Ashford School Students Piloting Online CBAS Assessments
You may have heard your students mentioning a new online assessment system being used here at Ashford School. Students in grades 3-8 have been taking part in the inaugural year of Connecticut Benchmark Assessment System (CBAS), a new tool being provided by the Connecticut State Department of Education. It involves two tests given three times a year that are aligned to benchmarks in reading and math. The benchmarks are aligned to the Grade Level Expectations (GLE's) that "define the concepts and skills that every student should know and be able to do by the end of the specific grade level". This series of tests is different in that they are taken at a computer online allowing for them to be scored instantly providing the teacher with a printout of each student's attainment of GLE's the same day. This feedback provides teachers with real time information to help them in identifying both
problems and successes, allowing them to inform instruction immediately to better meet the individual needs of their class.
To date both the fall and winter assessments have been administered and teachers are using the data to fine-tune their teaching. The spring assessment is scheduled for May.
Going forward it is expected that these tests can be individualized to better meet the scope and sequence of lessons in our curriculum.
