When standardized test scores showed room for improvement, this Missouri district united teachers around a shared assessment philosophy - using quality data to better understand student mastery. They've seen remarkable gains and have brought instructors to the front of the assessment creation process with Mastery Connect.
The Challenge
De Soto School District needed a strategy to boost student achievement. Teachers worked diligently to support their students, but assessments posed a significant obstacle. Creating them was time-consuming; formats varied widely, and aligning them to standards proved difficult. Elementary teacher Maddy Overmann and High School teachers Lindsey Brinkman and Erin Beck weighed in on the challenges.
"Many times, these assessments were not as aligned with the standards as they could have been and were harder to grade," said Overmann. "I was using paper or Google Forms and spending up to three days on a single test."
A fragmented assessment approach made meaningful data analysis extremely challenging. "We struggled to prepare students for state tests," recalled Brinkman. "It was hard to get specific insights into student mastery from the data we had," added Beck.
When Ron Farrow joined as Assistant Superintendent in 2021, he recognized the need for unified assessment anchored in learning standards.
"We needed to go back to basics by putting standards at the center and providing accessible data to drive instructional decisions," Farrow explained.
Key Insights
Generic tests provided shallow, unhelpful data.
Teachers needed assessments closely tied to standards.
Unified assessments paired with standards-unpacking work enabled data-driven teaching.
Since implementing Mastery Connect, De Soto has seen more meaningful assessments and double-digit growth in core subjects.
The Solution
De Soto adopted Mastery Connect as their assessment management system, drawn to its user-friendly features and ability to align assessments to standards deeply. Through intuitive assessment-building tools, teachers could finally craft high-quality common assessments collectively.
"Mastery Connect was brought in as a tool. We are doing standards-unpacking work within it. It gave us a great opportunity to rewrite our assessments to focus on true rigor and depth,” Farrow said.
Assessment for Learning:
Meeting Students Where They Are
“We always say that we want to focus on assessment for learning rather than just assessment of learning,” Brinkman said.
Over the summer ahead of implementation, teachers underwent training on building valid assessments through Mastery Connect. Change was hard, but the opportunity to unpack standards, re-work questions, and write custom items was invaluable.
"When we got Mastery Connect, we were excited to go through and match every question to standards. It made us look at item specs and unpack the standards," Overmann said. "We were nervous about creating tests at first, but Mastery Connect made us examine what's hitting the standards and what's not."
De Soto facilitated PD on the "why" behind common assessments to drive teacher buy-in. As teachers saw their new assessments yield more precise mastery data, buy-in increased. The visually-driven reports made digesting results easy.
"The data visualization was a huge draw - it allowed us to finally get instructionally-relevant insights we were missing,” Farrow explained.
The assessments also provided a wide range of opportunities for students to showcase learning.
"Mastery Connect has been good about varying depth of knowledge, showing where students are. It gives us the best of both worlds - measuring skills and applied critical thinking,” Brinkman said.
"We were able to shorten tests quite a bit and make them more meaningful while also getting quicker feedback," noted Ms. Overmann. "It helped us take out questions that didn't align well and narrow down what we truly needed to teach."
Data-Driven Instruction Brought to Life
Much of the guesswork has been eliminated thanks to the data provided in Mastery Connect. Each of the teachers shared some of their favorite features or benefits they’ve seen since using the AMS.
“Mastery Connect forces you to know your standards as a teacher. It shows me which questions need adjusting and exactly where students are in their learning,” Beck said.
"The quick feedback from Mastery Connect prepares students for MAP testing and makes it part of their routine. No more surprises - we are creating action-oriented, more informed, and empowered learners," said Overmann.
The Results
Fueled by Mastery Connect's data and the incredible work of the teachers, De Soto has seen double-digit growth annually on state assessments. Better assessments provided the united instructional roadmap needed to move the needle on student achievement. They now score at the top of their region in core subjects.
Instructure has worked through our feedback for all the changes we've suggested for Mastery Connect.It feels like they listen to keep improving the product.
Ron Farrow
Assistant Superintendent
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