Student Performance on Pre-CFAs and Fall Benchmark

Hello All,

I wanted to take a moment to communicate with you directly regarding some feedback we’ve heard about the first set of pre-CFAs and benchmarks that students have taken this month.  Several teachers from across the grade-span have posed concerns about students not doing well and “struggling” with these assessments.

I ask that you please bear in mind that the pre-CFAs measure a unit of learning before instruction has occurred.  So, these are not assessments in which we should expect all students to do well.  Instead, their use is that of a diagnostic for the teacher…to discern what instruction is needed and where less emphasis is warranted.  Please explain this to your students so as to reduce their anxiety.  If most of your students are scoring well on a pre-CFA, the DTL needs to know about this because it may indicated that the CFA is not rigorous or perhaps there is a strong overlap in the curriculum from previous years.  The pre-CFA should spark conversations between the teacher and individual students about learning needs and areas of strength.  The pre-CFA is then used to show growth against the post-CFA at the end of each instructional unit.

The approach is similar with the Fall benchmark.  The Fall benchmark is essentially a pre-assessment for the whole year of instruction.  These assessments measure content and skills for the whole school year to come.  The Fall benchmarks provide diagnostic information for the teacher similar to the pre-CFAs, but on a larger, more general scale.  Again, we ask that you communicate this to your students to reduce their anxiety.  Like the CFAs, the benchmarks should be discussed with the students as identifiers of learning to be accomplished in the coming days/units.  The Fall benchmark serves as a baseline against which to show growth on the Winter and Spring administrations.

These assessments are an example of a type of assessment that is relatively new to our profession.  For ages we have been conducting assessments of learning.  However, the pre-CFAs and the Fall benchmarks are assessments for learning that is to come.  For this reason, student performance on pre- or mid-CFAs and the Fall/Winter benchmarks should not count as a grade in the teacher’s gradebook.  Post-CFAs and the Spring benchmark may be used as a grade at the discretion of the school administrator and teacher.

Thanks for your time in reading this and please do not hesitate to contact your building administrator, lead teacher, IRC or the DTL with any questions.

Tony