The purpose of assessment is to allow teachers to make decisions about
the instruction for each child. Review or new lessons are needed.
Chiaravalle primarily uses authentic assessment that is developmentally appropriate at each level. Authentic assessment, in
which students demonstrate meaningful application of essential knowledge and
skills. This model allows a variety of information to
create the assessment of a child, including a combination of observation,
portfolios, work samples, verbal responses, some tests, as well as how
they are able to progress through the the curriculum.
At the youngest ages, teachers take notes on each child's daily progress, observing areas of mastery and struggles. As students move into Elementary and Middle School, there is the expectation of mastery of academic subjects. Chiaravalle introduces additional assessment tools including portfolios of classwork, Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills [DIBELS] for reading assessment of Kindergarten and Lower Elementary students, and standardized testing Iowa Test of Basic Skills [ITBS] in Upper Elementary and Middle School.
We hold Parent/Teacher conferences twice each year with narrative progress reports shared twice each year in Early Childhood and three times each year in Elementary and Middle School. By the time students are in Middle School, students are the leaders of this process through a student-led Student/Parent/Teacher conference.