Concept: Grade Level Assessments

Introduction

This concept provides information regarding Grade Level Assessments for students in grades 3, 7 and 8 in Manitoba schools. It begins by describing the purpose of grade level assessments and provides access to background information in the form of links to related Manitoba Education department documentation.

The concept also provides a description of the different types of assessments and how this data has been investigated in MCHP research. This includes the type of assessment data used in MCHP research, information on the years of data that are available from the MCHP Data Repository, a sample of MCHP developed SAS® code available for working with the assessment data, and links to MCHP research that describes the methods and results of research related to grade level assessments.

Background Information from Manitoba Education

The purpose of grade level assessments are to improve student learning by identifying in the early stages of the child's development, individual strengths and needs as well as engagement in the class room. By collecting this type of information early on, it can be used to help guide the student to ensure that they have foundational knowledge and skills needed to support learning across the curricula. For more information, see the:


• Manitoba Education, Assessment and Evaluation - The Role of Assessment in Learning - http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/assess/role.html web page - accessed November 28, 2014.
  
• Manitoba Education, Assessment and Evaluation - Provincial Assessment Program - http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/assess/assess_program.html web page - accessed November 28, 2014.

The Manitoba Education policy related to grade level assessments applies to all students in Grade 3, 7 and Grade 8 in provincially funded schools. Non-funded and band-operated schools are also invited to participate. For more information on the Manitoba Education policy, please see:


• Manitoba Education, Assessment and Evaluation - Provincial Assessment Policy Kindergarten to Grade 12: Academic Responsibility, Honesty and Promotion/Retention - http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/assess/docs/policy_k12/index.html - accessed November 28, 2014.

Manitoba Education also provides on-line support documentation and guidelines for individual grade level assessments, including:


• Grade 3 Assessment in Numeracy - Support Document for Teachers - accessed May 25, 2012.
  
• Grade 3 Assessment in Reading, Lecture and Numeracy and Grade 4 Assessment in French Immersion Lecture - accessed May 5, 2012.
  
• Interpreting and Using Results from Provincial Tests and Assessments - A Support Document for Teachers, Administrators, and Consultants - accessed May 29, 2012.
  
• Middle Years Assessment of Key Competencies in Mathematics, Reading Comprehension, Expository Writing, and Student Engagement - accessed May 29, 2012.

Type of Assessments

This section of the concept identifies the specific types of assessments performed in grades 3, 7 and 8 in Manitoba schools. For each type of assessment, this includes a list of the competency measures, the outcome measures that can be applied, the years of data that are available in the MCHP Data Repository, internal access only to MCHP SAS code that is available for each type of assessment, and a brief description of the MCHP research where these types of assessments have been investigated, along with links to the methods and results section specific to the type of assessment.

NOTE : all assessments can be done in French or in English.

Grade 3 Assessments

There are two types of Grade 3 assessments, along with specific competency measures for each assessment:


1. Reading - competency measures are:
   
   • Reflects on and sets reading goals;
     
   • Uses strategies during reading to make sense of texts; and
     
   • Demonstrates comprehension.
   
   
2. Numeracy - competency measures are:
   
   • Predicts an element in a repeating pattern;
     
   • Understands that the equal symbol represents an equality of the terms found on either side of the symbol;
     
   • Understands that given whole numbers may be represented in a variety of ways (to 100); and
     
   • Uses various mental math strategies to determine answers to addition and subtraction questions to 18.

Outcomes - Grade 3 Assessments

The outcome measures related to both grade 3 assessments are:

• Needs ongoing help;
  
• Approaching expectations;
  
• Meeting expectations; and
  
• Out of range (students who are working well below grade-level curriculum relative to the competencies assessed, due to their learning disabilities or their need for new language learning).

Data Availability - Grade 3 Assessments

Data for Grade 3 Assessments is available starting with the 2009 academic year (2009/2010 school year). NOTE: For 2008/2009, approximately 10% of all students in the population had an assessment. This is because the 2008/2009 school year was a pilot project year. For the current range of data available, please see the Years section of the Enrollment, Marks and Assessments data description.

SAS Code and Formats - Grade 3 Assessments

For a sample of the SAS code developed for working with Grade 3 Reading and Numeracy Assessment data, and the formats that are available, see the SAS code examples in the SAS Code and Formats section below (internal access only).

There is also a Grade 3 Assessment SAS macro available in the MCHP SAS Macro Library (internal access only). This macro covers the following academic years: 2009 to 2019 (school years 2009/10 to 2019/20).

For more descriptive technical information on the Grade Level Assessment SAS macros, see the Grade 3, 7 and 8 Assessments in Manitoba Schools PowerPoint presentation from the January 23, 2019 Data Analyst Meeting, available in the LINKS section below (internal access only).

MCHP Research on Grade 3 Assessments

In the MCHP deliverable How are Manitoba's Children Doing?, by Brownell et al. (2012), they investigated grade 3 assessments and calculated the percent of Grade 3 students meeting or approaching their grade level of performance. Results are presented for aggregate regions, rural and urban income quintiles, inequity illustrated by Lorenz curves, and using a birth-cohort approach (all students born in a particular year). For more information on Grade 3 assessments, please read the following sections from this publication:


• Grade 3 Assessment in Reading
  
• Grade 3 Assessment in Numeracy

In the The Mental Health of Manitoba's Children deliverable by Chartier et al. (2016), they investigated grade 3 numeracy and reading assessments. For more information, see the following sections in this report:


• Grade 3 Numeracy Assessment
  
• Grade 3 Reading Assessment

Grade 7 Assessments

There are two types of Grade 7 assessments, along with specific competencies for each assessment:


1. Number Skills and Number Sense - competency measures are:
   
   • Order fractions;
     
   • Order decimal numbers;
     
   • Student understands that a given number may be represented in a variety of ways;
     
   • Uses number patterns to solve mathematical problems; and
     
   • Uses a variety of strategies to calculate and explain a mental math problem
   
   
2. Student Engagement - competency measures are:
   
   • Demonstrates an interest in his or her learning;
     
   • Engages in self-assessment;
     
   • Is aware of learning goals of a unit of study and/or personal learning goals;
     
   • Participates in lessons; and
     
   • Accepts responsibility of assignments

Outcomes - Grade 7 Assessments

Each grade 7 assessment has a different set of outcome measures. The outcome measures related to the Number Skills and Number Sense assessment are:

• Not Meeting Mid-Grade 7 Level of Performance;
  
• Approaching Mid-Grade 7 Level of Performance;
  
• Meeting Mid-Grade 7 Level of Performance; and
  
• Out of range (students who are working well below grade-level curriculum relative to the competencies assessed, due to their learning disabilities or their need for new language learning).

The outcome measures related to the Student Engagement assessment are:

• Emerging
  
• Developing
  
• Establishing
  
• Inconsistent
  
• Out of Scope (for instances where the student has a profound mental health concern, cognitive disability, or other condition so severe that the engagement behaviour being measured is not applicable to the student).

Data Availability - Grade 7 Assessments

Data for Grade 7 Assessments is available starting with the 2007 academic year (2007/2008 school year). For the current range of data available, please see the Years section of the Enrollment, Marks and Assessments data description.

SAS Code and Formats - Grade 7 Assessments

For a sample of the SAS code developed for working with Grade 7 Numeracy and Student Engagement Assessment data, and the formats that are available, see the SAS code examples in the SAS Code and Formats section below (internal access only).

There is also a Grade 7 Assessment SAS macro available in the MCHP SAS Macro Library (internal access only). This macro covers the following academic years: 2007 to 2019 (school years: 2007/08 to 2019/20).

For more descriptive technical information on the Grade Level Assessment SAS macros, see the Grade 3, 7 and 8 Assessments in Manitoba Schools PowerPoint presentation from the January 23, 2019 Data Analyst Meeting, available in the LINKS section below (internal access only).

MCHP Research - Grade 7 Assessments

In the MCHP deliverable How are Manitoba's Children Doing? by Brownell et al. (2012), they investigated grade 7 assessments and calculated the percent of Grade 7 students meeting or approaching their grade level of performance in Numeracy. For Student Engagement, they calculate the percent of students who were assessed as "established" or "developing" engagement on all five competency measures. Results are presented for aggregate regions, rural and urban income quintiles, inequity illustrated by Lorenz curves, and using a birth-cohort approach (all students born in a particular year).

For more information on Grade 7 assessments, please read the following sections from this publication:


• Grade 7 Assessment in Mathematics
  
• Grade 7 Assessment in Student Engagement

In the The Mental Health of Manitoba's Children deliverable by Chartier et al. (2016), they investigated grade 7 mathematics and student engagement assessments. For more information, see the following sections in this report:


• Grade 7 Mathematics Assessment
  
• Grade 7 Student Engagement

Grade 8 Assessment

There is one type of Grade 8 assessment and specific competencies associated with this assessment:


Reading Comprehension and Expository Writing - competency measures are:

1. Understanding key ideas and messages in a variety of texts;
   
2. Interprets a variety of texts;
   
3. Responds critically to a variety of texts;
   
4. Generates, selects and organizes ideas to support the reader's understanding;
   
5. Chooses languages (word choices, sentence patterns) to make an impact on the reader; and
   
6. Uses conventions (spelling, grammar and/or punctuation) and resources to edit and proofread to make meaning clearer.

Outcomes - Grade 8 Assessment

The outcome measures related to the Reading Comprehension and Expository Writing assessment are:

• Not meeting Mid-Grade 8 Level of Performance;
  
• Approaching Mid-Grade 8 Level of Performance;
  
• Meeting Mid-Grade 8 Level of Performance; and
  
• Out of range (students who are working well below grade-level curriculum relative to the competencies assessed, due to their learning disabilities or their need for new language learning).

Data Availability - Grade 8 Assessment

Data for Grade 8 Assessments is available starting with the 2007 academic year (2007/2008 school year). For the current range of data available, please see the Years section of the Enrollment, Marks and Assessments data description.

SAS Code and Formats - Grade 8 Assessment

For a sample of the SAS code developed for working with Grade 8 Reading Comprehension and Expository Writing assessment data, and the formats that are available, see the SAS code example in the SAS Code and Formats section below (internal access only).

There is also a Grade 8 Assessment SAS macro available in the MCHP SAS Macro Library (internal access only). This macro covers the following academic years: 2007 to 2019 (school years: 2007/08 to 2019/20).

For more descriptive technical information on the Grade Level Assessment SAS macros, see the Grade 3, 7 and 8 Assessments in Manitoba Schools PowerPoint presentation from the January 23, 2019 Data Analyst Meeting, available in the LINKS section below (internal access only).

MCHP Research - Grade 8 Assessment

In the MCHP deliverable How are Manitoba's Children Doing? by Brownell et al. (2012), they investigated grade 8 assessments and calculated the percent of Grade 8 students meeting or approaching their grade level of performance. Results are presented for aggregate regions, rural and urban income quintiles, inequity illustrated by Lorenz curves, and using birth-cohort approach (all students born in a particular year). For more information on Grade 8 assessments, please read the following section from this publication:


• Grade 8 Assessment in Reading and Writing

In the The Mental Health of Manitoba's Children deliverable by Chartier et al. (2016), they investigated grade 8 reading and writing assessments. For more information, see the following section in this report:


• Grade 8 Reading and Writing Assessment

Cautions / Limitations

Please note the following:


• a Manitoba Education and Training (MET) Number can write 1 or more assessments in a given programid (a unique identification number for a grade level assessment program - e.g.: "25" = Grade 7 Student Engagement - English program), and report 1 or more studentids (a unique identification number for a student); and
  
• a MET can write 1 or more assessments in different programids (e.g.: English and French Immersion) and each one returns a different studentid.

In these cases you will need to first identify those students that wrote 1 or more assessments in the same programid. If multiple studentids are available for that programid then you will keep the studentid with the higher set of valueids (the total value of an assessment for that studentid).