SAGE Assessments 2016

Beginning on March 28th, Garfield County School District will be administering the summative SAGE assessments for Language Arts, Math, and Science curriculums.  Students in 3^rd -11^th grades will be participating in the state mandated testing.  The historical timeline for legislative and state school board mandates are follows:

• 2009-2013 Districts participated in a computer adaptive testing pilot program.
• 2012 Legislative session HB 15 required the development of computer adaptive tests.
• 2012 Utah State School Board directs the process for obtaining an assessment contract to test students online.
• 2013 State Board of Education directs the development of the computer adaptive SAGE assessment.  The end of year SAGE assessment is implemented by all districts in the spring of 2014.
• August 2015-2016 school year, all students in the State of Utah are required to participate in a beginning and end of year SAGE assessments.

Federal and state funds are tied to the SAGE testing requirements.  If you would like to review the SAGE program or sample questions found on the SAGE assessment, parents can access them at http://www.sageportal.org/training-tests

This year the SAGE assessments will provide parents with a longitudinal timeline showing the individual student’s growth from 2014 through 2016.  Also new this year, the SAGE assessment will show individual student growth from September 2015 to the end of this school year.  When the results of the SAGE assessment are received, student interventions are provided to the parents and teachers to help students improve academically.  The testing window for the district will be as follows:

March 28^th-April 13^th Science

April 14^th-May 3^rd Language Arts

May 4^th-May 20^th Math

If your students are going to be absent from school during these days, please contact your classroom teacher so the SAGE assessments can be completed.  If you have questions regarding SAGE assessments, please feel free to give me a call at 435-676-8821.  I would be happy to visit with you.

Superintendent Ben Dalton

Garfield County School District