Get a good night's sleep and eat a nutritious meal before the test.

Stay relaxed. Too much tension can cause forgetting.

Be aware of how much time is available for completing the assessment. Glance through the entire test before beginning and estimate how much time is needed for each question or each section.

Read the directions and questions carefully. Answer only what is called for.

Check the scoring plan. (Determine if some questions or sections account for more points than others.)

Answer the questions you are sure about first, and then go back to the harder questions.

Allow five minutes (if possible) to review and correct careless errors or expand on facts.

Purpose of Assessing

Students are assessed in school for a variety of reasons. Teachers give exams in their classes to check for student understanding, prior to moving on to another topic. In some cases, classroom exams may count for a major portion of the student's semester grade. Likewise, district wide assessment serves multiple purposes. Millard administers a number of assessments between 1st and 11th grade to ensure that students are able to perform up to our district standards, which we refer to as our Essential Learner Outcomes (ELO's). We also give students in selected grades a nationally normed standardized test so that we can gauge how our student and programs stack up against nationwide norms.

What will happen with students who do not score at or about the cutoff indicating mastery?

We have multiple strategies to help student reach the learning objectives. Some of the strategies involve in-class, within-the-day programs. Are the students grouped appropriately for instruction? Could additional materials be used to improve performance? Parents also are involved as part of the solution. Parents may be given specific materials, programs, and/or homework to extend the school day into the home.

Some strategies involve programs in the school, but outside the ususal school hours (for example, some schools offer before-and after-school tutoring programs while others offer a special summer school program). Students who are still unable to attain the standard, after re-testing, will get additional help and will have a formal individualized plan. similar to a contract that states what the staff will do, what the student will do, and what the parents will do.