Broken Arrow Public Schools utilizes a range of assessment strategies to gain a full, detailed view of student progress to improve the whole child. Testing is a valuable educational tool for student assessment and program evaluation. It is important, however, to remember that test data is only one snapshot in the total performance picture for a student, grade level, school or district.

It’s natural for parents and concerned citizens to wonder what is motivating this increase and to examine the many reasons why. So we ask ourselves, “Why test students?” To start, we need to know how children are doing in school. Schools and teachers have always used tests of various kinds to determine how well students are learning and if instruction has been successful.

According to testing experts and researchers, testing serves many important purposes. Tests are used to:

• Diagnose individual student strengths and weaknesses.

• Focus learning and instruction to state standards and key concepts.

• Provide motivation for improved student, school, district and state performance.

• Make school, college entrance and career decisions.

Your child will be given a variety of different types of assessments depending on your child’s teacher(s) and needs. These may include, but not limited to: classroom assessments, common formative assessments, local/state benchmarks, and/or summative assessments throughout the school year. In grades 3-12 grade, these assessments prepare students for the end of the year required state test.

Questions? Please contact District Testing Coordinator Pam Jones or 918-259-5758.