TEKS Revisions and the
End of Course Exams
March 25, 2010
Tom Wurst
twurst@esc4.net
WHAT’S IN THE FUTURE FOR
SOCIAL STUDIES?
•Revision of the TEKS (Texas Essential
Knowledge and Skills)
•
replaces
Information originally from
Social Studies Timeline
• SBOE discussion, November 2009
• Public hearing, first reading and filing, January
2010; tabled
• Continue first reading and filing, March 2010
• Proposed revised TEKS posted for official public
comment, April 16, 2010 for 30 days on Texas
Register
• Public hearing, second reading and adoption, May
2010
Information originally from
Social Studies Timeline
• Professional development for TEKS,
Spring/Summer 2011 and ongoing
• Implementation of revised social studies
TEKS, Fall 2011
Information originally from
Social Studies Timeline
• Spring 2010 - Call for Proclamation 2013
• Summer 2012 - instructional materials review
committees convene to review publisher
submissions
• Fall 2012 – SBOE adoption of instructional
materials
• Proclamation 2013 - instructional materials in
schools, Fall 2013
Information originally from
Changes to the Assessment
Program—House Bill 3
• Prior to 2012, TEA hopes to release a small set
of EOC assessment items
• Must be linked to college readiness
 College readiness will be embedded in the new grade 8
social studies curriculum
• Will have “fewer, clearer, deeper” focus
• Begins in 2011–2012
Information originally from
Changes to the Assessment
Program—House Bill 3
• Convene educator advisory committees in
early 2010
• Review curriculum to determine what should
be eligible for assessment
• Review assessed curriculum to determine
what should be the focus of the assessment
Information originally from
“Fewer, Clearer, Deeper”
TEKS FOR SPECIFIC
GRADE OR COURSE
FOCUS OF
ASSESSMENT
ASSESSED
ACROSS YEARS
NOT ASSESSED
Information originally from
Changes to the Assessment
Program—House Bill 3
• Vertically align assessments from college and
career readiness concepts in EOC assessments
to new middle school assessments and to new
elementary assessments
• Standards for EOC assessments planned for fall
2011
Information originally from
EOC Assessments
• Freshman class of 2011–2012 is first group to
have EOC assessments as a graduation
requirement
• That is the current 7th graders
• All 12 EOC assessments will be available in
2011–2012
Information originally from
EOC Assessments
Current legislation requires the phase-out of
high school TAKS and replaces it with EOC
assessments in
• English I, English II, English III
• Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II
• U.S. History, World History, World Geography
• Biology, Chemistry, Physics
Information originally from
EOC Assessments
Plan for phase-out HS TAKS and phase-in EOC assessments
2009–2010 2010–2011 2011–2012 2012–2013 2013–2014 2014–2015
GR 9
TAKS
TAKS
EOC
EOC
EOC
EOC
GR 10
TAKS
TAKS
TAKS
EOC
EOC
EOC
GR 11
TAKS
TAKS
TAKS
TAKS
EOC
EOC
TAKS*
EOC or
TAKS*
GR 12
TAKS*
TAKS*
TAKS*
TAKS*
*Out-of-school testers and 12th grade re-testers
Information originally from
EOC Assessments
• Follows the Test Development Process posted
on the TEA student assessment website
• Involves educator committees such as focus
groups, advisory committees, item reviews, and
data reviews
• Involves the Texas Higher Education
Coordinating Board
• Includes higher-education faculty
Information originally from
EOC Assessments
• Educator involvement in test development is
critical to process
• Highly qualified educators are needed to serve
on educator committees, especially at the high
school level
• The Educator Recommendation Form can be
found at
http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/d
evelop/recform.pdf
Information originally from
Social Studies EOC Assessments
Similarities between TAKS and EOC
• Aligned to TEKS
• Untimed
• Multiple-choice questions
• After first year, field-test questions will be
embedded in operational test
Information originally from
Social Studies EOC Assessments
Differences between TAKS and EOC
Current coverage of Grade 11 U.S. History TEKS
• TAKS grade 10 covers 0% of U.S. History Since
1877 TEKS
• TAKS exit level covers about 62% of U. S.
History TEKS
• U.S. History EOC assessment covers 100% of
U.S. History TEKS
Information originally from
Social Studies EOC Assessments
Exit Social Studies TAKS
U.S. History End of Course
• 5 objectives
• 55 items
• measures SE’s from U.S.
history, world history and
world geography
• 6 objectives
• 68 items
• measures all 92 U.S. history SE’s
Information originally from
Social Studies EOC Assessments
Objectives
Number of Items
Objective 1: Issues and Events
20
Objective 2: Geography
7
Objective 3: Economics and Technology
15
Objective 4: Government and Citizenship
8
Objective 5: Culture
8
Objective 6: Social Studies Skills
10
Total number of items
68
Information originally from
2009 U.S. History Results
• Total number of questions—68
• Mean raw score—36
• Mean percent correct—53%
Information originally from
World Geography EOC
Current coverage of world geography TEKS
 TAKS grade 10 covers about 17% of World
Geography TEKS
 TAKS exit level covers about 14% of World
Geography TEKS
 World Geography EOC assessment covers 98% of
World Geography TEKS
Information originally from
World Geography EOC Assessment
Year 1:
Planning
activities
(2007)
Information originally from
Year 2: Item
Development
(2008)
Year 3: Field
testing
(2009)
Year 4: Live
testing
(2010)
World Geography Blueprint
Objectives
Objective 1: Issues and Events
Number of Items
6
Objective 2: Geography
20
Objective 3: Economics and Technology
12
Objective 4: Government and Citizenship
Objective 5: Culture
Objective 6: Social Studies Skills
Total number of items
Information originally from
8
12
10
68
World Geography EOC Assessment
TAKS
5 objectives
50 or 55 questions
includes grade 8, world
geography, and world
history
Information originally from
EOC
6 objectives
68 questions
world geography only
World Geography EOC Assessment
• 2009 Field Test was administered to a total
of 51,568 students
• 27,046 of testers took online form
• 24,522 of testers took paper form
• Two forms – online and paper – for
purposes of a comparability study
Information originally from
World Geography EOC Assessment
• 2010 World Geography EOC Assessment is part of
TEA’s “Mandatory Sampling”
• May 10-28, 2010 is the testing window
• Districts selected to participate will administer online
only
• Districts not selected to participate may volunteer
• Districts that volunteer may select online or paper
administrations of the World Geography EOC
Assessment
Information originally from
Social Studies EOC Assessments
Current coverage of World History TEKS
• TAKS grade 10 covers about 10% of WH TEKS
• TAKS exit level covers about 7% of WH TEKS
• World History EOC assessment covers about
99% of WH TEKS
Information originally from
World History EOC Assessment
How will EOC compare to TAKS?
27
TAKS
END-OF-COURSE
• 5 objectives
• 50 or 55 questions
• includes grade 8, world
geography, and world
history
•6 objectives
•68 questions
•world history only
World History EOC Assessment
What’s next?
• Item review process begins
• (Summer/Fall 2010)
• Field test
• (Spring 2011)
• Re-evaluation and posting of final blueprint
• (Summer/Fall 2011)
• First live administration
• (Spring 2012)
Information originally from
EOC Assessments
• In order to graduate, a student must achieve a
cumulative score that is at least equal to the
product of the number of EOC assessments
taken in that content area and a scale score that
indicates satisfactory performance
Information originally from
EOC Assessments
• A student must achieve a minimum score, as
determined by the commissioner, for the score
to count towards the student’s cumulative score
• A student’s cumulative score is determined
using the student’s highest score on each EOC
assessment
• The 0–100 scale with references to scores of 60
and 70 has been deleted from the law
Information originally from
EOC Assessments
• If a student does not achieve the minimum score
on an EOC assessment, the student shall retake
the assessment
• A student’s score on an EOC assessment will be
worth 15% of the student’s final grade for that
course
• A school district is not required to use the
student’s score on subsequent administrations
to determine the student’s final grade for that
course
Information originally from
Current EOC Assessments
• Untimed, but designed to be about 2 hours
• Not grade specific
• Not required to be part of student’s grade
• Not included in state or federal accountability
• No retests available until 2011–2012
Information originally from
Effects of Social Studies TEKS
Revisions on Assessments
• Revised TEKS most likely will be adopted
in March 2010
• Scheduled to be implemented in the
2011–2012 school year
• Spring 2012 (and beyond) assessments
will be aligned to TEKS in place in the
state for that school year
Information originally from