Virginia Growth Assessment

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah I've been wondering if we will still make students take iReady if there is now VGA. That's 12 days dedicated to testing at the lower grades that don't have SOL testing. Coupled with the O days that's a month of no actual teaching going on. How are the kids supposed to learn anything if there are constantly days where nothing can be taught and then a test on what these kids haven't had a chance to learn.

Yes its already October and no reading groups assigned yet in third grade. How many different ways are they accessing reading? DRA, VGA, Iready, just pick one.

Guided reading groups are actually not evidence based and there are better ways to do ES language arts. Maybe your school is one of the lucky few using a better program? They said at the literacy work session yesterday that a few already had something that actually worked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah I've been wondering if we will still make students take iReady if there is now VGA. That's 12 days dedicated to testing at the lower grades that don't have SOL testing. Coupled with the O days that's a month of no actual teaching going on. How are the kids supposed to learn anything if there are constantly days where nothing can be taught and then a test on what these kids haven't had a chance to learn.

Yes its already October and no reading groups assigned yet in third grade. How many different ways are they accessing reading? DRA, VGA, Iready, just pick one.

Guided reading groups are actually not evidence based and there are better ways to do ES language arts. Maybe your school is one of the lucky few using a better program? They said at the literacy work session yesterday that a few already had something that actually worked.

DP
We haven't started reading groups because we haven't had the time to group the students and prepare for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah I've been wondering if we will still make students take iReady if there is now VGA. That's 12 days dedicated to testing at the lower grades that don't have SOL testing. Coupled with the O days that's a month of no actual teaching going on. How are the kids supposed to learn anything if there are constantly days where nothing can be taught and then a test on what these kids haven't had a chance to learn.

Yes its already October and no reading groups assigned yet in third grade. How many different ways are they accessing reading? DRA, VGA, Iready, just pick one.

Guided reading groups are actually not evidence based and there are better ways to do ES language arts. Maybe your school is one of the lucky few using a better program? They said at the literacy work session yesterday that a few already had something that actually worked.

I don’t like guided reading groups but I assume our school will still do it since I haven’t heard of anything else. Assessments are still going on at our school. I would love to help my child become a better reader. Any good programs for home? She does read on her own at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This amount of testing is insane.

That's true but unfortunately, the primary way in which I have been able to get an IEP for my child with slow processing speed and ADHD (lots of executive functioning deficits) is show that she fails or tests below grade level on all these tests. Otherwise, the school makes a cause that her slow process speed and executive functioning deficits do not have an academic impact. They are not supposed to wait until the child fails but sadly, that seems to be the criteria to be eligible for help.

Excellent for your already struggling kid I guess. But is there ever a tipping point where the greater good of most children exceeds the need of your one? Probably not in your mind- but what is happening is all children are receiving less instruction and more crappy tests because of outlier cases like your child’s. Just because it works in your favor doesn’t mean it is a good practice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah I've been wondering if we will still make students take iReady if there is now VGA. That's 12 days dedicated to testing at the lower grades that don't have SOL testing. Coupled with the O days that's a month of no actual teaching going on. How are the kids supposed to learn anything if there are constantly days where nothing can be taught and then a test on what these kids haven't had a chance to learn.

Yes its already October and no reading groups assigned yet in third grade. How many different ways are they accessing reading? DRA, VGA, Iready, just pick one.

Guided reading groups are actually not evidence based and there are better ways to do ES language arts. Maybe your school is one of the lucky few using a better program? They said at the literacy work session yesterday that a few already had something that actually worked.

This is true but even good phonics and decoding instruction is best done is small groups and we can’t meet in those right now because of testing. It does a kindergartener who is reading no good to sit in a phonics group that is learning letter sounds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah I've been wondering if we will still make students take iReady if there is now VGA. That's 12 days dedicated to testing at the lower grades that don't have SOL testing. Coupled with the O days that's a month of no actual teaching going on. How are the kids supposed to learn anything if there are constantly days where nothing can be taught and then a test on what these kids haven't had a chance to learn.

Yes its already October and no reading groups assigned yet in third grade. How many different ways are they accessing reading? DRA, VGA, Iready, just pick one.

I know they are spending so much time assessing and no time teaching. They already lost 1.3 years.

This is why teachers hate standardized testing more than anyone.

[Anonymous]

At our ES, each year the Q1 is mostly just assessment. Then everything is crammed mostly into Q2-Q3 bc Q4 is reserved for reviewing for SOL and testing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This amount of testing is insane.

That's true but unfortunately, the primary way in which I have been able to get an IEP for my child with slow processing speed and ADHD (lots of executive functioning deficits) is show that she fails or tests below grade level on all these tests. Otherwise, the school makes a cause that her slow process speed and executive functioning deficits do not have an academic impact. They are not supposed to wait until the child fails but sadly, that seems to be the criteria to be eligible for help.

Excellent for your already struggling kid I guess. But is there ever a tipping point where the greater good of most children exceeds the need of your one? Probably not in your mind- but what is happening is all children are receiving less instruction and more crappy tests because of outlier cases like your child’s. Just because it works in your favor doesn’t mean it is a good practice.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At our ES, each year the Q1 is mostly just assessment. Then everything is crammed mostly into Q2-Q3 bc Q4 is reserved for reviewing for SOL and testing.

+1000. It’s not very efficient

[Anonymous]

If they are doing this VGA then they need to drop the iReady. Do one or the other. And it should not be given multiple times during the year. talk about a waste of time.

[Anonymous]

Are we ever going to get results from these tests? My kid has already done both iReady's and is finishing the VGA's today. I'd love to know sort of where we are in comparison to other kids in terms of being on grade level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are we ever going to get results from these tests? My kid has already done both iReady's and is finishing the VGA's today. I'd love to know sort of where we are in comparison to other kids in terms of being on grade level.

How did they do on the SOLs last school year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they are doing this VGA then they need to drop the iReady. Do one or the other. And it should not be given multiple times during the year. talk about a waste of time.

How do you do a growth assessment without giving it multiple times? You can't just do year to year because there's too much mobility/intervening factors to assess growth. Good assessment is a learning experience just as much as instruction. Look at the test and see if you think your kid learns through doing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they are doing this VGA then they need to drop the iReady. Do one or the other. And it should not be given multiple times during the year. talk about a waste of time.

How do you do a growth assessment without giving it multiple times? You can't just do year to year because there's too much mobility/intervening factors to assess growth. Good assessment is a learning experience just as much as instruction. Look at the test and see if you think your kid learns through doing it.

Give it at the beginning and end of the year. Don't give it during the middle of the year.

There is way too much time spent on assessments and testing. All of that is time that could be spent on teaching. I understand needing assessments at the beginning of year and at the end of the year but let's choose one and be done with it. If a kids results look wonky or they do poorly, then test those students with a different test.

I want to maximize the time teaching. Sick of hearing about assessments.

[Anonymous]

So no one knows when these results come out? Can someone explain to me what the point of them is if they don’t come out instantaneously? How are the gaps going to be addressed? Or is the hope we forget about Covid?