Overview
A Speaking Local Performance Assessment and a Writing Local Performance Assessment is required to be administered for students in grades 3 through 8 and at least once in high school (OAR 581-22-0615).
Local Performance Assessments will more effectively support student learning when they are integrated systematically into the district curriculum and are also part of classroom instruction and may be offered multiple times during the school year.
The performance tasks for speaking and writing can be conducted as separate unique opportunities or can combined into a larger task in which a student produces a writing product on a specific topic or point of view and then present a speech on the topic or viewpoint.
Speaking Local Performance Assessments
A speaking performance assessment is a method used to evaluate an individual's ability to communicate effectively through spoken language as aligned to Oregon’s English Language Arts and Literacy Standards. In a speaking performance assessment, individuals are typically asked to perform tasks such as giving presentations, participating in discussions, or responding to prompts.
Educators can observe and evaluate various aspects of the individual's speaking skills as aligned to the scoring guide, including pronunciation, fluency, vocabulary usage, grammar accuracy, coherence, and ability to express ideas clearly and persuasively.
For local performance assessments, districts may locally develop scoring guidelines so that they can provide feedback to students, or they may use the Official State Speaking Scoring Guide.
Writing Local Performance Assessments
A writing performance assessment is a method used to evaluate a student’s writing skills and abilities. It typically involves analyzing various aspects of writing, such as ideas and coherence, organization, voice and vocabulary, fluency and grammar, and overall effectiveness of communication. Writing performance assessments can take different forms depending on the purpose and context. Educators can conduct a writing performance assessment in various purpose types: narrative, opinion/argumentative, informational/expository.
Writing performance assessments can be conducted during a student’s English Language Arts class or as part of a cross-content area course (i.e., social science/history, or science). Performance assessments scored using an official state scoring guide is one way that districts can satisfy the Writing Local Performance Assessment requirement. Overall, writing performance assessments play a crucial role in identifying strengths, areas for improvement, and providing targeted feedback to help individuals enhance their writing skills.
A useful tool in supporting educators is understanding the difference between the Official Writing Scoring Guide and the OSAS Performance Task Scoring Guide.
- Oregon’s Official Writing Scoring Guide and the OSAS ELA Performance Task Rubrics: Analysis of Purpose
As educators use the Official Writing Scoring Guide, they may ask why the OSAS ELA Performance Task rubrics developed for scoring the Performance Task segment of the OSAS ELA Summative Assessment would not be used in place of Oregon’s scoring guides. This document addresses the intended use and difference of the two writing rubrics. - Smarter Annotated Response Tool (SmART)
This website is helpful to better understand how student writing is scored on OSAS ELA PT assessments and support writing instruction in your school or classroom. Users can browse a range of response types, explore interactive scoring rationales and rubrics, and practice scoring on their own or with colleagues.
To support students, teachers, administrators, and parents, ODE has provided additional links to writing performance assessment resources. The accordions below provides additional links for useful resources (i.e., scoring guides, guidance resources, and professional development resources).
- Official Writing Scoring Guide: These scoring guides reflect the high school expectations for college and career readiness.
- Simplified Writing Scoring Guides: These scoring guides reflect a simplified version of the Official Writing Scoring Guide and are intended to be used as a scoring rubric tool with middle school students as they build their writing skills.
- Condensed/Student Language Scoring Guides: These scoring guides are intended to be used with students in grades 3 – 8 who are developing their writing skills. They represent a condensed version of the Simplified Writing Scoring Guides to better communicate writing expectations using grade level appropriate student language.