about $100,000.
• Approved spending $14,000 for a Matrix Data Warehousing and Visualization System from AlofE Solutions. The matrix provides an interactive data warehouse the district will use to store WKCE, MAP testing, DIBELS testing, Aims Web testing, EXPLORE, Plan and ACT testing data. The data system allows for custom reports and graphs to be created.
• Monroe Athletic Director Dave Hirsbrunner gave a fall sports report. Hirsbrunner said the average finish of the fall sports team was seventh in the seven-team Badger South Conference. He highlighted the all-conference and postseason accomplishments of athletes. He is tracking the participation of the one, two and three-sport athletes.
Board member Amy Bazley questioned if the district ever had an audit of their sports offerings and funding similar to the way the high school reviews course offerings.
"Are we offering certain sports because of nostalgia and could our kids be better served by adding other sports?, Bazley questioned. "Are the sports we (are) offering meeting the needs of students today?
If certain sports are added now, the board has had a model of having them be self-funded like soccer and boys hockey.
"I don't know if we are doing justice to some sports if they come in after the cut-off date."
Monroe School Board President Bob Erb questioned whether the WIAA has looked at conference realignment in the Badger South Conference.
Monroe is the second smallest school in the conference.
Hirsbrunner said conference realignment hasn't come up for the Badger South, but there has been talk about Madison Edgewood possibly joining one of the conferences with other Madison area schools.
• Honored Sara Compton, a fifth grade teacher at Northside Elementary School, with a Monroe Lamp of Learning Staff Excellence Award for December.
• School board candidacy papers have to be filed by Jan. 2, 2013. Non-candidacy papers are due by Dec. 21.
Dan Keyser, the Monroe School District's director of curriculum and instruction, said the district has volunteered to pilot the Smarter Based Assessment, and each school will take one version of test in the spring as the Department of Public Instruction pilots the test.
The Smarter Balanced Assessment is a new computer-adaptive online test in English and math that will replace the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examination in the 2014-15 school year. Keyser sees it as a win since the district and students can become more prepared with the expectations of the new assessment.
"We feel strongly that with the Smarter Balanced Assessment pilot we will get a sneak peek of what it looks like and feels like, and it's in the best interest of our students," Keyser said.
Wisconsin is in the third year of development in a four-year transition from the current WKCE assessment to the Smarter Balanced Assessment system. The state will start limited field testing in third grade through high school Feb. 20 to May 10, 2013.
Parkside School students will be a part of the scientific pilot of the English Smarter Balanced Assessment and the charter school students will take the math assessment. The other schools in the district will be part of a voluntary pilot. These schools will administer one version of the test in the second half of testing in the spring.
Keyser said only about 10 percent of schools in the state will be part of the scientific pilot and will have input on tweaking the test.
"By participating in this pilot, each school has the opportunity to provide feedback and influence decisions regarding the design and administration of the actual assessments," he said.
All schools in the pilot whether on a voluntary or scientific basis will have training opportunities through webinars.
In other action, the board:
• Approved to cap virtual school advertising at $15,000. The district plans an online advertising campaign and won't advertise on TV or radio.
"We are only going to focus on the online component," Monroe Business Manager Ron Olson said.
Last year the district spent about $50,000 on virtual school advertising and two years ago they spent about $100,000.
• Approved spending $14,000 for a Matrix Data Warehousing and Visualization System from AlofE Solutions. The matrix provides an interactive data warehouse the district will use to store WKCE, MAP testing, DIBELS testing, Aims Web testing, EXPLORE, Plan and ACT testing data. The data system allows for custom reports and graphs to be created.
• Monroe Athletic Director Dave Hirsbrunner gave a fall sports report. Hirsbrunner said the average finish of the fall sports team was seventh in the seven-team Badger South Conference. He highlighted the all-conference and postseason accomplishments of athletes. He is tracking the participation of the one, two and three-sport athletes.
Board member Amy Bazley questioned if the district ever had an audit of their sports offerings and funding similar to the way the high school reviews course offerings.
"Are we offering certain sports because of nostalgia and could our kids be better served by adding other sports?, Bazley questioned. "Are the sports we (are) offering meeting the needs of students today?
If certain sports are added now, the board has had a model of having them be self-funded like soccer and boys hockey.
"I don't know if we are doing justice to some sports if they come in after the cut-off date."
Monroe School Board President Bob Erb questioned whether the WIAA has looked at conference realignment in the Badger South Conference.
Monroe is the second smallest school in the conference.
Hirsbrunner said conference realignment hasn't come up for the Badger South, but there has been talk about Madison Edgewood possibly joining one of the conferences with other Madison area schools.
• Honored Sara Compton, a fifth grade teacher at Northside Elementary School, with a Monroe Lamp of Learning Staff Excellence Award for December.
• School board candidacy papers have to be filed by Jan. 2, 2013. Non-candidacy papers are due by Dec. 21.