Ohio's Statewide Needs Assessment.

Ohio's Statewide Needs Assessment is designed to provide baseline data about students' learning in cognitive areas. Over several years, students at various grade levels will be assessed. The areas to be assessed, as well as the grades of the students to be assessed, will be considered and advised upon by the ESEA Title III State Advisory Council. The council recommended that for the first year of assessment, only reading be assessed at grade twelve. The reading assessment instrument to be used in this first year contains items that assess those objectives thought by reading specialists in the Ohio Department of Education to be the most important. It will be administered to only a sample of Ohio twelfth graders by school personnel. Confidence intervals for each item on the instrument will be calculated in order to predict student performance. After the data from the assessment have been analyzed, reports presenting and explaining the results will be given. Regional meetings may be held throughout the state to provide further explanation of assessment results, while interpretations and implications of Title III are discussed. (Author/BJG)