Getting at the Core of School Improvement:
Good Interventions and Aligned Assessments

Knowing what you want to improve is the first step of any improvement process. Identifying how you are going to improve and measuring whether or not you have made improvement come next. While the steps seem sequential, they are actually intertwined and must be aligned in order to achieve sustainable and meaningful improvement.

NCA CASI has been working with schools for several decades to help them improve student performance. From this experience and from research on successful practice, we have identified some guidelines and tips for selecting/developing powerful interventions and aligning assessments to measure the impact of those interventions.

1st: Know what you want.
It is difficult to identify effective interventions and aligned assessments if you are unclear about what you want to accomplish. Examine your improvement goal. What are you wanting to develop within the student? The following chart may prove useful, as most goals fall within one or more of the following four goal types.

Chart 1: Goal Types

As you review your goal, you may find that it falls within two or more of the types listed above. This is acceptable. It simply tells you that there is more than one thing you are hoping to develop within your students.

The chart is also useful in that it identifies the types of assessments that are best suited to measuring the different goal types. This should help you align your assessments to your goals and narrow your search for appropriate assessments. Keep in mind that if the goal falls into two or more types, you will want to consider multiple assessments to provide data appropriate to the goal type.

2nd - Determine the most effective and powerful ways to accomplish your goal.
Good interventions develop one of the goal types within the student. They should develop knowledge, apply knowledge, develop patterns of behavior, or develop attitudes depending on the goal you are trying to accomplish.

Interventions typically fall into three categories: staff developed, analytic, and best practices. Interventions from any one of these categories can be effective. The following chart provides the characteristics of each category and tips for making interventions in each category more powerful.

Chart 2: Intervention Categories

Once you have identified your interventions, you can use NCA CASI's intervention rubric to help you assess the strength of your intervention "package" for each goal. A link to the rubric is provided in the resources section of this e-News.

3rd - Assess your progress.
Frequently measuring student performance is critical to knowing whether or not students are making progress toward your goal. NCA CASI recommends that you use multiple measures to gauge student growth. The results from multiple measures provide a clearer picture of student performance and help teachers pinpoint areas that need attention.

In order for assessment data to be meaningful, however, the assessment must be aligned with the goal type and the selected interventions. Refer to Chart 1 for guidance on aligning assessments to goal types. For example, if a school has a goal to improve students' ability to read and understand informational texts and the interventions involve providing students with greater exposure and practice reading these texts, the school would not want to select an assessment that uses mostly fictional passages, as these would not be aligned with the goal or intervention. As you review assessments, NCA CASI's assessment rubric can be a useful tool in helping you gauge the alignment and fit of your assessment with your goals and interventions. Read the rubric carefully - some of the "stems" appear almost identical, but the indicators are quite different! A link to the rubric is provided in the resources section of this e-News.

Once you have selected assessments, it is critical that you administer them appropriately so that your assessment results will have meaning. Following a consistent assessment protocol ensures the validity and reliability of your results. It also clarifies for the faculty how, when, and to whom assessments will be administered throughout the year. NCA CASI has developed guidelines that we call Green Light and Red Light Conditions. By adhering to the Green Light Conditions, the validity and reliability of your assessment data will increase. Avoiding the Red Light Conditions produces more reliable results. You can view the Green Light and Red Light Conditions in the resource section of this e-news.

4th: It's all about alignment!
Knowing what you want, determining how to get there, and measuring progress along the way - the key is not in knowing these steps but in aligning them. When not aligned, these steps result in random acts of improvement. When aligned, they deliver powerful results for students.

Resources

NCA CASI offers several resources to assist schools with the selection, use, and alignment of interventions and assessments. Click on the links below to access these resources.

• Intervention Rubric
• Assessment Rubric
• Green Light and Red Light Conditions for Using Assessments
• Communication: Reading for Elementary Level Assessment Guide - This new guide provides: an overview of assessment, an up-to-date directory of commercially published assessments, and a useful matrix detailing each assessment and the skills it assesses.

Commission Corner

New Address. Our mailing address and street address will change effective November 11, 2004. Please be sure to update your records.
Mailing Address:
North Central Association
Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement
Arizona State University
P.O. Box 871008
Tempe, AZ 85287-1008

Street Address:
7665 S. Research Drive
Tempe, AZ 85287

Our toll-free number remains the same: 800-525-9517.

Commission 2003-04 Report. NCA CASI recently released its 2003-04 report of Commission activities. Click here to view the two-page electronic report

School Annual Report and Dues Deadline. The NCA CASI Annual Report submission deadline is October 22, 2004 for most schools. The deadline for Candidate, North Dakota and Department of Defense schools is October 29, 2004. The annual report must be completed by all schools in the fall except for Special Purpose, ISACS, and Postsecondary Schools. If you have not yet submitted the report, please complete and submit the report by the established deadline. The NCA CASI website will not be available for several days beginning on November 11th for completion of any reports due to a scheduled move of the computer equipment. Schools are reminded that a $100.00 service fee has been implemented by NCA CASI for schools that have not submitted the annual report by the established due date.

The directions for the annual report were mailed in September and over 45% of the schools had submitted or were working on their annual reports as of October 11th. We appreciate the prompt attention given to completion of the report. If you need assistance with the annual report, or you did not receive an instruction packet, please call tech support at 800-525-9517 and select #3 from the menu. Instructions may also be found on the reporting page. Tech support may also be contacted at support@ncacasi.org.

Art Contest. NCA CASI is hosting an art contest this fall. Two winning selections from each state in NCA CASI's region will be displayed in NCA CASI's headquarters in Tempe, Arizona. Click here for contest details.

State Department Collaboration - South Dakota. NCA CASI has been working with the State Department of Education in South Dakota to develop a three-tiered accreditation plan for school districts in the state. The plan, still in its design stage, includes a basic accreditation tier that incorporates regulatory requirements and a "strategic plan for improvement." The middle tier includes school districts that earn NCA CASI accreditation. To reach the third tier, "exemplary accreditation," districts must apply for the designation and demonstrate that they are innovative in approaches to improving student achievement. The plan will be shared with the state education board in November. To view a visual diagram of this proposed accreditation system, visit http://www.state.sd.us/deca/OPA/ProposedAccreditation/AccredModelLayout.doc. This information is also being shared with chief state school officers nationwide on the Council of Chief State School Officers website: http://www.ccsso.org Chiefline, 9/28/04.

John Vaughn Award. In honor of John Vaughn, former Executive Director of NCA CASI, the Commission will once again present the John Vaughn Award to individuals who have demonstrated leadership in bringing about excellence in education. Nominees may be teachers, administrators, board members, or community representatives who are making outstanding contributions to our young people and, yet, may never have an opportunity to be recognized. Letters of nomination may be sent by anyone and should include a description of the nominee's contribution in promoting excellence within a school, district, or state. You can submit your nomination letter to your NCA CASI state office.

Special Thank You. We would like to publicly thank the following individuals for meeting with us to provide feedback on ways to improve the District Accreditation training and materials: Mike Bugenski [MI], Kathy Dale [KS], Mike Klopfenstein [WY], Lisa McLaughlin [OK], Sue Myxter [ND], Jean Ann Petz [KS], Larry Pitts [OH], Dick Spohr [IL], Kay Tenorio [NM], Greg Ulm [IN], and Sharon Zimmers [OH]. All of these individuals participated in District Accreditation training at one of the three demonstration sites during the 2003-04 school year. The meeting was funded by a grant from State Farm, intended to accelerate NCA CASI's training of and support for District Accreditation regionwide.

Annual Meeting Notes

Mark your calendars for NCA CASI's 110th Annual Meeting!
Every Student Every Step of the Way
April 17-20, 2005 - Chicago, IL

Keynote speakers:

• Dr. Willard Daggett, President, International Center for Leadership in Education
• Dr. Rick Stiggins, Founder, Assessment Training Institute

Highlights:

• Over 100 practitioner-led concurrent sessions
• Pre-post conferences designed to help you met the needs of every studentIntensive school improvement strand detailing the components of a quality school improvement process

Visit www.ncacasi.org/event/meeting to find out more.

Call for Presenters and Sponsors
NCA CASI is accepting presentations for the 110th Annual Meeting. To submit a presentation, visit www.ncacasi.org/event/meeting/cfp. We are also accepting organizations interested in sponsoring a booth or event at the meeting. For information on sponsorship opportunities, visit www.ncacasi.org/event/meeting/sponsor.

Upcoming Professional Development

District Accreditation Workshops. NCA CASI is offering numerous workshops across the NCA CASI region on our new District Accreditation framework. The workshops introduce participants to systems thinking and provide the foundation needed to pursue District Accreditation. Visit www.ncacasi.org/district/districtworkshops for more information.

Mark the Date: 2005 Assessment Conference
March 3, 2005
Holiday Inn South, Lansing, Michigan
Keynote speaker: Dr. Tom Guskey, Professor, University of Kentucky
Visit http://www.nca.umich.edu/assessment_conference05.html to find out more.

School Improvement Specialist Program
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln/NCA CASI School Improvement Specialist Program is designed for school improvement officials like you who are developing a comprehensive school improvement plan. Participants actually develop their plan as they work through the online program with insight and feedback from faculty and other participants. When the program is complete, participants have a model to implement, the School Improvement Specialist credential, 12 hours of graduate credit and a network of experts from across the NCA CASI region to call on for ideas, support and feedback. New course sequences will begin each spring and fall semester. The next cohort will start January 10. Visit http://extended.unl.edu/ncaimprove for more information about the program and how to enroll.

NSSE Resources
Find out how your community, staff, students, and parents feel about your school. NSSE's Opinion Inventories provide valuable baseline data on stakeholder perceptions to help your team pursue school improvement through accreditation. These updated surveys are offered online and in paper (Scantron) formats.

Accreditation for Quality Schools Systems: A Practitioners' Guide is a new publication from NSSE designed to support school system leaders pursuing district and system-wide accreditation. It helps leaders assess their readiness for district accreditation and presents 29 research-based effective practices for improving student achievement.

For more information, contact NSSE at 800-843-6773 or visit www.nsse.org.

How to Reach Us

We are committed to providing you with the information you need to continually improve student learning. Please share with us your suggestions, advice, and ideas on how to make e-News and our other products and services best meet your needs. Send us feedback at enews@ncacasi.org.

Thank you for reading this issue of NCA CASI e-News. To see a copy of this newsletter on-line or to view past issues of e-News, go to http://www.ncacasi.org/enews/index. Please report problems to enews@ncacasi.org.

North Central Association
Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement
P.O. Box 874705
Tempe, AZ 85287-4705
800-525-9517
http://www.ncacasi.org

Thank you for reading this issue of NCA e-NEWS. Events and dates are subject to change.
Please report problems to enews@ncacasi.org. To see a copy of this newsletter on-line, click here.