GNS 241125 Mountain View Staff Work on HLAT Assessments

École Mountain View School (EMV) Principal, Paula Murphy, presented her school’s work to improve student learning and achievement at the November Public Board Meeting.  GYPSD schools use the Highest Level of Achievement (HLAT) to measure students' writing skills against the Alberta curriculum in language arts. It shows teachers in each school how well their students are doing and how they compare to students across the Division. Generally, students are assessed at the beginning and the end of the year; however, EMV staff are going the extra mile by doing a mid-year check to ensure that students are moving forward in their skill development.

On the October 25th Professional Learning Day,  Literacy Consultant Irene Heffel worked alongside the staff to deepen their understanding and use of the tool to determine areas of student strength and areas of growth to guide their instructional focus.

Using the HLAT data, staff discussed:

• aspects of writing that the entire class found challenging
• instructional approaches to improve in those areas
• ways to provide intentional and constructive feedback to students to teach them specific strategies on how to improve