Assessments

Smarter Balanced Testing At Aloha High School

As you may know, Oregon has adopted tougher national standards called the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) to raise the bar for our students.  With the Common Core State Standards, Oregon students are now gaining important critical-thinking, problem solving, and effective communication skills.

To accurately measure our students' learning as well as help our educators pinpoint areas in need of improvement, Oregon is implementing tests aligned to these standards, through the Oregon State Assessment System. These tests provide an academic check-up and are designed to help teachers and parents know whether students are on track to be college and career-ready by the time they graduate. 

These assessments have replace existing tests in English and math. They offer significant improvements over our previous state tests, including writing at every grade, new question types, and Performance Tasks that ask students to apply their knowledge and skills to real-world problems. Unlike our previous, multiple-choice-only tests, these new assessments include question formats that allow students to demonstrate a broader set of skills, like critical thinking, problem-solving, and analytical writing.  We now have tests that allow students to go beyond just regurgitating facts to show what they know and can do.

To learn more about Common Core and the Oregon State Assessment System, please refer to the district website.