Development of High School Reading Assessment Scoring Guide
Work to date December 5, 2008
Background:
A steering committee of 6 high school English teachers, ODE’s Language Arts Curriculum Specialist Julie Anderson, and ODE’s Language Arts Assessment Specialist Ken Hermens, facilitated by Barbara Wolfe, has met several times to plan the project and begin development of a scoring guide for reading targeted to high school students who need to demonstrate proficiency in the Essential Skill of reading to attain an Oregon Diploma.
The committee’s task is to examine past work on a reading scoring guide and model tasks and determine what could be used and what else was needed to provide Oregon high school students an alternate means to demonstrate proficiency in reading.
The committee has met three times so far, with additional dates of December 19, January 9, and February 20 on the calendar.
Project Status:
A review of previous scoring guide and tasks revealed that the initial model was set up to be an instructional as well as an assessment tool. In general, tasks were too long and required too much time for students to complete and teachers to score. In addition, the tasks were heavily dependent on the student writing about what was read, which may put some students at a disadvantage.
The committee decided to focus on those students who fall in the “nearly meets” category on the OAKS on-line reading assessment because the group felt that these students may have the reading skills but, for some reason, aren’t demonstrating them on the OAKS test. Students in the “low” or “very low” categories on the OAKS assessment may lack reading skills and need additional instruction before any other assessment occurs.
The committee matched the earlier scoring guide to the Content Standards for Reading and to the Score Reporting Categories from the OAKS on-line assessment. Using the results of that work, a revised scoring guide was developed with three traits – Demonstrate Understanding, Develop an Interpretation, and Text Analysis. The committee also recommended that the score scale be a 4-point scale (4 Exceeds Standards, 3 Meets Standards, 2 Nearly Meet Standards, and 1 Does Not Yet Meet Standards). Because the purpose of this scoring guide is to evaluate whether high school students have met the essential skills requirement for reading, the committee felt that a 4 point scale would meet the needs of the task and signal its difference to educators.
The committee also developed a draft set of Guidelines for Reading Assessment to assist districts in preparing to offer this alternative assessment to their students. Finally, the committee is at work on developing an interview protocol that could be used in place of written responses for those students who might not perform well by writing their answers to the reading task.
Timeline:
Draft materials were sent to the Assessment of Essential Skills Review Panel at their Dec. 8 & 9 meeting and have been circulated to “critical friends” for review. In addition, the draft materials are available on the ODE website at Additional review by these groups and the field will continue throughout the development process.
Model reading tasks are under development with plans to pilot test them in February. A field test of the revised tasks and revised scoring guide will occur in March and April. The field tests will be scored in the summer. Staff plans to have a completed scoring guide and task guidelines ready for State Board approval in August and training opportunities for districts in August and throughout the fall.
Oregon Department of EducationOffice of Assessment and Information Services
December 2008