What CAASPP already? Well…yeah…sorta.
If you haven’t already started using the FIABs and IABs freely available at the CAASPP website, then now is a great time to get started!
At the end of each chapter that you teach, consider using an FIAB to wrap up the instruction prior to giving your test. Better yet, don’t give your homemade test…give the FIAB instead.
Why?
As you teach whatever content, there naturally occurs a gap between the rigor at which you are teaching your students and the rigor expected by the CAASPP. At the end of each chapter you teach, close the “rigor gap” using an FIAB as an additional instructional tool. We call this process the “Last Mile Protocol”. This 5-day protocol wraps up the chapter you have taught by mixing assessment and instruction together. (Students don’t even realize they are being assessed until the final day.)
Day 1
- Select a relevant FIAB/IAB and create a testing session labeled as non-standardized.
- Students work in pairs on the FIAB/IAB. Each student has their laptop open and is entering their own answers. (In theory, both students will get the exact same score, since they worked on it together.)
- Provide students with scratch paper with the expectation that students will show their work on EVERY problem.
Day 2 and Day 3
- Use CERS to view the data.
- Identify the most missed questions.
- Do Building Thinking Classroom-style lessons with those questions.
Day 4
- Do additional re-teaching using problems/tasks from a source OTHER than the FIAB/IAB.
Day 5
- Create a new testing session for the same FIAB/IAB as Day 1.
- This time label the administration as standardized.
- Students complete this individually
GOAL: Fewer than 20% of students in the red band
Read more about the Last Mile Protocol here.
By using the FIAB for additional instruction at the end of each chapter, students are regularly exposed to the question types and the rigor that they will see on the official CAASPP test in Spring, 2025.
The MCOE Math Team recommends teachers use the Test Administrator Interface to create an FIAB testing session for your students to work on the FIAB in pairs. (Mark the testing session as ‘non-standard‘ so you know this was not an official testing environment.) Students continue to learn the content as they help each other with the FIAB questions.
You can even choose to PRINT the FIAB questions and ANSWERS. Here are the printing directions.
Feel free to contact the MCOE Math Team if you have any questions about how you might us the FIABs to close the “rigor gap”.
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