The Delaware Department of Education (DDOE) believes that all Delaware schools, students and school staff must be assessment-ready. Assessment readiness focuses on making sure students deeply learn grade-level content standards throughout the school year – not just in preparation to take a state test.

Assessment-ready schools:

  • Establish a firm foundation of learning in the classroom
  • Proactively prepare students to take assessments
  • Ensure students can identify and cope with testing-related stress
  • Communicate regularly to families and the community about state assessments and their purpose

Balanced assessments vs. test prep

Delaware promotes a balanced assessment system that uses multiple ways to measure student progress throughout the school year – like interim, end-of-unit, and through-year assessments – with more immediate feedback for teachers and students.

Balanced Assessments

  • Instruction is well-aligned to the content standards.
  • Effective teaching strategies are being used throughout the year.
  • Students understand the content and can apply this understanding in the classroom, on state tests, and – most-importantly – in the real world, thinking critically and solving complex problems.
  • Students are not anxious about assessments.
  • Students can navigate testing platforms confidently.
  • Families understand the importance of testing and how assessments lead to positive instructional and programmatic adjustments.

vs.

Test Prep

  • Halts new instruction.
  • Is time-consuming, especially for staff.
  • Limits students’ opportunities to deeply learn the knowledge and skills they should already be gaining throughout the school year.
  • Include large pre-testing celebrations, incentives, or test packets that may signal to students and families that students must learn or do something differently to prepare for testing.

Student, Family Resources

Assessment resources are available Digital DE, including:

  • Practice tests so students can become more familiar with assessment questions, format, and available tools.
  • Smarter Balanced sample items showing sample test items by grade.
  • Student reports outlining student performance on the English language arts (ELA) and math assessments. (English and Spanish)
  • Family guides exploring the next steps for each grade. Ex: My child learned about these topics this year in grade 3 and will learn these new topics in grade 4. What can I do now to prepare my child for the next grade if he/she needs support with grade 3 topics.

Banners

Delaware wants educators to move from a test-prep to assessment-ready mindset. No one should “teach to the test.” Instead, Delaware assessments reflect what educators are already teaching and what students have already learned through rigorous classroom instruction.

Schools will receive assessment-ready banners once 75% of their classroom teachers complete a minimum of one content area in each toolkit. Assessment readiness is a marathon that Delaware schools are prepared to win. See flier for more information.