Press release from Seattle Public Schools

Here’s an update on the state of assessments at Seattle Public Schools, including Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) testing and the task force appointed to study assessments District-wide.

We will conclude our MAP testing at all schools on Thursday, Feb. 28. Because there has been significant interest in this topic, we will be working in the next week to gather statistics on this latest round of testing, including the number of students who took the test across the District as well as the number who chose to opt out. We will also collect the number of students who took the test by school. In addition, we will count the number of teachers and other staff who chose not to administer the test – both across the District and by school. All of these numbers will be reported to you.

Finally, in addition to this data we will also provide information on any disciplinary action that might be administered for those teachers and staff who did not give the test as required.

Meanwhile, we want to update you on Superintendent José Banda’s newly formed Task Force on Assessment and Measuring Progress, which includes principal, teacher, student, family and community representatives. The task force, which has held two meetings so far, is charged with reviewing District assessment programs, including MAP, and making recommendations for next year and beyond. The group will also hear from subject-matter experts on key topics, such as Common Core standards, aligned assessments and the new statewide evaluation system for teachers. The task force is expected to make a recommendation to the Superintendent on assessments in May.

You can review the meeting minutes and agendas, as well as the names of task force members, here.

If you have questions that are not covered here, please let us know. Once the data has been collected, we will issue a report to you, and will also make Superintendent Banda available for questions.

Sincerely,

Teresa Wippel and Lesley Rogers
SPS Office of Public Affairs/Communications

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