Ohio is currently transitioning from state developed assessments to the "Next Generation Assessment System". During the 2014 school year students, depending on what grade level students are in, will take the Ohio Achievement assessment (OSS, Grades 3-8) in Reading, Math, Science, and Social Studies. At the high school level they will take the Ohio Graduation Test (OGT) at grade 10.
Beginning in the 2014-15 school year, students will begin to take the "Next Gen" assessments. PARC is developing the assessment for Science and Social Studies. The "common thread" to all of these assessments can be easily summed up in the following words: Evidence-based design, (Evidence, evidence, evidence) and argument as well as analysis. The evidence-based design will require students to show evidence from text that they read, write arguments on topics and be able to analyze data.
The "evidence-based" design is also inherent within Ohio Teacher Evaluation System (OTES), and the writing of Student Learning Objectives (SLO's). As teachers assess student work in the classroom both formative (assessing student learning along the way to guide instruction) and summative assessments (assessing student learning at a point in time), teams of teachers (Teacher-based teams [TBT's], PLC's, Grade level teams) learn what students know and can do and work to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of all students.