April 27, 2017
University, ISBE collaborate on student assessment
A team led by an SIU assistant professor is partnering the university with the Illinois State Board of Education to create a new process for scoring an important student academic performance assessment.
Harvey Henson, assistant professor of curriculum and instruction, along with his team, recently secured the $3.2 million contract to help the ISBE score the Illinois Science Assessment.
More than 400,000 Illinois students took the Illinois Science Assessment for the first time in spring 2016. The new assessment not only satisfied federal accountability requirements, but also provided ISBE with the opportunity to innovate on the traditional assessment model from top to bottom, while maintaining quality and reducing costs.
SIU will engage science experts and Illinois educators licensed to teach science in hand-scoring the 1.3 million ISA test items. Educators also will engage in the standards-setting process to occur at the conclusion of this first year of scoring. In the future, Illinois educators will have the opportunity to receive training on assessment item development, assessment statistics, and item evaluation.
For more information on SIU’s role in the partnership, contact Henson at 618/453-4214 or at henson@siu.edu.