What are Indicators?!?

It recently came to my attention (today) that many parents do not know what indicators are. I never put much thought into this because they are such a part of my every day vocabulary. As I thought about it, however, I realized that I had never taken the time to explain it. So here it goes...



At the beginning of October, your child brought home a letter with calendars attached. These calendars listed numbers, such as 5.1.1 and a short description of what was expected according to that number. In Indiana, there a academic standards that have been set by the Department of Education. There are standards in each academic area (english/language arts, math, social studies, and science). The standard is a very general statement of what we expect children to learn. Under each standard, there are what are called indicators. These indicators more specifically identify what a child is being taught. When designing our curriculum, we look at indicators to identify what skills need to be mastered by your child. Indicator 5.1.1. in math means that we are looking at 5th grade, standard 1 (number sense), indicator 1 (Convert between numbers in words and numbers in figures, for numbers up to millions and decimals up to thousandths).



We assess a different indicator or pair of indicators each week in math. Students are given a pretest on Friday, then they are grouped by how well they did on the pretest. The pretest is on 5th grade standards, therefore, it is completely acceptable for a child to not pass. The pretests are only used so that students who already know the material can be appropriately challenged. This happens in all four 5th grade classrooms, so students go to a different room each week. At the end of the week (or sooner if the students know the material), students are given an assessment on the indicator. If they earn an 80% or better, it is considered that they mastered that indicator. If they earn less than 80%, then they are retaught the material and reassessed when they seem to understand it. This process can be repeated until the student masters the inidicator. This is why you may sometimes see the same quiz with multiple grades. Only the highest grade will go in the grade book. However, I will send home all given quizzes so that you can review these skills with your child.

In reading and writing, indicators are assessed through performance on work samples, quizzes, and projects. Everything we do in class is linked to an indicator. Again, 80% or better is considered mastery. If I have graded on a rubric, a grade of a B- or better is considered mastery.

I am hoping that this clarifies what we are expecting students to accomplish in 5th grade this year. If you have any questions, please let me know either by posting a comment, sending me an e-mail, or calling me.