State Mandated Assessments and Assessment Policy

The Two Rivers Community School’s Board  of Directors (BOD) respects parents’ or legal guardians’ rights to direct their students’ education and honors the choices of parents or guardians regarding their students’ participation in state-mandated assessments. Under Colorado law, all schools, districts, boards of cooperative services, district charter schools, and institute charter schools are prohibited from imposing negative consequences for a parent’s exercise of his or her choice to excuse a student from state-mandated assessments. In accordance with state law protecting students and parents and in order for families to make their own best choices regarding state mandated assessments, the TRCS Board voted to update to the school’s assessment policy on 10/25/2018.

Information about state mandated assessments

In the following pages please find the schedule of state-mandated assessments to the extent known, including a statement about the purpose and use of the state-mandated assessments. A copy of this policy shall accompany this communication, which shall also be posted on TRCS website.

As required by State law, the results of the state-mandated assessments shall be included on the student’s final report card, if such results are available in time for inclusion on the final report card. If a parent or guardian has excused the students from taking one or more state-mandated assessments, the final report card shall not indicate in any way that the assessment was excused or not taken.

Administration of state-mandated assessments

The Head of School will observe all testing protocols relevant to the state-mandated assessments, and shall make proper arrangements for test security.

The Board of Directors voted to approve a change in the testing format for Two Rivers students in October of 2018.  TRCS students will take all CMAS assessments with paper and pencil unless they have special accommodations to take the test on a computer.

Excusing state-mandated assessments

A parent/guardian who wishes to exempt his or her child from CMAS assessments may request that his or her child be exempt from participating in one or more state assessments.

• The request for exemption must be submitted in writing to the Head of School or his/her designee prior to testing.  Parent refusal notices will be maintained by the Head of School.
• The parent/guardian will not be required to state the reason for asking for the exemption.
• A request for exemption will be valid for one school year. Requests for exemption from state assessments in subsequent school years require a new written request.
• Parents/guardians are encouraged to submit their requests for exemption at the earliest possible date each school year so that the school may plan accordingly.

In accordance with state law, the school shall not impose a negative consequence upon a student whose parent/guardian has requested an exemption from a state assessment.

This policy’s exemption process shall apply only to CMAS, PSAT, or SAT and shall not apply to school or classroom assessments and will be reviewed annually by our School Accountability Committee (SAC).

TRCS ANNUAL ASSESSMENT SCHEDULE

Assessment Instrument	Purpose	Administered	Which Students	Content Focus	Testing Method
i-Ready	State approved interim assessment for math and literacy.  All students in K-8 will take math diagnostic assessments.  All students in grades 4-8 will take reading diagnostic assessments.	3- 4 times each year typically August, January, and MayTime for test taking varies considerably, but tends to take about 1 hour per subject.	All students	Math and Literacy	Online
DIBELS Next and DIBELS DEEP	State approved assessment to monitor student progress in literacy development.	Regular intervals for students in grades K-5.  Benchmark testing for all students in August, January, and May.	All students K-5 for DIBELS Next Screener.  Struggling students will be given DIBELS Deep diagnostic assessment	Reading	1:1 with a teacher or teacher’s aide
CMAS ELA	State mandated  standardized assessment	Test time ranges between 60 and 90 minutes per test depending on grade level.April 11 - April 29, 2022	Grades 3-8	Literacy	Paper-based testing
CMAS Math	State mandated  standardized assessment	Test time ranges between 60 and 90 minutes per test depending on grade level.April 11 - April 29, 2022	Grades 3-8	Math	Paper-based testing
CMAS Science	State mandated  standardized assessment	Test time ranges between 60 and 90 minutes per test depending on grade level.April 11 - April 29, 2022	5 and 8	Science	Paper-based testing
CMAS Social Studies	State mandated  standardized assessment	TRCS will be selected periodically for testing.Test time ranges between 60 and 90 minutes per test depending on grade level.April 11 - April 29, 2022	Grades 4 and 7 dependent on State rotation, typically every third year.	Social Studies	Paper-based testing
WIDA ACCESS	State mandated  standardized assessment	Test time ranges between 60 and 90 minutes per test depending on grade level.January 10 - February 11, 2022	ELL students who are not yet  considered a level 6	Reading, writing, speaking, listening language tests. Only for English Language Learners	Paper for grades K-3, online for grades 4-8
TS GOLD	State approved  used to monitor school readiness, social progress and academic progress in kindergarten. TS-GOLD.	Data for the TS-GOLD is gathered by teachers as they observe students on a day-to-day basis.	All students in grades K-1	Early Childhood Development in multiple areas.	Students do not take an assessment. Teachers collect qualitative observations to measure growth.