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ODE to provide additional practice materials and revised test specs by year's end

Posted: 12/18/2015


Additional practice materials and revised test specs to be ready by year’s end

12/17/2015

Teachers of students who will take state tests this year in English language arts, science and social studies can expect to see related new materials posted online by year’s end. These will include additional Student Practice Resources in several areas and updated test specification documents for science and social studies in all tested grades and courses. We are updating the science and social studies specifications 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 will release the following materials by Dec. 30:


English language arts – Remaining sample items (grades 4-8), adding to those for grade 3 and high school that already 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 will have additional practice test items. These items will 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 Web page, which also describes what they can learn from test specifications and blueprints.

For more information, visit
Additional practice materials and revised test specs ready by year’s end.