At West Allegheny, we place a strong value on drawing from multiple measures to determine individual development and seek to foster a growth mindset that promotes self-improvement, goal setting and the idea that learning is an individualized concept. In addition, we believe in educating the whole child and in the value of using assessment as a tool for self-inquiry and improvement. At applicable grade levels, we use DIBELS results, Forefront results, Study Island Benchmarks, and other testing means to identify curriculum, instruction and assessment areas of growth among both students and staff.
The PSSA is another form of assessment that is a valuable tool to promote growth for students and staff. With our staff, we use PSSA results to identify grade-level trends, areas of strength and areas that we need to target for improvement. For our students, we use these results so that we can learn more about our individual student’s level of need and areas of strength. We greatly value these tests to ensure that our educational community of students and staff are continually growing and learning.