The Science PASS Standards and Objectives were revised effective March 2011. Those new standards will go into effect beginning Fall 2011. The assessment for spring 2011 will be based upon Science PASS version 2002.
When the PASS Standards and Objectives are changed, the assessment changes to mirror the standards it is based upon. Assessment changes are usually one year behind the PASS standards, permitting new test items to be developed and field tested prior to becoming operational.
The following listing may be helpful to understand the transition for science assessments in Grades 5 and 8, and Biology I.
Spring and Summer 2011 science assessments – based on PASS version 2002 standards.
Winter/Trimester 2011 science assessments – based on PASS version 2002 standards, with field test items corresponding to PASS version 2011 embedded within the test.
Spring and Summer 2012 science assessments – based on PASS version 2002 standards, with field test items corresponding to PASS version 2011, embedded within the test.
Beginning with the 2012- 2013 school year and assessment cycle—all science assessments will be based on PASS version 2011.
All testing documents will be updated over the course of the coming summer to reflect the 2012-13 test. As they are updated, and reposted to the SDE website, you will be notified through the various OSDE listserves and the OSTA website.
Move to span the page question format:
Beginning with the spring 2011 assessments, science test items for all grades, will appear in a “span the page” format. Previously, tests used the 2-column format. The span the page format falls more closely in line with current research related to student performance on tests and reading studies.
The Test and Item Specification documents have been updated to reflect this change in presentation format. This changed document has a revision date of March 2011, and is posted on the SDE website.
http://www.sde.state.ok.us/AcctAssess/core.html