Curriculum Instruction & Assessment

ACCOUNTABILITY

It is the duty of the School Board to provide education to all pupils who reside in the district until such time as the pupil has received a high school diploma or has reached the age of 21, with the exception of the exclusion of pupils for gross misconduct (RSA 189:1-a). In providing education the School Board is responsible for establishing the structure, accountability, advocacy, and delivery of instruction in each school. To accomplish this end, the School Board has established instructional policies that provide instructional goals to support flexibility in implementing diverse educational approaches based on the knowledge and skills pupils will need in the future. For a full listing of School Board instructional policies, please click here.

The following organizational charts describe the administrative structures of Epping School District.  

PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT OF COMPETENCY EDUCATION (PACE) PILOT

PACE Initiative - PACE is an initiative of the NH Department of Education with the purpose of rethinking accountability and assessment in New Hampshire.  The Epping School District applied for and was approved as a member of a Southeast regional group including Epping, Rochester, and Sanborn Regional School Districts.  Teachers in these districts are working together to develop, implement, and evaluate performance assessments which measure a student's mastery of content concepts, practices, and skills in English language arts, mathematics, and science.  These performance assessments will serve as a measure of student achievement for accountability at the State level. This work aligns with District goals to develop common grade/content assessments  and performance assessments measuring student mastery of competencies.

Initiative Approved - On March 5, 2015 the US Department of Education approved a PACE pilot.  Per the NH Department of Education press release "The four PACE-implementing districts - Sanborn Regional, Rochester, Epping and Souhegan - have worked closely with NHDOE over the past five years to develop this strategy, and as a result the U.S. Department of Education has agreed to allow them to be the only districts in the country to pilot a new locally managed assessment process for accountability purposes."  For more information please reference the March 5th NHDOE press release and/or NHDOE  weblink below.

NHDOE Press Release

NHDOE PACE Link

PACE Implementation - PACE is a locally-managed assessment process that satisfies State requirements for assessing public school students. Students in the PACE school districts (Epping, Rochester, Sanborn and Souhegan) are given fewer state assessments (SBAC and NECAP) and more local assessments (PACE) than other districts. A comparison of State and local testing requirements in PACE and non-PACE districts can be accessed by clicking the links below.

Comparison of State Assessments Required in PACE Districts as compared to Non-PACE Districts

Overall Assessments (both State and Local) in PACE districts as compared to Non-PACE Districts

Teachers have been hard at work developing quality performance assessments (QPA's).  Please reference the Powerpoint presentation on student assessment & accountability for the PACE grade levels and examples of quality performance tasks. 

Student Assessment & Accountability Powerpoint

In addition to quality performance assessments the district is in the process of developing content maps to show:

  • How each content unit aligns with state competencies and
  • What classroom, district, and state assessments are being used to provide evidence of student mastery of competencies.

Education & Quality Performance Assessment Link - Please click here for more information on the link between competency education and quality performance assessments.  Competency education increases a student's depth of learning and college-career-life readiness by focusing on knowledge, skills, and work study practices.  Competencies are targets for student learning representing key content - specific concepts, practices, and skills - applied within or across content areas.  Quality performance assessments (QPA) build and measure student mastery of competencies at the upper levels of cognitive rigor (Depth of Knowledge).  QPAs are based on real world work, problems, and applications resulting in student college-career-readiness.

Resource for Considering Redesign of Accountability Systems - Please click on the link below for a Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) resource.  Throughout the publication New Hampshire and the PACE work are highlighted.

Evolving Coherent Systems of Accountability for Next Generation Learning: A Decision Framework

Lessons from Prior Accountability Testing Versions

What the State learned from the previous student testing and accountability systems

  • State, district, and school assessment do not work well together
  • Present system is too top down
  • Greater local control yields richer discussion
  • One size assessment does not fit all districts and schools
  • There are concerns about too much testing
  • There are concerns about confidentiality of student data
  • Quality teaching and learning requires quality assessment and timely feedback
  • Real world application of learning requires a depth of knowledge and work-study skills
  • Standardized testing yields too much competition and questionable predictions for readiness
  • Curriculum, instruction, assessment, professional development, evaluation, and accountability need to work together

Benefits of PACE

  • Aligns with K to 12 competency-based education per NH Standards
  • Aligns with 21st century content and skills per ESD Competencies of Learning and Project Based Learning
  • Uses formative and summative assessments designed by NH educators including Epping teachers
  • Transfers to English language arts (ELA), math, science, social studies, and unified arts not just ELA and math per SBAC state standardized testing
  • Requires less SBAC state standardized testing
  • Validates using state standardized testing in one grade per school
  • Produces timely results to guide the teaching and learning process
  • Predicts college-career-life readiness better than standardized test

SCHOOL DISTRICT REPORT CARD

The intent of the Epping School District Report Card is to share successes and challenges in meeting the district student learning, professional learning, and accountability goals.  Student demographic and educational data and financial data are routinely monitored to determine our successes and challenges.  Please note that data may be from several years due to the availability of information from the NH Department of Education.

Student Demographic Information - Student demographics provide information on the growth of the Epping school community and the various needs of Epping students.  Student diversity, socio-economic disadvantaged students, limited English proficiency students, Title 1 students, and special education students also make up the various subgroups subject to accountability.

Student Learning Information - Educational information provides information on the growth of students learning and the various needs of Epping students.  The state assessment program is used to measure overall school and district academic progress.  Student post-secondary attendance and students serving in the armed forces provide a historical view of high school student success while  annual student dropout information provides a historical view of high school student challenge.

Financial Information - The district continues to monitor cost in comparison to other school districts and state data when available.  The Epping tax rate, local equalized tax rate, fund balance returned, cost per pupil, minimum teacher salary, average class sizes, school budget, and school revenue are reported on a yearly basis.

NH Economic & Labor Market Information  - Please reference the economic and labor market information from the NH Employment Security which information about Epping. 

Epping Economic & Labor Market Information

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