ERBs Are Being Eliminated!
On Monday, June 8, TESD School Board will vote to eliminate ERB CTP testing for the 2020-21 school year. Following the challenging semester of distance learning, we are in need of a way to ensure our students are on track academically and to evaluate our curriculum.
We urge you to email the board to ask them not to eliminate this important assessment!
Emails can be sent to Virtualboardcomment@tesd.net. Comments must be received before 6:00 PM on Monday, June 8. Make sure you include your name and township of residence.
What is the ERB?
A low-stress norm-referenced test that shows how TESD’s kids are performing in grades 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8.
The ERB is the only test of its kind in TESD
TESD doesn’t have any other tests that give grade level snapshots of students’ progress in reading and math.
The all-inclusive reporting tools make instructional decisions quick and easy for administrators and teachers, and clear for parents.
TESD has used the ERBs for decades to:
Identify students who need extra help in reading and math;
Identify the strengths and weaknesses of TESD’s curriculum;
Compare the performance of TESD students to their district peers and peers in other high-achieving schools.
Administration of the ERBs can be flexible:
Location - they can be given at home or in school;
Time - they have long testing windows and only three weeks of black-out dates;
Method - students can take them with paper and pencil, or online.
Turnaround for scoring the ERBs and accessing the results is quick or even immediate:
TESD teachers can hand-score the test for students who they know are struggling;
If the test is given online, results are immediate.
Why are ERBs important?
If students return to school in September, they will have been out of school for 5 months. Experts are calling this the COVID-slide.
Instruction and assessment were not consistent during pandemic distance learning.
Very few (as little as 3) assignments were turned in for elementary students. There was little, if any, in-person instruction, feedback, or assessment.
The ERBs are essential in TESD to identify possible COVID-19 related learning and instructional gaps.
TESD does not have other consistent diagnostic district data to identify the impact of COVID-19.
TESD does not have math benchmarks.
TESD does not have writing benchmarks.
TESD did not give reading benchmarks this spring.
PSSAs were not given because of COVID-19.
