Performance-Based Assessment –
Local Alternate Assessment Plan
April 2, 2015
Background Information:
The 2014 General Assembly enacted legislation to amend § 22.1-253.13:3.C of the Code
of Virginia to eliminate five Standards of Learning (SOL) tests: Grade 3 History, Grade 3
Science, Grade 5 Writing, United States History to 1865, and United States History: 1865
to the Present. In addition, the legislation requires each local school board to annually
certify that it has provided instruction and administered an alternative assessment,
consistent with Virginia Board of Education guidelines, to students in grades three
through eight in each SOL subject area in which the SOL assessment was eliminated.
In response to the amended legislation, the Virginia Board of Education
approved Guidelines for Local Alternative Assessments for 2014-2015 on September 18,
2014. The guidelines indicate that school divisions prepare a plan describing how the
local assessments will be implemented in 2014-2015 as well as how their use will be
expanded in 2015-2016 and beyond.
Attached is the CCS plan as submitted to VDOE on January 30, 2015.
Virginia Department of Education
Local Alternative Assessment Plan
Fall 2014 Submission Form
School Division: Charlottesville City Schools
Date:
January 30, 2015
Division Contact for Local Alternative Assessments:
First Name: Gertrude
Last Name: Ivory
Position/Title: Associate Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction
Work E-mail: [email protected]
Work Telephone: 434-245-2939
Directions: Please complete the contact information above and the following five questions for each of the five
Standards of Learning content areas to be assessed locally beginning in the 2014 – 2015 school year. Save the
completed form with the name of your school division (e.g., divisionname.pdf) and e-mail it as an attachment to:
[email protected].
I. Grade 3 History Local Assessments:
2014-2015:
1. Which best describes your division’s decision regarding the local grade 3 history assessment?
All schools in the division will administer the same local grade 3 history assessment.
Each school will determine the local grade 3 history assessment it administers.
2. Will your division/schools be developing an alternative grade 3 history assessment?
Yes
No
If yes, please describe any locally developed grade 3 history assessments that will be administered
(e.g., online, paper, benchmark test, performance assessment, authentic assessment, developed in
collaboration with other division(s), etc.):
Answer choices for question 1 do not fit in with our current plans. For question 1, we have some
strands being assessed using a common local grade 3 history assessment, while others may be
assessed using a variety of school developed assessments and others developed across the division
or with the Virginia School University Partnership (VSUP). For question 2, we are participating in
the development of some performance assessments with VSUP which we hope to pilot in the
coming months. Some of our teachers may use these as written while others may slightly modify
as part of the pilot.
3. Will your division/schools administer an alternative grade 3 history assessment(s) developed
outside of your school division (e.g., developed commercially, available off-the-shelf, developed by
another school division, etc.)?
Yes
No
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April 2, 2015
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If yes, please provide the name of the test(s) and the name of the test developer(s) or publisher(s):
Again, this is not a yes/no answer as we will be piloting the VSUP performance-based assessments
and will probably also use modified versions of these as part of the pilot. VSUP has used materials
from the Stanford History Education Group and some training was provided by both Interactive
Achievement and Show Evidence. None of these assessments were developed by these outside
partner organizations.
4. When will your division/schools administer the local grade 3 history assessment(s)? Please describe
(e.g., once in the spring, every 9 weeks, periodically after instruction, etc.):
One locally-developed common assessment was completed within the division during the first
semester. This assessment included standards from both the history and economics reporting
categories. We will pilot other performance assessments in the second semester based on
availability from VSUP and/or locally-developed items based on division pacing guides.
2015-2016 and beyond:
5. At this time, does your division have any plan(s) to revise the local grade 3 history assessment(s) used
in the 2015-2016 school year and beyond? Please describe:
Yes, we hope to continue to work with VSUP to refine the first assessments in the inaugural pilot, as
well as develop others into a bank of assessments similar to the test bank previously developed in
Interactive Achievement for multiple choice based assessments. We will also expand the common
assessments we have created locally in the coming years to perhaps incorporate grade 3 science and
social studies through the geography and civics strands.
II. Grade 3 Science Local Assessments:
2014-2015:
1. Which best describes your division’s decision regarding the local grade 3 science assessment?
All schools in the division will administer the same local grade 3 science assessment.
Each school will determine the local grade 3 science assessment it administers.
2. Will your division/schools be developing an alternative grade 3 science assessment?
Yes
No
If yes, please describe any locally developed grade 3 science assessments that will be administered
(e.g., online, paper, benchmark test, performance assessment, authentic assessment, developed in
collaboration with other division(s), etc.):
This year our third grade team developed various performance-based assessments to pilot in our
schools. We plan to use student samples at the end of the year to fine tune the assessments, rubrics,
and scoring process for future years.
Charlottesville City School Board
April 2, 2015
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3. Will your division/schools administer an alternative grade 3 science assessment(s) developed
outside of your school division (e.g., developed commercially, available off-the-shelf, developed by
another school division, etc.)?
Yes
No
If yes, please provide the name of the test(s) and the name of the test developer(s) or publisher(s):
We are a partner with the Virginia School University Partnership (VSUP) and may use some of their
performance-based assessments in the future, but currently samples are not available.
4. When will your division/schools administer the local grade 3 science assessment(s)? Please describe
(e.g., once in the spring, every 9 weeks, periodically after instruction, etc.):
We began administering our performance-based assessments as they were applicable in October
and will continue to administer them throughout the school year.
2015-2016 and beyond:
5. At this time, does your division have any plan(s) to revise the local grade 3 science assessment(s) used
in the 2015-2016 school year and beyond? Please describe:
Yes, we plan to convene a team at the end of the school year to evaluate our performance-based
assessments, rubrics, and student samples that we piloted across the division. We also plan to work
with other divisions to share and refine our items and experiences.
III. Grade 5 Writing Local Assessments:
2014-2015:
1. Which best describes your division’s decision regarding the local grade 5 writing assessment?
All schools in the division will administer the same local grade 5 writing assessment.
Each school will determine the local grade 5 writing assessment it administers.
2. Will your division/schools be developing an alternative grade 5 writing assessment?
Yes
Charlottesville City School Board
No
April 2, 2015
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If yes, please describe any locally developed grade 5 writing assessments that will be administered
(e.g., online, paper, benchmark test, performance assessment, authentic assessment, developed in
collaboration with other division(s), etc.):
The grade 5 writing assessment consists of two parts. Part one is a 24 item multiple choice test that
was created and will be administered using the Interactive Achievement program. Part two is a
writing prompt that will be scored by a scoring committee using the DOE rubric.
3. Will your division/schools administer an alternative grade 5 writing assessment(s) developed
outside of your school division (e.g., developed commercially, available off-the-shelf, developed by
another school division, etc.)?
Yes
No
If yes, please provide the name of the test(s) and the name of the test developer(s) or publisher(s):
N/A
4. When will your division/schools administer the local grade 5 writing assessment(s)? Please describe
(e.g., once in the spring, every 9 weeks, periodically after instruction, etc.):
The test will be administered once this spring.
2015-2016 and beyond:
5. At this time, does your division have any plan(s) to revise the local grade 5 writing assessment(s) used
in the 2015-2016 school year and beyond? Please describe:
Yes, plans are in place to administer a scored writing prompt three times next year (fall, mid-year,
and spring). There are no plans to embed a writing component into the social studies and science
authentic performance tasks. The writing portion of these tasks would be scored using a rubric.
Charlottesville City School Board
April 2, 2015
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IV. United States History to 1865 (US History I) Local Assessments:
2014-2015:
1. Which best describes your division’s decision regarding the local US History I assessment?
All schools in the division will administer the same local US History I assessment.
Each school will determine the local US History I assessment it administers.
2. Will your division/schools be developing an alternative US History I assessment?
Yes
No
If yes, please describe any locally developed US History I assessments that will be administered
(e.g., online, paper, benchmark test, performance assessment, authentic assessment, developed in
collaboration with other division(s), etc.):
Again, question 1 is not a yes/no answer. While all of our sixth grade students taking US1 are in the
same school, teachers will be able to use a combination of teacher-developed performance-based
assessments, alternative assessments, as well as those developed by VSUP.
3. Will your division/schools administer an alternative US History I assessment(s) developed outside of
your school division (e.g., developed commercially, available off-the-shelf, developed by another
school division, etc.)?
Yes
No
If yes, please provide the name of the test(s) and the name of the test developer(s) or publisher(s):
As stated above, we are working with VSUP, IA and Show Evidence to develop performance-based
assessments that will be available to our teachers to use as written or modify as may be needed.
4. When will your division/schools administer the local US History I assessment(s)? Please describe
(e.g., once in the spring, every 9 weeks, periodically after instruction, etc.):
We have been using a combination of teacher-made performance-based assessments during the first
semester, and will use some second semester which have been created with VSUP as part of the
pilot.
Charlottesville City School Board
April 2, 2015
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2015-2016 and beyond:
5. At this time, does your division have any plan(s) to revise the local US History I assessment(s) used
in the 2015-2016 school year and beyond? Please describe:
Yes, we will revise the assessments made in conjunction with VSUP based on feedback received
during the pilot. We will also revise our locally-developed performance-based assessments on an
ongoing basis.
V. United States History 1865 to ƚŚĞ Present (US History II) Local Assessments:
2014-2015:
1. Which best describes your division’s decision regarding the local US History II assessment?
All schools in the division will administer the same local US History II assessment.
Each school will determine the local US History II assessment it administers.
2. Will your division/schools be developing an alternative US History II assessment?
Yes
No
If yes, please describe any locally developed US History II assessments that will be administered
(e.g., online, paper, benchmark test, performance assessment, authentic assessment, developed in
collaboration with other division(s), etc.):
Again, question 1 is not a yes/no answer for us. While all of our seventh grade students taking USII
are in the same school, teachers will be able to use a combination of teacher-developed
performance-based assessments, alternative assessments and those developed in conjunction with
VSUP.
3. Will your division/schools administer an alternative US History II assessment(s) developed outside
of your school division (e.g., developed commercially, available off-the-shelf, developed by another
school division, etc.)?
Yes
No
If yes, please provide the name of the test(s) and the name of the test developer(s) or publisher(s):
As stated above for grade 3, we are working VSUP, IA, and Show Evidence to develop performancebased assessments which will be made available to our teachers to use as written or modify as
needed.
Charlottesville City School Board
April 2, 2015
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4. When will your division/schools administer the local US History II assessment(s)? Please describe
(e.g., once in the spring, every 9 weeks, periodically after instruction, etc.):
We have been using a combination of teacher-made performance-based assessments during the first
semester, and will use some second semester which have been created with VSUP as part of the
pilot.
2015-2016 and beyond:
5. At this time, does your division have any plan(s) to revise the local US History II assessment(s) used
in the 2015-2016 school year and beyond? Please describe:
Yes, we will revise the assessments made in conjunction with VSUP based on feedback received
during the pilot. We will also revise our locally-developed performance assessments on an ongoing
basis.
Charlottesville City School Board
April 2, 2015
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