Enduring Excellence in Learning, Leadership, Innovation, and Service

Assessment

The Indian Hill School District utilizes ongoing assessment practices to inform instruction within the classroom.  The District administers assessments to all students in select grade levels and content areas for instructional planning purposes.  The District uses assessment to:
  • Guide instruction
  • Scaffold activities for re-teaching, review, and enrichment
  • Differentiate curriculum
  • Benchmark student achievement locally, at the state level, and nationally
  • Assess student readiness for college and career endeavors
  • Determine student growth throughout and across school years
  • Meet the requirements of the Third Grade Reading Guarantee in kindergarten through grade three
  • Meet the requirements for Gifted and Talented Identification as described in the Indian Hill Gifted Handbook

Assessment Update for the 2019-2020 School Year:

In the past, each year in grade 2 through grade 7, students participated in a group-administered ability assessment. This assessment is nationally-normed and provides information about a student’s general aptitude in school.  Often, the data point associated with these results are relatively stable throughout the student’s school career.  Teachers use the test results to verify the effectiveness of instructional plans in the classroom. Additionally, this data point can be an identifier of giftedness in the area of superior cognitive ability.  

In most school settings, this type of ability test is given once in grades K-2 and once in grades 3-6.  The study of best practice prompted inquiry into our annual administration of an ability test and its impact on classroom instruction.  We concluded that the annual assessment was not providing valuable information to teachers in a manner that positively impacted instruction. 

As a result, our administration of an ability assessment will take place in grade 2, grade 4, grade 5, and grade 6. We are eliminating grade 3 and grade 7.

For additional details, please visit the following links:

District Assessment Coordinator:
Dr. Melissa Stewart, Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning
[email protected]
513-272-4500


Building Contacts:
Indian Hill Primary School and Indian Hill Elementary School:
Dr. Erin Owens
(513) 272-4519
[email protected]


Middle School:                                                               High School:
Cash Hayden                                                                  Ester Hall
(513) 272-4642                                                               (513) 272-4544
[email protected]                          [email protected]

Types of Assessments

The District utilizes both summative and formative assessment types to gauge student learning and mastery of concepts.

Summative Assessments:  Assessments OF learning determine how much has been learned at a particular point in time (status check).

The characteristics of Assessments OF learning are:
  • One-test-fits-all, based on grade level standards or expectations
  • Compare students to other students
  • Report status after instruction has occurred
  • Focus on learned content or mastery
  • Examples include the Ohio Achievement Tests, Stanford Achievement Test, EXPLORE, PLAN, WrAP

Formative Assessments:  Assessments FOR learning provide feedback that is used to modify teaching and learning activities during instruction.

The characteristics of Assessments FOR learning are:

  • Adaptive for the individual student, thus content varies across grade levels
  • Compare students to self and other students
  • Inform instruction, provide information before, during and after instruction
  • Focus on growth based upon benchmarks and ongoing standards
  • Examples include teacher-constructed assessments such as pre/post tests

Districtwide Assessments

The District provides assessments for all students throughout the school year.  Those assessments are used to guide instruction.  An annual calendar of assessments can be found at Indian Hill Districtwide Assessment Timeline 2016-17.  In addition to District provided assessments, each school may elect to administer additional formative and diagnostic measures to determine student’s mastery of curriculum and standards.

Measures of Academic Progress (MAP)
Writing Assessment Program (WrAP)
PSAT