With new AIR state assessments coming soon, OFT is gathering and sharing resources to help teachers be better prepared for administering the new tests. The Ohio Department of Education has released new practice materials and test blueprints for teacher review.
Teachers of students who will take state tests this year in English language arts, science and social studies may see new practice test items and related materials that were posted online last week. These include additional Student Practice Resources in several areas and updated test specification documents for science and social studies in all tested grades and courses. Science and social studies specifications were updated from last year to reflect that districts will administer the 2016 tests in two parts within one testing window.
The department and the American Institutes of Research have released the following materials:
- English language arts – Remaining sample items (grades 4-8), adding to those for grade 3 and high school that appear here.
- Science – Additional practice test items for grades 5 and 8 and updated test specifications for all science tests.
- Social studies – In addition to the updated test specifications for all tests, high school American history teachers now have additional practice test items. These items constitute an evidence-based set, which is a group of several questions associated with one or more common stimuli. Evidence-based sets allow students to work with primary source materials to show deep understanding of social studies topics. The questions in these sets will assess a range of the skills and content in the content statements.
The department and AIR released mathematics sample items for grades 3 through high school in October. Also note that test specifications for English language arts and mathematics will be available in the 2016-2017 school year. Teachers of these content areas may review test blueprints accessible from the Content Preparation for Teachers – State Tests, which also describes what they can learn from test specifications and blueprints.