South Dakota Schools Adopt Online Assessment Platform for Science Aptitude
The South Dakota Department of
Education will administer online versions of its
Dakota State Test of Education Progress (DSTEP) science assessments to
three
grade levels this spring using a new platform.
The
DSTEP
and DSTEP-A (alternative) assessments, required by the federal No Child
Left Behind Act and South Dakota state law, are given to students in grades 5, 8 and 11
with significant cognitive disabilities each year in reading, math and
science.
The state decided to adopt a platform from Questar
Assessment, which
will
administer the science portion of the assessments for the next three
years, beginning this coming March and April.
The
educational
assessment provider's Web-based platform has a large bank of items
designed to accommodate students with special needs and
technology-enhanced
items that the company says will provide an equitable testing experience
for
the 30,000 South Dakota students who take the test each year.
The
assessment is not used by educators to make grade promotion or high
school
graduation decisions. Instead, the DSTEP and DSTEP-A are intended to
help educators,
students and parents evaluate students' academic achievement and
mastery of
South Dakota's academic content standards.
The
Minnesota-based Questar Assessment provides online assessment
tools to public and private K-12 schools in 33 states and the District
of
Columbia.
"Now
we look forward to providing South Dakota's students and
educators an exceptional assessment experience," said Questar
Assessment President
and CEO Jamie Post Candee.
About the Author
Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.