Westerville City School District personnel and students continue to prepare for Ohio’s new state tests, known as Next Generation Assessments. These assessments will be given in the areas of English Language Arts (Reading), Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies. Parents and community members are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the following key points about these new state assessments:
- Content areas. Ohio’s state tests take the place of the Ohio Achievement Assessments (OAA) this school year. English Language Arts and Mathematics are developed through the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). Science and Social Studies assessments are developed through the Ohio Department of Education. All four assessments are aligned to Ohio’s Learning Standards.
- Grade levels assessed – elementary and middle school. All students in grades 3-8 will be assessed in Reading and Mathematics. In addition, Science will be assessed in grades 5 and 8, and Social Studies in grades 4 and 6.
- High school. Students that are scheduled to graduate in 2018 and beyond who are currently enrolled in English 1, English 2, Algebra 1, Geometry, Physical Science, and/or American History are required to take the new Ohio’s State Tests. High school students taking American Government this year are required to take the new Ohio’s State Test in Social Studies. However, students taking IB or AP American Government are not required to take the American Government State test if taking the IB or AP exam test. Students scheduled to graduate in 2017 will still take the Ohio Graduation Test (OGT) in Reading, Mathematics, Writing, Science, and Social Studies using paper/pencil in March 2015.
- Revised assessment times. For all students taking the new Ohio state tests, these will be administered in two parts: February-March, 2015 (Part I—Performance-Based Assessments) /April-May, 2015 (Part II—End-of-Year Assessments). However, the Ohio Department of Education and PARCC recently released a revised outline of how long each test will take. Therefore, the Westerville City School District’s assessment calendar is currently being revised to reflect these new changes. The updated district assessment calendar soon will be available via the “Our Calendars” link on the district website.
- Preparation for assessments. As Ohio’s state tests are intended to be taken online, for more than a year Westerville City School district personnel have been identifying and planning for the technology and resources needed. This year, grades 4 (Reading, Mathematics, Social Studies), grade 5 (Science), and grade 7 (Reading, Mathematics) were identified to transition to online assessments. Grade 5 (Reading, Mathematics) and all other grade levels will take the tests using a paper/pencil format (as was the case in previous OAA/OGT administrations).
- Helpful web links. Parents are encouraged to visit the web links below with their child as they contain resources, sample items, tutorials for taking online assessments, and practice tests.
English Language Arts / Mathematics – http://practice.parcc.testnav.com/
Science / Social Studies – http://oh.portal.airast.org/ocba/
A document summarizing important state testing information is available for families at http://tinyurl.com/wcs1014.