HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Guam Department of Education students in grades three through 11 will have the opportunity to take a practice test before being gauged for proficiency using the new summative assessment tool.
During a forum with parents Jan. 24, Deputy Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Joseph Sanchez told stakeholders that students will be tested with the Smarter Balance assessment tool.
“Students will be taking the practice test in March in order to prepare them for these in April,” Sanchez said.
While the assessment tool is new, what the students will be tested on is not.
“The good thing about this is the standards are not different. The standards that are being tested are the same standards that we’ve been utilizing for the last 10-something years,” Sanchez said.
The assessment is part of GDOE’s state strategic plan, which is in the second year of implementation.
“The biggest activity that we have over the next few months is an entire review of all of our curriculum programs in the DOE. … One of the things that was adopted in support of the strategic plan is an updating of all of our curriculum in DOE to ensure that students are ready. … A big part of that is coming out in the next few weeks is the implementation of our new assessment system, which is the Smarter Balance,” Sanchez said.
The Smarter Balance assessment was adopted by the public schools to replace the ACT Aspire assessment tool that was phased out, but implementation of the online national assessment was delayed.
“We were never able to participate in those because we weren’t able to have the testing online. But due to a lot of COVID-19 funding, we actually had enough computers and upgraded the internet to a point where we can now sponsor and support online testing. Because of that, we upgraded the server’s system, which is a lot more bigger and a lot more aligned to the standards we have been utilizing the last 10 years,” Sanchez said.
The result of this year’s summative assessment will set the baseline for GDOE’s state strategic plan in being able to gauge whether the department is reaching its goals and objectives.
GDOE HQ: The Guam Department of Education headquarters is seen in Tiyan on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024.
