Introducing Statewide Performance Assessment: The Ohio Performance Assessment Pilot Project

• In Event: Performance-Based Assessment: Something Old, Something New

Abstract

Purpose/Objectives
The purpose of this paper is to describe the efforts of the Ohio Department of Education and districts participating in the Ohio Performance Assessment Pilot Project (OPAPP).
Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
Ohio began taking steps in 2008 to build a new assessment system through the OPAPP, a research effort in collaboration with Stanford University’s School Redesign Network. A two-year pilot, funded by the Gates and Hewlett Foundations, included the following outcomes:
• Learn what it takes to construct and effectively implement performance assessments.
• Learn what professional development teachers need to be able to participate in creating performance assessments.
The OPAPP is continuing with Ohio’s Race to the Top funding, but with a more focused agenda. In the project’s first phase, a set of standards-based performance assessments and rubrics were developed in English language arts, mathematics, and science, field-tested across the state and scored in 2010.
In the second phase of OPAPP, Ohio will develop and pilot performance tasks that build on lessons learned in the first phase of the project. The new tasks will align with the Common Core Standards in Mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA), as well as Ohio's New Revised State Standards in Science and Social Studies. The pilot will run in both high school (grades 9 through 12) and elementary school (grades 3 through 5). Teachers will implement tasks, score student work and develop tasks for use in their classrooms. There is also a significant professional development component in this phase of the project, which will involve training teachers to score using a generalized rubric as well as a task-specific rubric. The state is also planning professional development to train members of Moderation Panels for operational scoring.
Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry
In the next phase of OPAPP, Ohio has decided to use teachers as scorers. This scoring plan differs significantly from the plans of the assessment consortia. Ohio feels strongly that involvement of teachers in scoring and item development is essential for their professional development. From the previous version of OPAPP, we have seen evidence of significant improvement in implementation of the performance tasks after teachers participate in the scoring sessions.
Additionally, the pilot will include elementary school classrooms and teachers which may be self-contained. Ohio intends to use this opportunity to pilot both content-specific and cross-curricular learning tasks.
Results
Selected results from the OPAPP project will be shared in the working roundtable symposium. These results may include examples of learning tasks and rubrics, and results of quantitative and qualitative feedback from teachers in participating schools.
Scientific or scholarly significance of the study
The experiences from the OPAPP project will contribute to new perspectives of how performance-based assessment can contribute to statewide assessment and accountability systems to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Author

• Lauren V. Monowar-Jones, The Ohio Department of Education