Assessment, Accountability & Evaluation (AAE)

Assessment

Polk County Public Schools administers assessments to students in grades pre-kindergarten (PK) to 12th grade to measure their achievement on Florida’s education standards, which were developed and implemented to ensure that all students graduate from high school ready for success in college, career, and life. Assessment supports instruction and student learning with test results to help district leaders and stakeholders determine whether the goals of the curriculum and instruction are being met.

Accountability

Polk County Public Schools Accountability department provides the public with teacher, school, district, and state accountability information for Polk’s PK to 12th-grade education system. The department focuses on reporting school and district grades and state Value-Added Model (VAM) results that describe instructional personnel and administrators’ impact on student learning growth and are used in educator evaluations. The department also provides school improvement ratings for alternative schools and ESE centers. In addition, the accountability department supports schools and other departments in the district to address accountability information needs.

Research

Polk County Public Schools reviews and approves internal and external research requests that directly benefit the district, require minimal use of student and/or employee time, and align with the district’s research agenda. To support district grants, the department facilitates the execution of data sharing agreements, the building of data sets, and transference of data in a FERPA compliant manner for district grants. To support student achievement, the department collaborates with schools and other departments to design program evaluations, analyze educational outcomes, participate in action research, and conduct literature reviews on a variety of topics in education for district initiatives and curricular programs under consideration. In addition, the department provides guidance on survey development, implementation, and analysis including the district’s annual feedback survey.