Performance Assessment at Urban Academy Laboratory High School
Urban Academy, a member of the New York Performance Standards Consortium, is one of 28 public secondary schools in New York State that have been granted a waiver to use performance-based assessments in lieu of New York State's four out of the five high stakes Regents
exams. Consortium schools take only the English Language Arts (ELA) Regents exam.
Our system of performance assessment includes common assessments in English Language Arts, Social Science, Math and Science. Urban Academy has added a required proficiency in the creative arts, arts criticism, a library proficiency and community service.
Urban Academy's performance assessment system has proven to be a highly effective form of school and student accountability. A three year study of the Consortium's high school graduates provides convincing evidence that our graduates go on to selective colleges, remain in college, take credit-bearing courses and perform at a rate higher than the national average.
Extensive information about the system used by the Consortium, the college study, and the history of the struggle to protect the system can be found at the
Consortium's website. Information about how Urban Academy implements the system can be found on the
school's website. Finally, the most recent issue of
Catalyst Magazine provides examples of work completed to satisfy the system's requirements.
Ann Cook, Phyllis Tashlik, and students will answer questions about how the system works at Urban Academy.
| QUESTIONS with Answers |
| Q: |
I love the curriculum, assessment strategies, and overall culture of Urban Academy. However, not all urban schools are a part of such a unique consortium of schools. Most have to deal with NCLB and continued high-stakes testing. Knowing this, here are a few questions: Does NCLB affect Urban at all? Is the work being done at Urban hoping to provide a "model" for alternative assessment to other schools in NY or across the country? If so, how does the school or the consortium as a whole hope to accomplish this?
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| A: |
All public schools are impacted by NCLB including Urban Academy, but it is important to note that NCLB does not require high stakes testing for kids, only for schools. (States,like NY have made it high stakes for kids as well). Moreover, NCLB does not dictate the specific tests states use. For example, Nebraska uses a school-based accountability system, not state-wide testing and the feds accepted that system. It is also important to note that when pressure is applied, some changes have occurred in the way NCLB is implemented. This suggests that all of us need to make our voices heard. We need to call for the legislation to be abandoned or, at least, fundamentally amended when it comes up for reauthorization in 2007 (or 2008). Call your senators and your congressional representatives: tell them how NCLB has negatively impacted on your teaching, your school and your students. The Consortium hopes to continue to demonstrate that performance-assessment works well with all students and is effective (see the college performance study on our web site).
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| Q: |
When you say "common assessments," do you mean that the assessments are the same across all 28 Performance Consortium schools in all subjects?
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Consortium schools have agreed to use four common performance assessments: in English literature, math, science, and social studies.
Aside from these four areas (a description and rubrics are found on the pba web site) individual schools require additional tasks including a second language, service learning, creative arts, art criticism, and physical education. .
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What are you doing to assure a shared standard for scoring performance assessment, especially since they are being completed in different schools.?
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Over a series of workshops, the Consortium schools created rubrics in each of the subject disciplines. These are subject to continual revision as schools adapt them to their practices. The rubrics are used to score student work that has been submitted to meet the requirements and, along with the work itself are the basis of moderation studies.
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