ESSENTIAL
SKILLS
(REQUIRED FOR DTCS,
RECOMMENDED FOR STCS)
Essential Skills
Objectives

Understand Essential Skills Graduation
Requirement

Understand Essential Skills Data

Resources Available for Essential Skills
Essential Skills
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Read and comprehend a variety of text
Write clearly and accurately
Apply mathematics in a variety of settings
Listen actively and speak clearly and coherently
Think critically and analytically
Use technology to learn, live, and work
Demonstrate civic and community engagement
Demonstrate global literacy
Demonstrate personal management and teamwork skills
Essential Skills are outcomes of educational experiences;
they are what students should be able to do at the end of
high school. They are embedded in content standards.
Graduation Requirements
by Cohort
The first three Essential Skills have been phased in as
graduation requirements, based on when a student is first
enrolled in grade 9 (cohort year).
Cohort Year
2008-2009
Reading
Writing
2009-2010
Required
Required
2010-2011 and
beyond
Required
Required
Math
Required
Required
Categories of Assessments
Approved for Essential Skills
Graduation Requirement
1st Category
Statewide Assessment
2nd Category
Other Assessments
3rd Category
Work Samples
1ST CATEGORY: STATEWIDE ASSESSMENT
Assessment Option and Achievement Standards
Academic
Year
Assessment
Reading
Writing
Math
2013-2014
OAKS
236
40
236
2014-beyond
Smarter
Balanced

Smarter Balanced field test results
will be used to establish a Smarter
Balanced that represents an
equivalent level of rigor to the current
OAKS achievement standard.
Any increase in rigor requires adequate notice:
before March 1st of the cohort’s 8th grade year.
2ND CATEGORY: OTHER ASSESSMENTS
Assessment Options and Achievement Standards
Assessment
Reading
Writing
Math
ACT
18
19*
19
Plan
18
N/A
19
WorkKeys
5
N/A
5
Compass
81
N/A
66 (Int Alg)
Asset
42
N/A
41 (Int Alg)
SAT
440
460*
450
PSAT
44
N/A
45
AP/IB
Various
N/A
Various
Accuplacer
86
N/A
N/A
*Based on the composite score derived from both the selected response and direct-writing
portions of the test. The SAT refers to this as the Writing section of the SAT . The ACT refers to
this as the combined English/Writing test.
3RD CATEGORY: WORK SAMPLES
Assessment Options and Achievement Standards
Reading
Number of
Work
Samples
2 Total:
• One of which
must be
informational
Writing
2 Total:
• One must be
expository or
persuasive
• One in any of the
approved modes
Math
2 Total:
• One each for any two
of the required
content strands
(algebra, geometry, or
statistics)
(expository, persuasive,
narrative)
Score
Categories
Traits:
 Demonstrate
General
Understanding
 Develop an
Interpretation
 Analyze Text
Work Sample Minimum score of 12,
Score
with no Trait lower
Requirement than 3.
Traits:
 Ideas/ Content
 Organization
 Sentence Fluency
 Conventions
Minimum score of 4 in all
Traits.
Process Dimensions:
 Making Sense of the
Task Representing and
Solving the Task
Communicating
Reasoning
 Accuracy
 Reflecting and
Evaluating
Minimum score of 4 in all
Process Dimensions.
3RD CATEGORY: WORK SAMPLES
Guidelines

All work samples must be scored with the official
scoring guides.

Work samples must meet the level of rigor
required on the OAKS assessment.

Work samples provide an optional means to
demonstrate proficiency not an easier means.
School-Level Essential School Data
Reported

Essential Skills graduation requirements are
fields in the Cumulative ADM data
collection.

ODE has identified several process
improvements to increase data quality.

Essential Skills reports are published
January 30th each year.
School-Level Essential School Data
Reported
For each school, what % of students used each of the assessment
categories to meet the graduation requirement.
Assessment
Category
Reading
Writing
Math
Vertically
totals to 100%
Vertically totals
to 100%
Vertically
totals to 100%
1. Oregon
Statewide
Assessment
%
%
%
2. Other
Assessment
%
%
%
3. Work
Samples
%
%
%
School-Level Essential School Data
Reported
For each school, for students who met the graduation
requirement with Work Samples, what were % of students were
in each OAKS achievement level?
For Each Essential Skill (Reading, Writing, Math)
3.Work
Samples
Horizontally
totals to 100%
Meet/Exceed
Nearly
Met
Low/Very
Low
No Score
%
%
%
%
Essential Skills
Promising Practices





Incorporate the scoring guides into instructional
practices to provide opportunities for feedback on
some or all of the skills.
Incorporate practice work samples into your
instructional practices.
Share work sample prompts that you have
developed with other districts.
Find and administer work sample prompts that
other districts have developed.
Develop a work sample scoring plan that allows
for distributed workload.
Essential Skills
In a Nutshell
Required Essential Skills

Reading: 2008-2009 cohort (Class of 2012)

Reading & Writing: 2009-2010 cohort (Class of 2013)

Reading, Writing & Math: 2010-2011 cohort
(Class of 2014)
Approved Methods of Assessment

OAKS

Other Approved Standardized Tests

Work Samples
Essential Skills Resources
http://www.ode.state.or.us/search/page/?id=2042
Newly Posted
•
•
•
•
101
Updated FAQ
Case Study
Posted
Presentations
Just a Reminder
• Train the trainer
• DISCS
• Test Administration
Manual, Appendix K
Work sample resource sharing
Contact us about sharing what you have and finding out
what other have: cristen.mclean@state.or.us
Essential Skills
Acorns for Storage
1. Which courses are responsible for Essential
Skills Assessment in our school?
2. What is our procedure for keeping track of
student progress toward demonstrating each
required Essential Skill?
3. How can elementary and middle schools
prepare students for the Essential Skills?