Diagnostic assessments are used to determine individual student strengths, weaknesses, and areas of concern in math and reading. Through individual, classroom, and grade level reports, these tools will inform teachers of the unique needs of individual students as well as direct overall classroom instruction.

Saint Paul Public Schools first implemented diagnostic assessments in the fall of 2003. Students in grades 3rd and 5th who where identified as not making Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) were assessed two times during the academic year. Teachers in those schools could also follow up in skill specific areas by having students do a computer based testlet. A computer adapted diagnostic assessment was used by all 7th grade students in the reading and math content areas.

The SPPS diagnostic program is comprised of two components:

1. SPPS diagnostic assessments. The SPPS diagnostic assessments are un-timed, low-stakes assessments created for grades 3-6 in reading and math. They were created through a collaborative process involving Saint Paul Public Schools, the University of Minnesota and Riverside Publishing. If you have participated in the diagnostic assessment program in 2004-05 or 2003-04, the assessments may look familiar to you.
   
2. Edusoft Assessment Platform. Edusoft is a web-based scoring and reporting system. Through Edusoft, instructional staff will have the ability to score, report and track results from diagnostic assessment data, as well as analyze results in a variety of groupings.

The SPPS Diagnostic Assessment Process

There are approximately 5 steps to administer and score the SPPS diagnostic assessments using Edusoft:

Teacher prints off answer sheets for his/her class from plain paper.