State Asessment Vocabulary

Are you hearing some strange words—or familiar words being used in a new way?

Here are some definitions of some common state assessment terms.

OAKS: Oregon Assessment of Knowledge and Skills is a computer-based assessment test given at or around 10th grade. This test must be attempted by all students at this time. These are are multiple-choice tests given at the benchmark years (3rd/5th/8th/10th) in reading, math, and science (starting at 5th). A minimum score is required to meet the standard in each area.

Standards: The learning/performance goals in each subject area that all students will be working toward.

Benchmarks: Checkpoints that describe progress toward the standards in each subject area. Student progress will be assessed at 3rd, 5th, and 8th grades using these checkpoints.

Work Samples: Student work, done in the classroom, which will be scored and used as evidence of progress toward the standards. A prescribed number of work samples in each subject are required at the checkpoint grades (3rd/5th/8th), but these will also be collected and scored at in-between grades.

Scoring Guides: The state criteria for meeting the benchmarks/standards in writing, math problem solving, speaking, reading, and (in the future) science projects/experiments. These define six levels of performance in various dimensions depending on the subject area. Depending on the student's age his/her work must have scores of 3 or 4 (6 is the highest) in all the dimensions to meet the standard.