Community Letter - PEAKS Assessments (9/4/18)
September 4, 2018
Re: PEAKs Assessment Results Dear CCSD Families;
On September 5, tomorrow, the state will release the "official" assessment results from last spring's PEAKs testing. The official release will provide more in-depth information about how each district and school within our state performed on the PEAKs Math, English/Language Arts, and Science assessments. ·
Embedded within the official release, the state has also identified nine student subgroups; each of these subgroup's assessment results will be reported separately and compared to the state average as well as the average of each of the other subgroups. CCSD will receive specific information about how each of our subgroups performed compared to the state averages. The nine subgroups that the state has identified are the following:
- English Learners
- Students with Disabilities
- Economically Disadvantaged Students
- African American
- Alaska Natives or American Indians
- Students of Two or More Races
- Asians or Pacific Islanders
- Hispanics
- Whites
We all need to be careful as we examine the PEAKs assessment data and not jump to conclusions without analyzing the data alongside our district's MAPs data, and our classroom based assessments. The proficiency and advanced scores for the PEAKs assessments are rigorous. Many of our grade level students could have scored above the national average on the MAPs assessments and yet still be considered Below Proficient on the PEAKs assessments. Our responsibility is to use the PEAKs assessment data and couple this information with our MAPs and classroom-based assessment data to determine specific areas we can address as a district that will provide our students a greater opportunity for success in all of our students' assessments.
As a district, we performed really well when compared to the state average; CCSD recognizes that we can also do much better and our intent is to grow our performance on the PEAKs assessments each year. We also must keep in mind that the PEAKs assessment is one assessment at one fixed point in time during the school year. The PEAKs information provides us a good lens to analyze our district's student learning performance , but our analysis must also consider other indicators of student learning performance to ensure we have a well-rounded picture of our instructional strengths and the instructional areas that need addressing.
If you would like to discuss any aspect of our PEAKs 2017-18 assessment data, please don't hesitate to contact me or our building principals. It will be important to have as many different lenses on this data to ensure we are providing the strongest instructional program for each of our students. Thank you for your support.
Sincerely,
Chris Reitan,Superintendent
creitan@craigschools.com
Our students will be lifelong learners who will be resilient, compassionate, self-sufficient members of society.
CCSD will provide an environment that empowers every student, every day to transfer their learning to life.