What's New for 2007-2008?

The Ohio Graduation Test is now a staple of the curriculum in Ohio classrooms. Teachers of the five core subjects--reading, writing, math, science, and social studies--often display posters focused on the test objectives. Discussions about benchmarks can be heard in classrooms and in the teachers' lounges. In schools where most students have achieved high scores on the tests, OGT discussions deal mostly with getting this year's students ready by the March testing dates. But in schools that have barely reached the number of indicators needed to become effective or even to reach continuous improvement, teachers often appear more anxious.

One question frequently voiced about this year's test concerns the change of vendors preparing the questions and developing the tests. Perhaps the biggest concern over the change is whether or not the tests will be more difficult. The unknown work of a new vendor worries teachers and administrators.

The Ohio Department of Education, however, maintains a process to ensure that tests do not change because of a new vendor selected through the state bidding process. Development of test items and subsequent scoring of items, including short-answer and extended-response questions, will follow the same test specifications that were given to the previous vendor. Specific guidelines for constructing questions, addressing benchmarks, and scoring are provided to the vendor. Curriculum and assessment specialists at the Ohio Department of Education will continue to monitor the test development process and to work with company representatives and teacher committees to assure consistency and continuity. Additional information about the process for developing test items is available on the Ohio Department of Education's website.

The writers of this column— "A Look at the OGT" (a regular feature of Adolescent Literacy In Perspective)— will continue to provide suggestions and strategies for addressing particularly difficult benchmarks. We will also continue to identify ORC resources from the AdLIT collection to support teachers and students. One difference in the focus of this year's "A Look at the OGT" is that more columns will address content beyond reading and writing. For example, the next issue will feature a column about the social studies OGT, written by Mark Stewart, Dublin curriculum director.

At the Ohio Resource Center, we're reviewing the links between reading and test performance in other content areas. Even though the tests are not reading tests, we believe that some reading strategies can be beneficial to students as they struggle with difficult concepts in science or math.

We're also looking at ways to address problems that students have when they respond to short-answer and extended-response questions. The questions address the content being tested, but students who have limited experience with writing, especially in response to test questions, may leave answer documents blank, or they may write insufficient responses. On the other hand, students who write frequently, both in class and in testing situations, are more likely to get the full 2 or 4 points awarded for short-answer and extended-response items.

The "A Look at the OGT" columns will continue to address classroom practices and resources for helping students respond to content-based questions. In addition, the columns will continue to analyze questions and student responses on the reading and writing OGT tests.

A new feature on the AdLIT website is an AdLIT In Perspective archive which can be browsed by date, by author, and by OGT column titles. Go to the archive to access past OGT columns.

Besides the OGT columns, some additional ORC resources to help with improving student success on the OGT are described below.

"Testing: Only the Tip of the Iceberg"
Author Janet Angelis outlines good test preparation. Angelis, a former middle school teacher who helps schools find and adopt research-based, effective literacy practices, outlines what "good" test preparation includes: (1) using high-stakes tests to enrich the curriculum, (2) employing instructional approaches that aim high and require students to think, (3) ensuring that all students experience a coherent, relevant, and engaging curriculum, and (4) helping students become comfortable with the format of the major assessments. Details and research are provided for each of the four points. (author/ebm)

Assessment in Support of Instruction and Learning: Bridging the Gap Between Large-Scale and Classroom Assessment: Workshop Report (2003)
The complete contents of the 2003 Workshop Report on "Assessment in Support of Instruction and Learning" are included in this professional development site. The goal of the workshop was to highlight current efforts to align classroom and large-scale assessments with each other and with instruction, standards, curriculum, and professional development. Chapters from the report include (1) "The Criteria in Context," (2) "The Nature of the Gap," (3) "Some International Examples," (4) "Assessment to Improve Learning," and (5) "Concluding Thoughts and Possible Next Steps." Three appendices provide the specifics of the workshop agenda, the workshop participants, and more resources for further information about large-scale and classroom assessment. (author/ebm)

Put to the Test: Tools and Techniques for Classroom Assessment [excerpt]: Chapter 4, "Guides to Scoring Student Work: Checklists and Rubrics"
In this excerpt from Put to the Test: Tools and Techniques for Classroom Assessment, guides to scoring students' work are discussed at length and in concrete detail. Authors Robert Johnson, Susan Agruso, Diane Monrad, and Therese M. Kuhs explain how to construct rubrics (holistic and analytical), then address components inherent within this type of assessment: rating scale, checklists, purpose, and evaluation. (author/ebm)

Carol Brown Dodson is the outreach specialist for the Ohio Resource Center. Dodson was an English language arts consultant for the Ohio Department of Education and is past president of OCTELA (Ohio Council of Teachers of English Language Arts). Dodson, formerly a high school English teacher, department chair, and supervisor of English language arts in Columbus Public Schools, serves on the Ohio Graduation Test Reading Content Committee.

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