New State Assessments
Fall State Special Education Director Meeting
October, 2012
Colorado Department of Education
Assessment Unit
Advance Organizer
• Timeline
• New English Language Arts and Mathematics
Assessments with Partnership for Assessment
of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC)
• New Science and Social Studies Assessments
• New English Language Proficiency
Assessments
• Update on the Colorado Content Collaboratives
Summative Assessment Timeline
2013
• TCAP and CoAlt Continue
• Colorado ACT Continues
• ACCESS administered to assess English
language proficiency
2014
• TCAP and CoAlt Reading, Writing and
Math Continue
• New Social Studies and Science
assessments are expected to be
operational
• Colorado ACT Continues
• ACCESS Continues
2015
• New English Language Arts and
Mathematics assessments (PARRC)
• Second year of new operational Social
Studies and Science assessments
• Colorado ACT Continues
• ACCESS Continues
English Language Arts and
Mathematics
• Recent legislation
– Requires Colorado to participate as a Governing
Board member in a consortium of states that focuses
on the readiness of students for college and careers.
– Requires the Board to rely upon the assessments
developed by the consortium expected to be ready for
spring 2015.
– Encourages the Board to conduct a fiscal and student
achievement benefit analysis of Colorado remaining
a Governing Board member starting on or before
January 1, 2014.
PARCC
• Colorado joined PARCC as a governing
member in August 2012.
• English Language Arts and Mathematics
in grades 3-11
• Computer-based (Paper-Pencil version
expected)
• First operational assessment: spring 2015
PARCC States
PARCC Governing States
• Approve test specifications, priorities for content
assessed on each component, and
recommended scoring model
• Develop long-term sustainability plans for the
consortium and assessment system, including
through design of the tests and ability to refresh
over time
• Approve solicitations and select vendors for
PARCC procurements
• Determine highest priority model instructional
tools for PARCC to develop
PARCC Governing States
(Continued)
• Build and expand cadres of K-12 educators and
postsecondary faculty leading standards
implementation and PARCC assessment
development
• Ensure the assessment results provide the data
needed to support state accountability
mechanisms and educator evaluation model
– Participate in technical & policy working groups on accountability
to help identify solutions to pressing accountability transition
challenges and new approaches to accountability through ESEA
waivers
PARCC Assessment Design
2 Optional Assessments/Flexible
Administration
Diagnostic
Assessment
•Early
indicator of
student
knowledge
and skills to
inform
instruction,
supports, and
PD
Mid-Year
Assessment
•Performancebased
•Emphasis on
hard-tomeasure
standards
•Potentially
summative
Performance
-Based
Assessment
(PBA)
•Extended
tasks
•Application
s of
concepts
and skills
•Required
End-of-Year
Assessment
•Innovative,
computerbased items
•Required
Speaking And Listening Assessment
• Locally scored
• Non-summative, required
PARCC Goal: Build a Pathway to College
and Career Readiness for All Students
K-2
formative
assessment
aligned to
the PARCC
system
K-2
Timely student
achievement data
showing students,
parents and educators
whether ALL students
are on-track to college
and career readiness
3-8
College
readiness
score to
identify who
is ready for
college-level
coursework
High
School
ONGOING STUDENT SUPPORTS/INTERVENTIONS
Targeted
interventions &
supports:
•12th-grade bridge
courses
• PD for educators
SUCCESS IN
FIRST-YEAR,
CREDIT-BEARING,
POSTSECONDARY
COURSEWORK
PARCC Assessments
• In English Language Arts/Literacy,
intended to answer whether students:
– Can read and comprehend complex literary and
informational text
– Can write effectively when analyzing text
– Have attained overall proficiency in ELA/literacy
Reading and writing grounded in evidence
from text, literary and informational.
PARCC English Language Arts
•
rewards careful, close reading
•
systematically focuses on the words that matter most, the academic
language that pervades complex texts
•
focuses on students rigorously citing evidence from texts
•
includes questions with more than one right answer to allow students to
generate a range of rich insights that are substantiated by evidence from
text(s)
•
requires writing to sources
•
includes rigorous expectations for narrative writing as well
•
assesses not just ELA but a full range of reading and writing across the
disciplines
•
simulates research on the assessment
English Language Arts
• Item Types:
• Evidence-Based Selected Response
• Technology-Enhanced Constructed Response
• Range of Prose Constructed Responses
• Tasks:
• Literary Analysis
• Narrative
• Research simulation
PARCC Assessments
• In Mathematics, intended to answer
whether students:
– Have mastered fundamental mathematical concepts
– In major topics, pursue conceptual understanding,
procedural skill and fluency, and application.
• Task focus will be on assessing:
– concepts, skills and procedures
– expressing mathematical reasoning
– modeling / applications
PARCC Sample Items
http://www.parcconline.org/samples/
item-task-prototypes
Tools & Resources
Model
Content
Frameworks
Model
Draft
Policy
Instructiona
and
l Units
Descriptors
• Purpose: Support implementation of the CCSS - support
development of assessment blueprints; provide guidance to
state, district- and school-level curriculum leaders in the
development of aligned instructional materials
• Audience: State and local curriculum directors (primary
audience) ; teachers
• URL: http://www.parcconline.org/parcc-model-contentframeworks
• Purpose: Public review of two draft policies and PLDs
• Audience: Broad audience: teachers, schools, districts
states (for standards implementation and PARCC assessment
preparation)
• Timeline: Feedback was due in September.
• URL: http://www.parcconline.org/crd-pld-survey
Science and Social Studies
Assessments
• Based on the Colorado Academic Standards
• Grades:
– Science: grades 5, 8 and once in high school
– Social Studies: grades 4, 7 and once in high
school
• Timeline
– Field test administration planned for spring 2013
– Operational administration planned for spring
2014
Science and Social Studies
Assessments
• Attain balance:
– Innovation with technical soundness and feasibility
– Breadth with depth
• Take advantage of technology:
– General assessments:
• Development: item type
• Administration: computer-based
• Scoring: automated and artificial intelligence
– Alternate assessments: score input online
Science and Social Studies
General Assessments
• Item types:
– Selected response
– Constructed response
– Simulation/performance-based
Advantages of Computer-based
Administration
•
•
•
•
Students are engaged
Interactivity of technology-enhanced items
Testing interface is user-friendly and accessible
Reduced administrative burden
– No need to inventory test materials and risk
losing them
• Built-in, Standardized Online Accommodations
– Oral Scripts would not require additional
proctors/testing environments
Paper to Online Assessments
•
•
•
•
•
Recurrent theme in next generation
assessment strategies
Leveraging advances in technology for greater
efficiency, flexibility, and potential cost savings
Benefits increasingly apparent
– Opportunities for more effectively
assessing student understanding and
performance
– Improved security model
– More efficient method of test delivery
– Student motivation
Moving online offers greater opportunity to
integrate/align instruction and assessment
But… How to make such a large, complex transition?
From “Considerations for Next-Generation Assessments: A Roadmap to 2014”, Pearson.
Three Levels of “Readiness” for Online Testing
• School
– Students
• Training, practice, familiarity
– Teachers, administrators & technology staff
• Close partnerships, training, policy administration
– Network & Infrastructure
• Setup, computer/lab logistics & load planning
• District
– Coordination, especially between assessment &
technology organizations
– Network-wide capacity planning
• State
– Policies, transition planning, & decision making
From “Considerations for Next-Generation Assessments: A Roadmap to 2014”, Pearson.
The Technology Readiness Tool
• Pearson contracted to develop
• Both national assessment consortia will
provide the tool to the states to deploy in six
data collection windows between 2012 and
2014
• Will collect local data to determine technology
readiness for online assessments, and provide
gap analysis
• Will use data to support local/state/national
planning for the transition
Measuring Local Readiness
Readiness for online assessments
has multiple different dimensions:
1. Computers & other devices
 Minimum system requirements
2. Ratio of devices to test-takers
 Including testing window and session scheduling
3. Network and infrastructure
 Bandwidth, network utilization, size of content
4. Personnel (staffing & training)
Measuring Local Readiness 2012-2013
• Fall
– Pearson/CDE notify districts of survey window, provide web-based
training and provide access to the Survey & Readiness Tool
– Pearson/CDE identify/confirm field test participants
• Field test districts who have technology challenges will receive
extra support to complete an action plan
– Pearson/CDE conduct trainings and open training centers
• Winter
– Districts install proctor caching, configure PearsonAccess & TestNav
– Districts complete certification checklist
• Spring
– Field test administration conducted
– Feedback from districts on the test administration
Example: Managing Assessment Data Load
When testing
begins, multiple
streams of
identical,
redundant data
can clog up
and overwhelm
the district or
school network
When properly
used, caching
or proxy
solutions can
reduce the
load of data
traffic that
online
assessments
place on the
network
capacity
Opportunities for District
Involvement in Development
•
•
•
•
•
•
Item writing
Item review
Cognitive labs
Field testing
Anchor paper selection
Data review
English Language Proficiency
Assessments
Screener: W-APT
Annual Proficiency: ACCESS
• Aligned to Colorado English Language Proficiency
(CELP) Standards,
• Three overlapping tiers
• Results in scores from proficiency levels 1-6
Content Collaboratives--Cohorts
Cohort One
 February–May 2012
•
•
•
•
Cohort Two
 June-December 2012
Dance
Drama & Theatre Arts
Music
Reading, Writing &
Communicating
• Social Studies
• Visual Arts
•
•
•
•
•
•
Comprehensive Health
Mathematics
Physical Education
Science
World Languages
Career and Technical
Education
colorado content collaboratives
cde
Content Collaboratives
2012 Purpose
 The objective is to identify an initial bank of high quality
student academic measures which can be used to
determine, in part, the effectiveness of an educator
 Sample measures in each grade for each subject will
establish the beginning of on-going “build out” of the bank
 Over time, the Content Collaboratives will focus on
developing instructional resources, creating performance
tasks and continue to populate the bank with multiple
measures that represent both student learning and
educator effectiveness
colorado content collaboratives
cde
What goes in the bank?
• Identification of assessments districts can
use
• Multiple modes of actual assessments
• Future tasks and items which may become
eligible
• Protocol for eligibility
colorado content collaboratives
cde
High Quality Assessment Content
Validity Review Tool
• A high quality assessment should be...Aligned
• A high quality assessment should be…Scored
using Clear Guidelines and Criteria
• A high quality assessment should be...FAIR
and UNBIASED
• A high quality assessment should…increase
OPPORTUNITIES TO LEARN
colorado content collaboratives
cde