Common Formative Assessments with Gregory Leavitt Transformative Principal 065

Mr. Gregory Leavitt is the principal of Draper Park Middle School in Draper, UT. Draper Park has experienced some great success recently as a top-scoring school in the state in Math, ELA, and Science. He was the 2013 Canyons District Administrator of the Year Award Winner.

In this episode we talk about the following:

Cross Curricular Teaming and PLCs.

• Agenda consists of activities, common vocabulary, student problem solving, and team activities and celebrations
• Vocabulary is a powerful way to connect content areas.
• How he reviews all 9 PLC teams’ notes.
• Consistency as key to long-term success.
• How they use a Friday late start collaboration time.

Subject Area Teaming and PLCs

• Large focus on data
• Common Formative Assessments
• Bringing everybody up, instead of comparing for comparison sake.
• Easy to take big end-of-year test when you are assessing for mastery to the standards all throughout the year.
• No need for a big push at the end.
• Nothing fancy, just some Google Docs that are shared between the team.

Standards-Based Grading

• 100% of grades are based on assessments, what the kids can actually demonstrate as mastery.
• Rick Wormeli - “Fair Isn’t Always Equal”
• Objective Tracker, student-reported grades, and success.

How you can be a transformative principal:

Pick one thing that you can sustain for the next 5–7 years and stick with it.

Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.

Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.

Buy Communication Cards

Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com

Download Paperless Principal.

We’re proud to be sponsored by IXL.

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.