Assessment



Our curriculum emphasizes developing understandings, knowledge, and skills through active engagement with peers, caring adults, learning resources, and fieldwork. Consequently, we evaluate our students and our school in a variety of ways:

1. ongoing assessment through critique, revision, and reflection;
2. culminating assessments;
3. portfolios; and
4. participation in New York State standardized tests (Grades 3-6).

The primary goal of assessment is to facilitate student learning. With that in mind, assessment, for the most part, occurs while students are engaged in a learning situation. This allows us to continue the learning process and not stop for separate or disconnected testing. This approach also permits assessment to be conducted over time with familiar materials and manipulatives in the students' environment. Our assessments cultivate students' ability to thoughtfully critique their work and provide students with opportunities to demonstrate their strengths and improve areas of weakness. Lastly, assessments are used to provide learners, teachers, parents, and community members with information on progress toward the high standards that we have set for our students.

GCCS nurtures a culture of revision and continuous improvement in students as well as staff. GCCS engages in Expeditionary Learning's school review process to foster continuous improvement. EL evaluates GCCS's implementation of the core practice benchmarks that are the hallmark of its design.

The true measure of our success is how our students perform as real-life learners. Are they capable and confident readers, writers, problem-solvers, and mathematicians? Are they articulate questioners, strong thinkers and hard workers? Are they respectful and do they treat others well? When a spirit of intellectual adventure is supported by rigorous accountability structures, a culture of high quality work emerges.