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Coordinating the ACT, PSAT, AP exams, ASVAB, and other tests for a building of 800+ students while maintaining a full-time teaching load and completing a master's degree has not been easy, but the learning has been invaluable:
Working with IEP teams and case managers to ensure that students have the accommodations they need.
Communicating effectively to help staff, students, parents meet important deadlines.
Managing extraordinarily complex logistics to meet DPI requirements as efficiently and effectively as possible.
Analyzing assessment data to help administrators and staff make sense of what our students know and can do.
Below, you'll find examples of my work collecting and sharing data, introducing important updates and changes, and closing the loop on previous rounds of data collection as I sought to not only manage assessments at SPHS, but improve our culture of using and learning from data. What you won't see is the hours of time spent learning to navigate the web of interactions and online data systems that connect local and state educational agencies, private companies like ACT and College Board, school staff and leadership, and the students and families we serve.
This October homeroom lesson introduced a student reflection survey to align recent PreACT performance with daily learning and long-term goals. Students evaluated their preparation and test-day effort. Beyond fostering student metacognition, the collected data informed room assignments for the spring ACT and PreACT Secure.
Survey questions encouraged students to read their score reports and reflect meaningfully on their strengths and weaknesses
In this mid-year presentation to staff, I introduced my decision to reorganize testing rooms for the spring ACT suite of tests. I was able to anticipate staff concerns about the nature of the change: moving them from testing with their homeroom of 12-18 students to a more traditional testing arrangement in which they might supervise small-group accommodated testing or a gymnasium full of 9th graders with standard time.
To address these concerns, I articulated a clear and student-centered rationale for the shift (including the use of post-test data collected from students after the fall Pre-ACT), and I solicited staff input about their proctoring skills and preferences through a survey designed to assess their comfort level with both the technological and human aspects of test proctoring.
Staff reception to the idea was overwhelmingly positive, and the change allowed for staffing that will be both more efficient (using fewer substitutes) and more tailored to students' individual needs.
While assessment management and instructional leadership require distinct competencies, my work in testing has given me a necessary technical foundation and a crash course in complex systems. This role has clarified the tension between maintaining systemic integrity and supporting the individuals the system is designed to serve. Leadership requires the discipline to manage complex logistics without losing sight of the unique people represented in each cell of each spreadsheet. My experience confirms I can navigate that balance, ensuring that administrative systems support, rather than obstruct, the instructional mission.
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