District Assessments

The Biddeford School Department administers a variety of common assessments in order to gain an understanding of our students' academic performance, strengths, and needs. Assessments provide teachers with valuable information that helps to inform instruction and promote progress in student learning.

Here are a few of the major assessments administered each year:

NECAP: New England Common Assessment Program. This state assessment is given to all students in grades 3-8 in October, replacing the Maine Educational Assessment. Students are tested in the academic areas of reading, writing, mathematics, and science at most grade levels.

MHSA: Maine High School Assessment. This state assessment is given in grade 11 during the months of March and May and includes the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) as well as augmented assessments in the areas of science and mathematics.

NWEA: Northwest Evaluation Association. This common assessment is administered to all students in grades 2-9 twice a year in the areas of reading and mathematics via computer. Students respond to questions and the computer adjusts the instructional level of the test based on the student responses.

DRA: Developmental Reading Assessment. This reading assessment is given to all students in grades 1-3 (grades 4 and 5 will be given this assessment beginning in 2010-11). This assessment measures a student's fluency and comprehension abilities and is used to inform future learning in the area of reading. Running records are a piece of the DRA and help teachers to pinpoint a child's reading progress more frequently through monitoring of reading skill development.

AIMSWEB:  Aimsweb is the progress monitoring tool the district uses to monitor interventions at the grades K-3 level.  This assessment provides teachers with information regarding reading and math performance when a student is receiving services outside of the classroom to ensure they are making the gains expected.

WRITING PROMPT: This assessment is administered to all students in grades K-12 twice a year to gauge students' writing skills. The prompts are used to help students improve their own writing through the years.

PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS TEST: This assessment is designed to measure a kindergarten student's overall reading skills and is given near the end of the kindergarten year.