From ODE: “Call for Stakeholder Nominations – OAA/OGT Alignment Review Meetings”

ODE’s Office of Curriculum and Assessment is looking for Ohio educators and other stakeholders to help with aligning the current Ohio Achievement Assessments (OAA) and Ohio Graduation Tests (OGT) with Ohio’s revised standards in science and social studies, and the Ohio-adopted Common Core State Standards in English language arts and mathematics.

These meetings will provide a review of the alignment between existing test items and the 2010 standards, and provide feedback for use in alignment work for the next generation of assessments. ODE is looking statewide for stakeholders who have knowledge of, and some experience with, the 2010 standards at the elementary, middle school and high school grade levels and can work cooperatively to conduct this alignment review work. All meetings will be held in Columbus. Please note the following:

• Meeting participants who live more than 45 miles from the meeting location will be provided hotel accommodations;
• For all eligible meeting participants, costs for substitute teachers will be reimbursed directly to school districts;
• All meeting participants will be reimbursed for mileage ($.50 cents per mile); expense forms and reimbursement guidelines will be distributed at the meeting.
• Science alignment review meetings will be held in January:

Alignment Review Meeting Dates
Grade 5 Science 1/24/12 – 1/26/12
Grade 8 Science 1/24/12 – 1/26/12
OGT Science 1/18/12 – 1/20/12

To nominate yourself or someone else to participate in one of the alignment review meetings, please contact Marie-Elena (Lana) Hall at (614) 387-2285 (desk), (614) 446-0223 (general office phone number), or marie-elena.hall@ode.state.oh.us.

2011 School and District Report Cards in the News

Earlier this summer, the Ohio Department of Education released the results for the Spring 2011 Grades 3-8 Ohio Achievement Assessments (links to locate OAA scores can be found on this OCESS blog post). This week, ODE released the annual Ohio Report Cards (press release), which grade schools and districts using a range of indicators, including OAA scores. Coverage in the media includes:

• Akron Beacon-Journal: “Some districts still exceed growth expectations despite tougher standard”
  Canton Repository: “Stark schools make the grade on state report cards“
• Cincinnati Enquirer: “CPS takes issue with state’s grad rates“
• Cleveland Plain Dealer: “Northeast Ohio school districts move up and down in Ohio report card rankings“
• Columbus Dispatch: “School results improving on state report card“
• Dayton Daily News: “School results improve on state’s report card“
• Toledo Blade: “Toledo Public Schools holds ranking; test scores move up“
• Youngstown Vindicator: “State plans to toughen academic standards“

District and school report cards can be viewed on the ODE website and through a Columbus Dispatch database.

Looking for Resources to Prepare for the Ohio Achievement Assessments?

From ODE: “Multiple Websites for Students and Teachers”

Students and teachers will find helpful information available through the ODE Ohio Statewide Testing website. Through this portal, students and teachers preparing for the OAA or the OGT can access online practice tests, information on the standards and sample student responses to constructed-response questions.

Several ODE webpages include samples of special assessment versions that may aid in providing accommodations to eligible English language learners and students who have allowable individualized education program (IEP) or Section 504 accommodations. Samples of the special versions are: large-print test booklets, English audio CDs, Spanish bilingual test booklets, foreign language audio CDs; and language translation scripts. The purpose of these sample materials is to help instructional staff make decisions on selecting appropriate test format materials for students before test ordering deadlines. The special versions are available here.

Links to Find Spring 2011 OAA Results

Results from the Spring 2011 Grades 3-8 Ohio Achievement Assessments (OAA) are available through the ODE website, including:

• District scores
• School and student scores (district administrators have OOARS login information)
• Statewide score summary
• Statewide item analysis (available in August)
• released OAA test questions

From ODE: “OAA Spring 2011 Results are Available”

Electronic files that contain score results for the Spring 2011 Grades 3-8 Ohio Achievement Assessments (OAA) were made available June 15 on the Ohio Online Assessment Reporting System (OOARS) website. District test coordinators (DTCs) have been given login and password information to access the data. Hard copy score reports will be distributed by June 30. Late batch and breach form downloadable data will be available on July 6. Please note the EMIS deadline is July 15. Questions about accessing the OAA online data may be directed to the Ohio Help Desk at (888) 944-5001 or OHHelpDesk@air.org. ODE’s Office of Assessment does not have district login information; it must be obtained from the American Institutes for Research.

A variety of additional electronic reports, rosters and functions (content standard rosters, frequency distributions, longitudinal test records, re-rostering and PDF report generation) will be available June 30 as interactive data on OOARS. District item analysis will be available on July 1 on the Success website. The state item analysis and the released spring 2011 OAA test questions also will be available on July 1.

[UPDATE 7/17/11: You can find clearer links to the various sources of OAA data at this OCESS Blog entry.]