- Groner Elementary School
- Homepage
Newly Revised Science Assessment Coming This Year
January 21, 2019 - This year, the mandatory science test for students in grades 5, 8 and high school is all new and fully aligned to the Oregon Science Standards (Next Generation Science Standards - NGSS), which were adopted by the Oregon State Board of Education in 2014. This is great news because we now have a test that is designed to assess the same learning standards that teachers are using in the classroom. The revised assessment will do a much better job of determining how well students are doing learning science concepts in our classrooms.
Along with this change, students will now have a single opportunity to take the science test. Schools will no longer be allowed to retest students when they do not meet the standard nor retest with parent permission when they do meet the standard. High school students who met the proficient level on the previous OAKS Science assessment in grades 9 or 10 will not be required to take the new NGSS Assessment in 2018-19. However, high school students who have not achieved a proficient level or higher score must participate in the assessment again in order to meet high school testing participation requirements.
Finally, students will not see instant scores after finishing the test as they had in previous years. After the testing window closes in June, the Oregon Department of Education will engage in standard-setting in order to make sure the test is producing valid measurements of proficiency. The District will be providing scores to students and families as soon as they are available from the state once that process is completed - likely sometime in the fall of 2019.
The testing window for science opens February 6 and closes in early June. Each school sets their own schedule for when state tests will be administered within the testing windows. You should be hearing from your student’s school regarding the pacing of the science assessment along with other state tests in math and language arts.
More information about the new assessment may be found on the Oregon Department of Education website. For additional information about state testing at HSD, please visit the Standards and Assessment page of our website.