Blog | ThinkCERCA

Product Update: End of Year Assessments

Written by Claire Podulka | April 22, 2016

We know how important it is to see and measure student growth after a great year of using ThinkCERCA's lessons and resources. After all, seeing how far your students have progressed is one of the many joys of teaching. This week, we added a set of End of Year Reading and Writing Assessments to help you do just that.

Each of ThinkCERCA's 10 leveled End of Year Assessments includes:

  • an authentic, rigorous ELA informational text
  • 10 expert-designed, standards-aligned automated multiple choice items
  • a standards-aligned writing prompt to which students respond with a written argument

Check out our End of Year Assessments >>

Benefits of ThinkCERCA's End of Year Assessments

  • These assessments align with the practices you've engaged in throughout the year. Your assessments and your practices align, giving you clear and accurate student data.
  • You can measure student growth, especially if you gathered data at the beginning of the year or throughout the year with ThinkCERCA's Progress Monitoring (formerly CERCA Starter) resources.
  • The data you gather will help in making student decisions for the following school year, including class/course placement, leveling, and classroom roster decisions.

Best Practices for End of Year Assessments

  1. Look at your existing data and determine your students' levels of readiness.
  2. Assign students the assessment appropriate for their levels.
  3. Use ThinkCERCA's standards-aligned rubric and paperless grading system to provide feedback on the written portion of the assessment for complete data.
  4. Review all of the data and make decisions about next steps: If students are achieving consistent mastery (blue), assign them the assessment at next level up. If students struggled (yellow), try the next level down. Be sure to review this data in light of the standards you focused on throughout the year and the standards covered in the assessment.
  5. Record the data in student files for next year's teaching and planning.

Need Help?

For more information on viewing and assigning the End of Year Assessments, visit our support site or email us at support@thinkcerca.com with any questions.