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Tests Results for Oregon Public Schools
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The Oregon Statewide Assessment Test (OSA)
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The purposes of the Oregon Statewide Assessment Program
are:
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To provide information on individual student achievement
on performance standards set by the State Board of Education for the
Certificate of Initial Mastery and the benchmark grades leading to it.
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To provide information for policy decisions by the
legislature, the governor, the State Board of Education, and local school
districts.
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To support instructional program improvement efforts.
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To inform the public about student achievement in
Oregon schools.
The Oregon Statewide Assessment is different from national,
norm-referenced tests used in many districts and states. The Oregon Statewide
Assessment is a criterion-referenced assessment based on the
Oregon Content Standards. As a result, the types of scores produced
from the Oregon Statewide Assessment are somewhat different from those produced
by national, norm-referenced tests.
Under Oregon’s assessment system, reading and math
tests are given at grades 3-8 and at grade 10; writing tests are given
at grades 4, 7, and 10. In 2007, the state delivered over 1.4 million
tests through ODE’s computer-based testing system, OAKS Online (OAKS =
Oregon Assessment of Knowledge & Skills). The state-of-the-art testing
system is unique among the 50 states and has several advantages over
other online assessments and old-style pencil-and-paper testing.
Students take tests online, and each test is individually adapted to the
student taking the test. Students have up to three opportunities to take
required tests in reading and mathematics. A major benefit of OAKS
Online is that students and teachers receive immediate, detailed
feedback and reports when tests are completed.
The assessment
is made up of multiple-choice and performance assessments in the areas of
reading and literature, writing, mathematics, and science and is given several
times throughout the school year. Oregon used to test students at grades
3, 5, 8, and 10; last year, the federal No Child Left Behind law required
Oregon to test students in grades 4, 5, 6, and 7. As a result, Oregon now
tests students at grades 3-8 and tests high school students at grade 10,
providing schools and teachers with more information and better data on
individual student achievement and growth.
For reading/literature and mathematics, scores produced
from the Oregon Statewide Assessment are based on an achievement scale widely
used in the Northwest. The scale, with numbers ranging from about 150 to
300, is similar to other scales such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT)
scale or other "growth" scales. Each point on the scale is at an equal distance
from the previous point on the scale, so changes up or down can be charted
and viewed as comparable from year to year.
Writing and mathematics problem solving rely on a model,
which trains expert "judges," typically classroom teachers, to match student
work to criteria for performance on a predetermined scale. Writing is analyzed
by two different raters on six elements or traits of good writing, and each
trait is rated on a scale of 1 - 6 (low to high). Raters of mathematics
problem solving assessments look at four elements or dimensions of good
problem solving. Each dimension is rated on a scale of 1 - 6; in addition,
the work is analyzed for the correctness of the solution.
Starting in 2007, under the No Child Left Behind law, Oregon
had to check with a panel of teachers, professors, principals, business
leaders and others to make sure that the tests were difficult enough for
each grade. In 2007, those groups decided Oregon's math and reading tests
were too easy in elementary and early middle school, so they raised the
passing score on state tests in grades three through seven.
Where to Find Test Results
The Oregon Department of Education's Web site has a
"Accountability/Reporting" table where you can find test results for any
Oregon school district as well as individual schools within a district.
You can obtain results by school year, sub-group (gender, ethnicity,
etc.), and by subject (reading & literature, mathematics, science,
etc.). Should you desire, you can also download the data (Microsoft Excel)
into a spreadsheet.
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Statewide 2008 OSA Results |
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On September 2, State Schools Superintendent Susan
Castillo announced the results of Oregon student performance on the
2007-08 assessment tests in reading, mathematics, writing and science.
Elementary students did well in both reading and math,
but middle and high school students showed no improvement in those
subjects. In writing, elementary student scores declined compared to
last year, but middle and high school students improved. Science tests
were given for the first time in 2007-08, and comparison data will be
available next year.
The greatest cause for concern: Only half of high school sophomores could do math
at grade level. Those students, now juniors, are in the first class
that will have to pass three years of math, not just two, to graduate.
And this fall's high school freshmen, Oregon's class of 2012, will have
to pass the state math test or show equivalent math skills to earn a
diploma.
Oregon schools Superintendent Susan Castillo
sounded an alarm:
“As we continue to implement Oregon’s new high school diploma
requirements, students at all grades must make sustained improvement
in reading, math, writing, and science in order to be on track to
graduate,” Castillo said. “We do an excellent job for most of the
students in our schools, but I am concerned about the areas where we
continue to fall short, especially in our middle and high schools.
The result is that some students may not be prepared to meet the
challenges of the new diploma.”
The latest results reflect a long-standing trend of
high achievement in elementary schools and mediocre scores in high
school. That suggests Oregon's elementary schools are highly effective
but its middle and high schools squander the gains.
The percentage of students meeting/exceeding state
standards on the 2007-08 state assessment tests is shown below:
Reading (multiple-choice)
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3rd Grade 84%
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4th Grade 83%
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5th Grade 75%
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6th Grade 73%
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7th Grade 74%
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8th Grade 65%
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10th Grade 65%
Writing (writing sample)
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4th Grade 43%
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7th Grade 50%
Math (multiple-choice)
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3rd Grade 77%
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4th Grade 77%
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5th Grade 77%
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6th Grade 70%
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7th Grade 74%
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8th Grade 69%
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10th Grade 52%
Science (multiple-choice)
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5th Grade 75%
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8th Grade 69%
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10th Grade 57%
To find the test results by school district and school
visit
Oregon Department of Education OSA test results. |
Statewide 2007 OSA Results
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In late September 2007, the Oregon Department of Education
released the 2007 test results for reading and math. Achievement is surging
in Oregon's middle schools, but high school performance remains stagnant,
new state test scores show. Students in grades six, seven and eight posted
improved scores on reading, writing and math tests this year, including
dramatic gains in reading.
For 10th graders, passing rates remained stalled at the same level for a
third straight year. Just more than half of Oregon sophomores wrote or did
math at grade level, results showed.
State Education Department officials said it's possible
that the drop in math scores - never before seen in elementary results -
occurred because a glitch forced schools to switch unexpectedly from computerized
testing to paper-and-pencil tests. The computerized tests could be scheduled
any day, as late as the end of May, and students who failed the test could
be tutored and then retake the test. Online tests also feel familiar to
today's computer-savvy kids, some of whom had never had to fill in bubbles
on an answer sheet. When the state got in a dispute with its online vendor
in March, students were forced to take paper-and-pencil tests during a single
week in April. No retests were allowed.
This year, under the No Child Left Behind law, Oregon had
to check with a panel of teachers, professors, principals, business leaders
and others to make sure that the tests were difficult enough, but not too
difficult, in each grade. Those groups decided Oregon's math and reading
tests were too easy in elementary and early middle school, so they raised
the passing score on state tests in grades three through seven.
They also found the high school reading and math tests and the eighth grade
math test were too hard, so they lowered the score a student must earn to
pass those exams.
To allow for accurate comparisons in student achievement, state officials
recalculated results from 2006 to show how students would have scored if
the 2007 score cutoffs had been in place.
The percentage of students meeting/exceeding Oregon state
standards (three year trend) is shown below:
Reading (multiple-choice)
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3rd Grade 87%
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4th Grade 87%
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5th Grade 83%
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6th Grade 80%
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7th Grade 73%
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8th Grade 66%
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10th Grade 55%
Writing (essay)
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4th Grade
42%
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7th Grade
45%
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10th Grade 55%
Math (multiple-choice)
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3rd Grade 86%
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4th Grade 88%
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5th Grade 85%
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6th Grade 77%
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7th Grade 71%
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8th Grade 66%
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10th Grade 45%
Science (multiple-choice)
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5th Grade 79%
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8th Grade 68%
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10th Grade 62%
To find the test results by school district and school
visit
Oregon Department of Education OSA test results.
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