NPS Family Academy: “How Do I Know How My Child is Doing in School?”

On February 12, the Newton Public Schools (NPS) Offices of Family Engagement, Teaching and Learning, and Multi-Tiered Systems of Support teamed up to present information on the current ecosystem of assessments being used in the schools and how parents can interpret the assessment reports they receive about their students. 

After the presentation portion of the event (see slides and NewTV video), there were breakout groups where parents could ask questions about specific assessments and how they interact with teaching and learning.  

Setting the Stage

This event at Day Middle School was the second in a series of four presentations, held at each of the middle schools for the elementary schools that feed into them, to discuss elementary school assessments. There were twelve non-staff in attendance at the beginning of the presentation, including School Committee Member Jason Bhardwaj. Dr. Nolin introduced the event, saying that it is part of NPS’s effort to develop a full set of resources for parents that will be housed on the Family Academy section of the NPS website.

The Presentation

Maria Kolbe, the Director of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS), was the primary presenter for the evening.  She detailed the set of assessments that drive academic instruction that children receive:

1. On-going student work samples and observations, which show evidence of learning in-progress: Individual schools decide how frequently they send student work home.
2. End-of-unit assessments in literacy, math, and science, which check for consolidated understanding of recently taught skills:  Individual schools decide when they send these assessments home.
3. Progress report teacher reflection: Skills are captured in buckets in relation to the state grade level standards; these are not comparative between students.  These are shared with families two times per year.  
4. Universal screeners (STAR and DIBELS):  Much of the presentation and following questions focused on STAR, detailed below. DIBELS was mentioned, in passing and not by name, as a small set of one-minute assessments. They are used to screen for basic decoding skills and not comprehension. If students’ scores are lower than a certain threshold, then parents can expect an early-screening letter up to two times a year. Parents of students who score above the threshold receive no letter.
5. The MCAS (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System) tests: These are summative assessments of what a student learned and retained across a whole school year. MCAS results are shared with families once per year, 5-7 months after the exams are taken.

Ms. Kolbe also discussed social and emotional (SEL) learning and how it is measured with a “Connectedness Survey” starting in grade 3, which is anonymous and is used by school and district leaders.  In March, the district will run a trial administration of the SAEBRS SEL survey, which is a 3-5 minute student reflection from grades 2-12. After the district has a chance to try it out, parents should expect to see that added to assessment results in the 2026-27 school year.

STAR Assessments

NPS is using three distinct STAR assessments: STAR Math, STAR Reading, and STAR Early Literacy.  STAR Early Literacy is specifically used with students who are still acquiring foundational reading skills, and questions can be read aloud for students. Questions on STAR Reading cannot be read aloud for students because the questions are designed to assess their reading, as opposed to pre-reading, skills.

STAR results are normed both across Massachusetts and across the U.S. It is an adaptive test, which means that the questions get easier the more a student answers incorrectly and harder the more a student answers correctly. The questions start at the difficulty level where a student landed the previous time they took the assessment. Scores are given as a scaled score with two parts: 1) difficulty of questions and 2) how accurate the responses were.  Other data that is part of the report is the percentile rank and the growth percentile. Newton aims for a 60% growth score for all students.  

Instruction is differentiated for students based on STAR assessment data. “What I Need” (WIN) blocks are 20-30 minutes a day and are when elementary students receive differentiated instruction. However, if assessments indicate that a student should get support in both math and literacy every day, instead of twice a week, that can be hard to schedule.  

The trigger for formal Intervention letters is when students score in the 0-24th percentiles nationally.  For formal Intervention services, students should be working in a small group 3-4 times per week with progress monitoring every two weeks. Parents should expect to receive a notice about activities and progress 4-5 weeks into the intervention cycle, and then at the end of 10-12 weeks. Other students who have scores closer to the median might receive less formal intervention services two times per week.  

One parent commented that they felt that the iReady assessment reports that have been sent home the past couple of years felt easier to read and interpret. Another parent expressed hope that reports would help parents understand how to help their children avoid summer backslides. District officials responded that they are working to develop more actionable reports for both teachers and parents based on the data available from STAR assessments.

Parent Questions

NPS provided these answers to parents’ questions:

• Is it possible to opt out of STAR assessments? 
  Yes, but they are only 20 minutes 3 times a year.
• Is it possible to take STAR as a paper-based assessment?  
  No, it is only offered on the computer.  
• Should parents expect to see end-of-unit assessments come home?  
  This is currently left up to the individual schools, but all parents can ask to see their children’s assessments. The district is also working to norm end-of-unit assessments across all of our schools as part of the curricular review.  

Budget

Jen Shore, the Math Department Head, said the Math Department knows how to provide instruction that is responsive to student assessment data and that it is being done at the elementary school level. She added, however, that NPS needs to scale up what is happening in elementary schools to the middle school level by funding math interventionists at the four middle schools.  

While Dr. Nolin was present only at the beginning of the Assessment evening and left to attend a concurrent NPS event, at the School Committee meeting on March 9th she addressed how the increased assessment and reporting capacity is fitting into the current budget landscape. She said, “We have received sponsorships or grant funding for things like our Renaissance Learning ecosystem, which all of our MTSS [multi-tiered systems of support intervention services] is based on. [Renaissance] is not going to do that forever, so we’re going to have to put those monies into the base budget if we want them to live on.”