National Social Studies Assessment

National assessment in social studies began with the States Consortium on Assessing Student Standards (SCASS). An initial meeting of states interested in forming a Social Studies SCASS was held in Washington, DC in November of 1995. Nine states expressed an interest and met at that time. After initial discussions goals were established and dues set. Following this process four states agreed to join the effort. These states were Colorado, Missouri, Oregon, and Pennsylvania. ACT was engaged as an assessment contractor. In 1996, Delaware joined the effort. An Assessment Development Plan was initiated in May of 1996. This plan called for the development of a conceptual framework, a set of exemplars, the development of assessment exercises, and Portfolio assessment models. The SCASS coordinator did a correlation between state standards and civics, economics, geography and history as a basis for a framework. After June of 1996 a series of meetings were established in the five member states to engage teachers who would be trained in assessment and then would write test items. The work was accomplished through two meetings held in the respective states.

Meetings of the SCASS Consortium

SCASS Member State Training Meetiongs for Teachers

Development OF CSSAP

In the spring of 1997 a grant proposal was prepared and sent to the Office of Educational Research and Instruction (O.E.R.I) at the United States Department of Education for a multi-state grant for social studies assessment. A 4 million dollar grant was awarded in the fall of 1997. Twenty-two states initially jointed and three became part of CSSAP at a later time.

In this first phase of this project from 1997 to 2001, the 25 states collaborated to create a framework for assessing history, geography, civics, and economics at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. The Project produced a Professional Development Manual and Portfolio Implementation Guides with student work on state-of-the-art CD-ROMs. A social studies assessment item pool of 1500 items consisting of multiple-choice, short-answer, extended-response, and performance tasks were developed for the four disciplines at the elementary, middle, and high school levels.

CSSAP Phase I Meetings (1997-2002)

CSSAP Phase II

Beginning in 2001, CSSAP Phase II became a SCASS consortium project focusing on professional development training. Phase II states have initiated a new effort to provide more training materials for teachers and lessons for students on social studies assessment and have developed 12 Internet-based modules demonstrating alignment between state standards and assessment offering instructional strategies that enhance the teaching and understanding of aligning standards and assessments. Teachers will have the opportunity to understand the idea of alignment with their state and national standards and to explore web sites for best practices in teaching and learning as they plan their lessons. All modules will be completed by July 2005. Four world history modules will be developed beginning in the summer of 2005 and will be on the web site by January of 2006.

CSSAP Phase II Member States

CSSAP Phase II Meetings (2002 - Present)

CSSAP Phase II Development Committee

Goal: To oversee the development of assessment/instructional modules aligned with national/state standards.

Writers of Modules Council of Chief State School Officers