Academics at BMS

Introduction: Academics are the heart of any school, and BMS strives to provide families with timely, relevant information to help them support their students.

Academic Standards Basalt Middle School aligns with the Colorado Department of Education's Academic Standards. Per the Colorado Department of Education, all Basalt Middle School learning content is based on the Standards of the Common Core. The Colorado Department of Education and the Colorado PTA have created docs to help parents understand the expectations of the standards in all content areas, including Specials.  For more information on grade-level standards and the Common Core, visit:http://www.cde.state.co.us/standardsandinstruction/guidestostandards

BMS Habits of a Scholar and Learning Resources Check out our extensive resource list on learning topics that are important to BMS, such as growth mindset and learner behaviors. Click Here

Standardized Testing at BMS

While we know standardized testing is not always a popular topic, it does provide BMS with important data on student growth and areas of need. Below you'll find information on how BMS participates in standardized testing. For more information, contact Principal Ellsperman at (970) 384-5901. For Roaring Fork School District information on assessment, click here.

Access Testing Every winter, students in the English Language Development program take the ACCESS test to assess English language proficiency. This annual test measures a student's progress toward acquiring academic English and is administered to all students identified as an English Learner in grades K-12 on computers. For more information, visit the Colorado Department of Education or WIDA, the organization which creates the ACCESS test.

Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS) CMAS is the acronym for the entire bundle of standardized tests that Colorado students now take. For general information, visit the Colorado Department of Education,

**CMAS: Science and Social Studies **The Science CMAS is given to 5th and 8th graders every spring. The Social Studies CMAS is given to 4th and 7th graders ever three years. BMS last administered the CMAS Social Studies test in the spring of 2018. These are online tests. Parents receive a printout with score results the following fall after they're taken.

CMAS: English Language Arts and Mathematics CMAS is the test Colorado uses for the English Language Arts (ELA) and Math standardized testing required every year. This test is given to all four grades each spring in a three week window and is an online test. CMAS measures how a student performs on a particular Common Core standard. Those who score in the top two levels are considered more likely to go on to college based on their background knowledge. Parents receive a printout with score results the following fall after the test is taken. To understand how to read your child's test report, click here. Contact the front office for details and please don't schedule absences during these days.

NWEA NWEA is an assessment to measure annual growth by grade. The district now allows the NWEA to be optionally given as needed with the exception of once annually in the spring. It may be used for more frequent data checks on students as desired by the individual school.

NWEA is an adaptive and online test. The Measures of Academic Progress® (MAP®) creates a personalized assessment experience by adapting to each student’s learning level as they test. Assessment data—and essential information about what each student knows and is ready to learn— is available within 24 hours. NWEA scores can be compared to national norms. Growth depends on the grade level as opposed to a particular standard. Parents may receive a printout with score results in the spring after the annual assessment is given. Contact the front office for details and please don't schedule absences for these dates. More information on NWEA is available here.

Curriculum at BMS

The following programs are used to varying degrees at BMS. Contact your child's teacher with questions. The instructional model that we and the Roaring Fork School District use is available here.

Illustrative Math Illustrative Mathematics 5–8 Math is a problem-based core mathematics curriculum for grades 6–8 that sparks discussion, perseverance, and enjoyment of mathematics. Students learn math by doing math, solving problems in mathematical and real-world contexts, and constructing arguments using precise language. Teachers shift their instruction with high-leverage routines that guide students in understanding and making connections between concepts and procedures. For more information, click here.

EL English Language Arts EL ELA is a curriculum designed to engage students in challenging, adventurous and meaningful learning. There are four modules per grade level that combine academic achievement, character and high quality work into the learning of English Language Arts reading, writing, and presentation skills. For more information, click here.