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Revised (Nov 25 2008)
Components of the district achievement contract
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Rationale: the underlying reason
Goal: the end to which effort or amibition is aimed
Objective: the purpose to be satisfied
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Questions to consider:
- How do we ensure that assessment processes are appropriate, fair and effective in terms of cost and student and staff time?
- What is being done to keep assessment, evaluation* and reporting manageable?
- What district guidelines and resources do we provide to assist teachers with assessment and evaluation?
- How are we informing parents and the public about the role of assessment in improving student learning?
- What is the situation in our district regarding Foundation Skills Assessment tests? (They have been controversial in some quarters; some think they are being used unfairly to compare schools with each other.)
- What processes are in place to ensure FSA results are understood and used appropriately?
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Rationale
The rationale drives the selection of goals or objectives. The rationale connects the analysis of student performance, the community context and the goals and objectives. A clearly understood rationale builds commitment to goals and objectives.
Goals and objectives
Goals help to focus school and district priorities for improving student learning. Objectives focus district goals into specific areas of attention. Both goals and objectives are developed by informed analysis of data from a range of sources. Goals and objectives identify desirable changes in the achievement of students and can focus on desired changes in the community, particularly in terms of increasing safety and social responsibility. The same goal may be relevant over several years. Schools and districts do not need to set new goals every year. Often, the goal is retained, but objectives are revised or changed.
Performance indicators/evidence/data
Performance indicators are measures used to indicate progress toward meeting goals and objectives. Indicators include sources of information drawn from classroom, school, district and provincial data. Different measures and assessments focus on different aspects of learning. Tests and other measures students progress. Some assessments are outside the day-to-day activities of the classroom, such as standardized tests like provincial exams and the Foundation Skills Assessment.
It is important to consider trends over time when examining student achievement. A mimimum of three years suggests a trend.
* Note: assessment is a statistical measure; evaluation is a judgement of quality
For more information on Foundation Skills Assessments, see Section 5, Reference Materials, Achievement and assessment.
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The annual planning cycle
