2020 Bonar Street, Room 331, Berkeley, CA 94702
Hours: Monday – Friday | 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Lena Sweeney, BREA Director 510-395-7546
Dave Stevens, Teacher on Special Assignment, 510-486-9341
Colleen Renick, Teacher on Special Assignment, 510-486-9342
Rebecca Weissman, Teacher on Special Assignment-ELD, 510-486-934
Nicole Cedillo, Teacher on Special Assignment, 510-898-9087
Jiali Huang, Evaluation & Assessment Analyst, 510-898-9088
Kristian Overbey, Student Assessment Specialist (Benchmarks & State), 510-486-9361
For Infinite Campus or Illuminate Teacher Logins and questions about the Gradebook, Report Cards, Parent Portal, Scheduling or IC, place a ticket to: helpdesk@berkeley.net
About the Department
The goal of the program is to create high levels of data literacy at each school site and across district level teams. On a foundational level, this begins with making sure that the right data is in the system for teams to use. As BUSD aligns various systems to ensure that data is available and visible (within eduCLIMBER), BREA focuses on supporting teams in accessing this data to assess which programs or actions are most positively impacting levels of student learning and achievement.
In order to provide data and analysis to support decision-making to support student success, the current research, evaluation, and assessment department supports:
- Systematic support with screening, diagnostic, and summative assessments for grades K-12.
- Progress Monitoring for Tiers 1, 2, and 3
- Using Data to determine intervention and instructional needs
- Response to Intervention professional development and professional learning communities Tk-5 and 6-8
- Development of MTSS systems: Differentiation & Interventions in Tier 2 and 3
- EduClimber trainings, support: creation of intervention groups, inputting data for progress monitoring, and decision making
- Use of qualitative and quantitative data to determine if programs are meeting district goals.
- Using data-driven decision-making to optimize resources, improve educational outcomes, and ensure accountability
Assessments:
The California Department of Education (CDE) is committed to establishing innovative achievement and proficiency assessments for students.
1. State Tests
California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) System
- Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments(PDF)
- Smarter Balanced Interim Assessment Overview(PDF)
- Tools for Teachers(PDF)
- California Science Test(PDF)
- CAST Interim Assessments(PDF)
- California Alternate Assessments
English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC)
- Initial ELPAC(PDF)
- Initial Alternate ELPAC (PDF)
- Summative ELPAC(PDF)
- Alternate ELPAC(PDF)
- ELPAC Interim Assessments(PDF)
Other Important Tests
2. Universal Screeners and Benchmark Assessments
In BUSD, universal screeners are brief and administered to all students on a regular schedule depending on grade level and content area. All students in kindergarten to 10th grade are screened in reading and math
Here you can find BUSD’s Elementary School assessment calendar and Middle School assessment calendar
Students in Grades 3-10 take Star Reading and Star Math three times a year in English or Spanish based on their program. The results provide a snapshot of each child’s development as a reader and math student. School teams use this information to inform monitoring and additional support that might be needed in reading. For more information on screeners, and why they are important check out this link.
Getting More Information on Assessments
- Parent Guide to Dibels Assessment English/Spanish
- Home Connect with Activities for families to do
- Dibels Tips for Families: explains risk categories & percentiles, gives tips on what parents can do if child is in risk category, Resource links & Terminology
- STAR Reports for Caregivers
BUSD’s Reading Diagnostic Plan
BUSD teachers and leaders will be using grade-level Reading Diagnostic Plans to ensure assessments are being used to collect high leverage actionable data to inform targeted Tier 1 instruction for students with unfinished learning in reading, and students are being progress monitored and identified for additional support if needed.
See here for BUSD’s Diagnostic Plan 25-26
Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS)
TSS is a framework that aligns Response to Instruction and Intervention with the California State standards and the systems necessary to ensure academic, behavior, and social success.
Response to Intervention
Response to Intervention (RtI) is a multi-level framework that integrates instruction, assessment and intervention within a school-wide prevention system to maximize student achievement and reduce behavior problems. Through school-wide screening, students who need a targeted or intensive approach to learning are identified. Interventions are implemented, progress is monitored and data-based decision making occurs to determine the next steps for each student.
Response to Intervention Teacher Leaders: The BREA team works closely with the RTI teachers collaborating with educators on MTSS implementation and practices. One of the major responsibilities of this position is reviewing RTI data for RTI Tiers 1, 2 and 3 and working with site teams to determine whether Tier 2 and 3 interventions are successfully accelerating student learning. Use of data platforms and experience with data analysis is a requirement for this position, so is a strong background in supporting RTI programs K-8 that result in accelerated learning for students who are struggling to access grade level curriculum successfully. There is an RTI TSA at each school site in grades TK-8. The focus of the RTI program in BUSD is academic, behavioral and social-emotional with robust support systems in place for each of these strands of student support.
EduClimber and Data Literacy in BUSD:
The BREA department maintains the eduClimber MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Support) platform, as well as our other assessment platforms, such as STAR and Amplify. eduCLIMBER is a platform that centralizes and visualizes whole-child data, including academic, behavioral, and social-emotional information. It is designed for educational districts to implement a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS).
District Data Newsletters
Individual School Newsletters can be found on the school website pages.
Elementary School Data Newsletter 2025
Middle School Data Newsletter 2025
High School Data Newsletter 2025
Elementary School Data Newsletter 2024
Middle School Data Newsletter 2024
High School Data Newsletter 2024
Elementary School Data Newsletter 2023
Middle School Data Newsletter 2023
High School Data Newsletter 2023
Education Data and Statistics
California School Dashboard video: English | Spanish | Cantonese
California Department of Education (CDE) Data and Statistics
CDE Berkeley Statistics
DataQuest
National Center for Education Statistics
Educational Results Partnership
