Sum
Colegio Maya views assessment deeply and broadly in support of our vision of the “whole child”, multiple intelligences and the diversity we embrace at Maya. We do attend seriously to standardized measures but also great emphasis is placed on authentic student performance in a wide variety of ways. Professional conversation/dialogue is also a part of our school culture of continuous academic growth. From a School Improvement Committee to a testing committee to Student Study Teams to school level faculty meetings to department/grade level meetings to individual student goal setting, Colegio Maya embraces continuous student performance improvement.
From our standardized test results assessments, we have developed more initiatives school-wide in writing and vocabulary development. These initiatives include the addition of a “Write On” class for middle schoolers, an academic writing elective for high schoolers, adoption of the 6+1 Traits of Writing rubric for assessment of writing across the curriculum, and an “ESOL in the Mainstream” 50 hour master’s level course for all faculty. In reading, we now have a sub-committee in our School Improvement Committee who are initiating more assessment in reading, particularly at the early childhood, lower elementary levels and the STAR reading program for 3-5th graders. We also have had a “School Wide Read” for the past two years to help cultivate a rich reading culture. Also, the PTA sponsors a comprehensive reading incentive program for one month at the early childhood/elementary levels every year. We have noted improvements in language, reading and writing in our standardized scores over the past three years.
In sum