Revised March, 2025

Why Do We Assess? 

The Rolla 31 School District will use high-quality assessments as one indication of the success and quality of the district’s education program. Further, the Board of Education (BoE) recognizes its obligation to provide for and administer assessments as required by law. The BoE directs the superintendent or designee to create procedures to govern assessments consistent with law and board policy. 

In cooperation with the administrative and instructional staff, the BoE will regularly review student performance data and use this information to evaluate the effectiveness of the district’s instructional programs, adjusting as necessary. 

The district will comply with all assessment requirements for students with disabilities mandated by federal and state law, including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), as outlined in board policy IL-1. 

District Assessment Plan 

The superintendent or designee shall ensure that the district has a written assessment plan that will test competency in the subject areas of English, reading, language arts, science, mathematics, social studies and civics, as required by law. 

The purposes of the district wide assessment plan are to facilitate and provide information for the following: 

1. To produce information about relative student achievement so that parents/guardians, students and teachers can monitor academic progress. 

2. To serve as a tool for implementing the district's student guidance program. 

3. To provide data that will assist in the preparation of recommendations for instructional program changes to: a. Help teachers with instructional decisions, plans and changes regarding classroom objectives and program implementation. b. Help the professional staff formulate and recommend instructional policy. 

c. Help the Board of Education adopt instructional policies. 

4. To provide indicators of the progress of the district and individual schools toward established goals; i.e., Comprehensive School Improvement Plan (CSIP), Strategic Plan and Goals for Education. 

5. To ensure the district obtains and maintains accreditation. 

There shall be broad-based involvement of staff and others with appropriate expertise in the development of the assessment program and its implementation. Instructional staff will be given training and responsibilities in coordinating the program. Every effort will be made to ensure that testing contributes to the learning process rather than detracts from it and that cultural bias does not affect the accuracy of assessments. 

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Participation and Parental Notice 

At the beginning of each school year, the district shall notify the parents/guardians of each student that the district will provide, upon request and in a timely manner, information regarding any state or district policy regarding student participation in any assessments. Such notice shall include information about state or local policies that would allow students to opt out of assessments. Missouri has no such policy, and the district expects all students to participate in all district or statewide assessments. 

In order to achieve the purposes of the student assessment program and comply with state and federal law, the district requires all enrolled students to participate in all applicable aspects of the district assessment program, including statewide assessments. 

The district shall post on the district's website and, where practicable, on the website of each school in the district for each grade level in the district, information on any assessments required by state or federal law, including any assessments required by the district. The information shall include the subject matter being assessed, the purpose for the assessment, the source of the requirement for the assessment, and where the information on the assessment is available. The information shall also include the amount of time students will spend taking the assessments, the schedule for the assessments, and the time and format for disseminating the results, when available. 

The district will provide parents/guardians information, if available, on the level of achievement and academic growth of the student on each of the statewide assessments in which the student participates. The district will provide the information in an understandable and uniform format and, to the extent possible, the information will be written in a language the parent/guardian can understand. If it is not practical to provide written translations to parents/guardians, the information shall be orally translated for them. Upon request by a parent/guardian with a disability, the district will provide the information in an alternate format that is accessible to the parent/guardian. 

Components of the District Assessment Program 

Assessment in the Rolla 31 School District is systematic, multi-dimensional, and designed to address the needs of students and provide insights to teachers. Accordingly, the district strives to develop a local assessment plan which will supplement state-level testing without duplicating it. A balanced assessment plan should address the needs of students and provide insights to teachers regarding what learning has and has not been mastered. Data from assessments should be used to diagnose areas of strength and to customize instruction to address student needs. 

The District Assessment Program includes the following components: 

● Nationwide Assessments 

● Statewide Assessments 

● District Assessments 

● Supplemental Assessments 

● Classroom/Teacher Assessment 

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Nationwide Assessments 

If chosen, the district will participate in the National Assessment of Educational Progress as required by law. Statewide Assessments 

The Missouri State Board of Education and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) define the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) for all public school systems in the state of Missouri. The Missouri Assessment Program consists of the following components: 

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District Assessments 

In addition to required state tests, a variety of locally-determined district assessments are used in Rolla Public Schools(RPS). Assessments are reviewed annually and are selected according to identified needs and priorities. When appropriate, assessments are selected which can provide information for a variety of needs. Examples of criteria used when considering assessments include: 

● Relationship to RPS defined purposes/areas of measure 

● Impact/Benefits/Utility 

● Quality/Reliability/Validity/Bias 

● Design (purpose, intended population, required time, cost/resources, delivery method, item types, etc.) 

● Continuity of data between assessments and over time 

● Limitations 

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Supplemental Assessments 

The following assessments are used for purposes noted. Participation in these assessments may, in some cases, be optional. 

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Classroom/Teacher Assessments 

Common assessments are given across the district by groups of teachers teaching the same content areas. Common assessments are most frequently given at the end of units or at benchmark periods. The purpose of these assessments is to assess student performance in order to inform instruction and determine student needs for further instruction, intervention, or enrichment. Assessments often take the form of pre/post assessments to also measure student growth. 

Additionally, teachers utilize formative assessments which are used to provide quick feedback and guide next steps in the learning progression. Teachers document student learning and growth by collecting information through observations and student work. Classroom-based assessment includes, but is not limited to, the following practices: 

Teacher Observation 

● Exit Slips 

● Quizzes and Tests 

● Performance Assessments 

● Projects 

● Labs and Experiments 

● Participation 

● Checklists 

● Rubrics and Scoring Guides 

● Discussions 

● Interest Inventories 

Guidelines for Students with Disabilities 

In 2004 the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) provided clear direction for including students with disabilities in state assessment programs. The Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) should be appropriate for all students; therefore, the State Department of Elementary and and Secondary Education has provided information to help IEP Teams with the decision-making process for individual students. The following summary is intended to provide guidelines to the IEP Teams during this process. 

If the IEP Team is faced with the question of whether the MAP-Alternate (MAP-A) and/or Dynamic Learning MAP should be used, the decision must be based on the goals for the student's instruction. Students with disabilities whose instructional goals are expected to lead to typical work 

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experiences should take the MAP. Students who are working toward functional goals such as self-care and life skills will participate in the MAP-A alternate assessment and/or Dynamic Learning MAP Assessment. 

Students with disabilities should participate in all subject areas in which they are receiving instruction in the content-oriented Missouri Learning Standards. Decisions about participation should be based upon the actual instruction in the content-oriented Missouri Learning Standards and not based on program setting, category of disability, or percentage of time in the regular classroom. Special education students should be included for any content area of the MAP for which that student receives instruction, regardless of where that instruction occurs. 

All decisions regarding participation and accommodations/adaptations must be made by the IEP Team and documented in the IEP. Reasons for exclusion from testing must also be documented. The basic guideline is to always assume that every student, even those with disabilities (or handicapping conditions, if the student is a Section 504 Plan student) will participate in standardized testing, though possibly with modifications. 

Guidelines for ELL Students 

The ACCESS for ELLs assessment allows educators, students, and families to monitor students’ progress in acquiring academic English in the domains of speaking, listening, reading, and writing and will be aligned with the WIDA English Language Development (ELD) Standards. The assessment is required for K-12 students who are English Learners (ELs). 

Professional Development 

RPS believes that comprehensive, on-going professional learning is central to school improvement and student success. To that end, RPS professional learning promotes continuous professional growth in a supportive environment by enhancing the knowledge and skills of all staff, with the expectation that doing so will also raise the levels of student performance. 

The topics related to state and district-wide assessment which will be addressed in professional learning offerings include: 

● utilization of data results as a means to make program, instructional, curricular, and programmatic decisions; ● utilization of student assessment data to determine changes needed to improve subgroup performance; 

● analysis of data to determine strengths and weaknesses; 

● teaching of test-taking strategies; 

● identification of learner skills and differentiation needs; 

● providing effective feedback; 

● creating assessments and associated rubrics or scoring guides; 

● involving students in the assessment process; 

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Test Taking-Skills 

Teachers provide students with a variety of experiences throughout the school year that prepare them for standardized assessments. They incorporate performance tasks, scoring guides, open-ended responses, and selected-response assessments into their classroom work. Unit assessments and homework assignments include varied question formats, so students are familiar with multiple ways of responding. Through these experiences, students develop a sense of using rubrics to assess many forms of writing across the curriculum, practice strategies for approaching various types of items, and evaluate sample responses. 

Teachers have access to MAP released items, when provided by the DESE, scoring guides, and other practice items. The curriculum in the Rolla 31 School District is purposefully aligned with the Missouri Learning Standards and the Missouri Frameworks. This alignment of a dynamic curriculum, coupled with instructional strategies that support all students' learning, ensures Rolla 31 students are well prepared to "show what they know" on both large-scale and classroom-based assessments. 

Test Integrity and Security 

Accurate information about student performance is integral to the district's mission of improving student achievement. In order to make sure the information is valid, the district must protect the integrity of the testing process. This policy shall become part of the district assessment plan. All staff associated with the assessment process are responsible for understanding and implementing the security measures in this policy. For the purposes of this policy, "staff associated with the assessment process" includes test coordinators, examiners, translators, proctors and any district staff who have responsibilities in providing, monitoring or overseeing student testing as designated by the superintendent or designee. 

The Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Instruction, and Professional Development serves as District Testing Coordinator. Assessment is coordinated at the building level by a guidance counselor and/or principal, who is also responsible for providing in-service training on the assessment program to staff. Board Policy ILA addresses test security and administration, which will be reviewed annually with all faculty. 

Assessment Policies and Procedures 

While the District Assessment Plan outlines the purpose and types of assessments used, RPS recognizes the importance of all associated Board of Education policies that govern our procedures and practices. These can be found on our district website. 

● Policy IL-1: ASSESSMENT PROGRAM 

● Administrative Procedure IL-AP(1) 

● Administrative Procedure IL-AP(2) 

● Policy ILA: TEST INTEGRITY AND SECURITY