Subject: English Language Arts
Grade Level(s): 3 – 8
Measures Growth: Yes
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Achievement Network is a system of regular assessment in ELA and math for students in grades 3-8. Every six to eight weeks, schools administer two ANet assessments—one in ELA and one in Math. Each assessment takes place during one regular classroom period and tests recently taught material. The assessments are intended to identify individual areas of need and inform instruction and intervention strategies.
Pros: Aligned to the standards I teach • Assesses higher-order thinking • Assesses a range of students, including those from far below to far above grade level • Takes students a reasonable amount of time to complete
Pros: Easy to administer • Results returned quickly • Helps me track my students' learning gains over the course of the school year • Data is presented clearly • Data I receive helps me understand where I am teaching well and where I need to improve
I cannot say enough about how much quality is in this test...the ANet has prepared me much more than my own district for transition to the Common Core/new 2011 MA Frameworks. The increase of lexile levels really threw us for a loop this year, which was the fire we needed to really rev up instruction. As far as other reviews saying it was harder than the MCAS, I agree...but the MCAS is not the end goal for my school...the Frameworks are. Getting a data report within 48 hours is priceless to inform small group instruction and differentiated homework. The report variety and quality has increased each year and is helpful to share with parents and families.
Submitted by Jennifer in Massachusetts on May 19, 2013
Pros: Aligned to the standards I teach
Cons: Does not assess higher-order thinking • Misses growth of some students, such as those far below and/or far above grade level
Pros: Easy to administer • Results returned quickly
Cons: Doesn't help me track my students' learning gains over time • It is hard to use the data • Is not helpful to my professional growth as a teacher
Many of the questions are written poorly or do not have the correct responses tied to them. At my school we found several questions each interim that had incorrect responses marked as correct by the system. Although the tests are supposed to be tied to the CCSS, you are forced to follow their "scope and sequence" in order for the tests to accurately measure what students learned during the time frame. ANETs "scope and sequence" did not align to our district mandated "scope and sequence".
Submitted by Theresa in Illinois on May 14, 2013
Pros: Aligned to the standards I teach • Assesses higher-order thinking
Cons: Misses growth of some students, such as those far below and/or far above grade level • Takes students too long to complete
Pros: Easy to administer • Results returned quickly • Data is presented clearly
Cons: Doesn't help me track my students' learning gains over time
ANet returns results quickly and presents the data clearly in a way that is easy to engage. However, the data is most helpful to assess the learning growth of my students who are reading close to or on grade level. Those students who entered reading significantly below grade level return results that are unusable, and they walk away from the tests feeling frustrated and unable to see their own growth.
Submitted by Lindsey in District of Columbia on May 9, 2013
Pros: Aligned to the standards I teach • Takes students a reasonable amount of time to complete
Cons: Misses growth of some students, such as those far below and/or far above grade level
Pros: Easy to administer
Cons: Is not helpful to my professional growth as a teacher
The test questions are extremely poorly written. They are simply bad test questions. Some of the worst I have ever seen. This view is shared by the other LA Teachers at my school who are forced to use this test for TCAP practice. Also, I had a nationally board certified, highly qualified teacher review it and she also thought the questions were terrible. Simply not a good instrument.
Submitted by April in on April 9, 2013
Pros: Aligned to the standards I teach • Takes students a reasonable amount of time to complete
Cons: Does not assess higher-order thinking • Misses growth of some students, such as those far below and/or far above grade level
Pros: Easy to administer • Results returned quickly • Helps me track my students' learning gains over the course of the school year • Data is presented clearly
Cons: Is not helpful to my professional growth as a teacher
Achievement Network has a lot of positives about it: for one thing, the data is returned within 48 hours so we get a chance to see student data almost immediately (as opposed to the two - three month window for other standardized tests.) Additionally, it is aligned to the Common Core Standards, so questions that appear on the exam are ones that students are likely to have been taught in the classroom.
Like other standardized tests, however, ANet fails to measure higher-order thinking. Students are asked to return back to the text and search for the answer to the question. The result is that, in my classroom, I have students who cannot read above a third grade level able to search for and find answers to arbitrary questions. What use is that to the student?
Submitted by Sean in District of Columbia on May 18, 2012
Pros: Aligned to the standards I teach • Assesses higher-order thinking • Assesses a range of students, including those from far below to far above grade level • Takes students a reasonable amount of time to complete
Pros: Easy to administer • Results returned quickly • Helps me track my students' learning gains over the course of the school year • Data is presented clearly • Data I receive helps me understand where I am teaching well and where I need to improve
Between the quick turnaround on data, the coaching that is provided, their website, and the actual tests, ANet has played a huge role in a dramatic cultural and academic change in our school. Data-driven instruction is now the norm, and ANet is a big reason why.
Submitted by Charles in Massachusetts on April 5, 2012
Pros: Assesses higher-order thinking • Assesses a range of students, including those from far below to far above grade level
Cons: Not aligned to the standards I teach • Takes students too long to complete
Cons: Difficult to administer • Results are not returned quickly • Doesn't help me track my students' learning gains over time • It is hard to use the data • Is not helpful to my professional growth as a teacher
The LAUSD SPAs are, overall, very poor tests. They aren't aligned to the CST and they don't mimic the CST, and the required graphic organizers are ridiculous. They are a waste of money and time.
Submitted by Robert in California on March 6, 2012
Pros: Assesses higher-order thinking
Cons: Not aligned to the standards I teach • Misses growth of some students, such as those far below and/or far above grade level • Takes students too long to complete
Pros: Results returned quickly • Helps me track my students' learning gains over the course of the school year
Cons: Difficult to administer • It is hard to use the data • Is not helpful to my professional growth as a teacher
This ELA Assessment is being piloted at our school for Second Graders.
The assessments adequately cover the Common Core Standards and are age appropriate.
They do not, however, follow our district's Scope and Sequence. This made it difficult to fulfill required teaching objectives. It also placed us in a difficult situation of not being able to adhere to our contractual agreement with our district.
Our district assesses teacher performance in the class room. Spending so much time focusing student attention on the ANet assessments placed a great deal of stress on teachers. I felt it was not a good use of time despite the fact that I was still using the CCS.
Submitted by Constance in District of Columbia on March 1, 2012
Pros: Assesses higher-order thinking
Cons: Not aligned to the standards I teach • Misses growth of some students, such as those far below and/or far above grade level
Pros: Easy to administer • Results returned quickly • Data is presented clearly • Data I receive helps me understand where I am teaching well and where I need to improve
The Achievement Network has their own set of standards, which the test is based upon, that are then cross-correlated to the Common Core standards. It can be a bit confusing to match everything up, but all the skills are there.
The passages a fairly representative of what students will see on our state test.
The re-teach action plan component of the ANet data cycle is extremely valuable.
Submitted by Caryn in District of Columbia on February 18, 2012
Pros: Aligned to the standards I teach • Assesses higher-order thinking • Takes students a reasonable amount of time to complete
Cons: Misses growth of some students, such as those far below and/or far above grade level • Takes students too long to complete
Pros: Easy to administer • Results returned quickly • Data is presented clearly
Cons: Doesn't help me track my students' learning gains over time • It is hard to use the data
The ELA ANET assessments are a really great measure to use to project proficiency on state-wide assessments. They are very rigorous and thorough assessments. They are also very useful because ANET provides useful tools to look at the student data. With ANET's online database, teachers can review student data as well as create tools to support growth and further data collection in the classroom. However, different from the math ANET, the data on the ANET assessments is presented by skill not standard. It takes some time to align the questions on the assessment with the standard they are assessing vs. the skills. This makes it difficult if teachers collected data is tracked by standards. Also, this assessment does not provide as useful data for students who are far below grade-level in reading.
Submitted by Kylie in District of Columbia on January 24, 2012
Pros: Aligned to the standards I teach • Assesses higher-order thinking
Cons: Misses growth of some students, such as those far below and/or far above grade level • Takes students too long to complete
Pros: Easy to administer • Results returned quickly • Helps me track my students' learning gains over the course of the school year • Data is presented clearly • Data I receive helps me understand where I am teaching well and where I need to improve
This assessment allows for a great standards based data cycle. In just about 6 weeks you can assess your students, analyze data (the company really does most of this for you), create an action plan, and implement it. The test is incredibly easy to give and basically looks identical to the MCAS so as a third grade teacher I can prepare my students for everything from question types to test format.
Submitted by Michelle in Massachusetts on January 23, 2012
Pros: Aligned to the standards I teach • Takes students a reasonable amount of time to complete
Cons: Does not assess higher-order thinking • Misses growth of some students, such as those far below and/or far above grade level
Pros: Easy to administer • Results returned quickly • Data is presented clearly
Cons: Results are not returned quickly • Is not helpful to my professional growth as a teacher
The ELA Anet is a less effective tool than the math Anet. The questions often do not assess the standards that they are supposed to and the way that questions are categorized is not helpful for my instruction. On the other hand, the test writers select strong passages and reflecting on the way that my students interact with the texts has been helpful in identifying holes in my curriculum.
Submitted by Emily in Massachusetts on January 22, 2012
Pros: Aligned to the standards I teach • Takes students a reasonable amount of time to complete
Cons: Does not assess higher-order thinking
Pros: Easy to administer • Results returned quickly • Helps me track my students' learning gains over the course of the school year • Data is presented clearly • Data I receive helps me understand where I am teaching well and where I need to improve
I do like this assessment because it provides a way for collaborative teaching teams to target instruction throughout the school year. We have found the best results when we use ANET data to gather an initial picture of studetns' strenghts and weaknesses - but then gather a bit more data to verify this before creating action plans and altering instruction. The website for this assessment is also extremely helpful and allows teachers (and students) to see the data in various formats. My only major 'con' is that some of the passages, however, are often not very interesting to students.
Submitted by Deborah in Massachusetts on January 21, 2012
Pros: Aligned to the standards I teach • Takes students a reasonable amount of time to complete
Cons: Misses growth of some students, such as those far below and/or far above grade level
Pros: Easy to administer • Results returned quickly • Data is presented clearly • Data I receive helps me understand where I am teaching well and where I need to improve
Cons: Doesn't help me track my students' learning gains over time
The ANet is useful in that it builds stamina for test-taking and informs instruction in very specific areas of need for students. The data reports are clear, thorough, and allow teachers multiple parameters to view data. ANet, however, is summative throughout the year so often assesses standards that have yet to be taught. It should be used to gauge where students will fall on the MCAS and not how they are performing on standards already taught. In addition, some standards only have one question on the ANet and there are often typos/errors with some of the questions.
Submitted by Andrew in California on January 19, 2012
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