Overview
School districts and public charter schools that offer grades 3 through 8 or high school shall administer local performance assessments for students in grades 3 through 8 and at least once in high school (OAR 581-22-0615).
The purpose of the Local Performance Assessment Requirement is to ensure that Oregon students are afforded opportunities to learn and to receive feedback regarding their academic progress.
Local performance assessments are a useful instrument where students are asked to prepare a unique response to one or more prompts included in the assessment. These assessments provide a powerful way to measure both student knowledge and the ability to apply it.
“Local performance assessment” (LPA) means a standardized measure (e.g., activity, exercise, problem, or work sample scored using an official state scoring guide), embedded in the school districts’ and public charter schools’ curriculum that evaluates the application of students’ knowledge and skills.
- Well-crafted performance assessments will help teachers gauge the levels of student understanding, help the teacher to correct any student misunderstandings, and provide instruction needed to move thinking and learning along.
Each skill area listed for the LPA requirement shall consist of:
- One work sample per grade scored using official state scoring guides; or
- A common scoring instrument or comparable measures adopted by the district.
Work Samples, scored using the official state scoring guide, are just one example of acceptable performance assessments. Districts have substantial flexibility when it comes to planning the performance assessments that will be used to fulfill this requirement.
In Oregon, the Local Performance Assessment Requirement states that school districts shall administer one or more performance assessment each year to all students in grades 3 through 8 and in high school in:
- Mathematics
- Scientific Inquiry
- Speaking
- Writing
In addition to the required areas, districts are encouraged to consider administering local performance assessments in other skill areas as appropriate to the local curriculum. For instance, districts may choose to administer local performance assessments in any of the other areas, such as Social Science Analysis.
Administration of a local performance assessment is not required for students in K – 2.
Districts may choose to administer a performance assessment in K – 2 as part of their local assessment system. As a reminder, LPAs provide students with opportunities to apply knowledge to age-appropriate real-world settings. This type of assessment helps educators see what students can do and not just what they may know.
Local Performance Assessment Resources
To support students, teachers, administrators, and parents in learning what the expectations are for the local performance assessment requirement across 3 – 12 curricula, ODE has provided additional links to administration and instructional planning resources.
Please refer to the below links for additional educator resources (e.g. administration resources, examples of scored student work samples, and scoring guides).
For additional information or questions regarding the Local Performance Assessment requirements, please contact the
ODE Assessment Team.