Welcome to the Office of Assessment and Evaluation

2011 Advanced Placement District Summary (Updated 1/18/11)

This website is constructed for the purpose of assisting numerous district stakeholders in making informed educational decisions. The compilation of data has been carefully crafted to represent all aspects of education in Pleasanton schools.

No single assessment can provide all the necessary information to make fully informed curriculum and instruction decisions. A comprehensive assessment system, however, can provide useful data to assist the decision-making process. The following guiding principles are considered critical factors in the analysis of assessment data:

• Assessments are an integral part of the instruction.
• Using multiple indicators of assessment to evaluate success is essential.
• Collecting and maintaining quality assessment data is important.
• Emphasizing comparison of assessment data from year to year rather than from school to school is the centerpiece of our improvement.
• Communication of assessment data helps make informed decisions.

Pleasanton Unified School District’s assessment system includes a number of different tests used for a variety of purposes:

• Census tests are those taken by all students. They include the California Standards Tests, the California Achievement Test-Sixth Edition (CAT/6), the Fitnessgram, and other norm-referenced tests, as well as the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE).
• Group tests are those taken by a particular group of students. They include Advanced Placement (AP) Exams and the college entrance tests (e.g., SAT, ACT).

The purposes of assessments in Pleasanton Unified School District are many-fold and multi-layered. The staff uses assessment data not only to monitor continuous student progress and identify the areas of improvement, but also to measure the effectiveness of teaching strategies, measure the progress made towards meeting district and state standards, plan strategies and set goals for future, as well as evaluate the implementation of the annual strategic planning goals.

We hope that this website is a useful resource for all those offering their services to Pleasanton schools and the community supporting them.

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