Elementary and Middle School Science Items
This study, funded in 2006, focused on developing and investigating a new approach to assessing the science achievement of 4th- and 8th-grade English Learners with low English proficiency.
The research was primarily interested in identifying ways to leverage technological capabilities to ask and answer questions that would help students who often lacked the language to demonstrate what they know on traditional tests.
Lessons learned from this project were used to inform our later research into accessible assessment for all students and eventually led to the current suite of ONPAR science assessments for middle school.
Resources
Sample Items
Earth Science
Life Science
Physical Science
Paper
Kopriva, R.J., Wright, L.J., Triscari, R., & Shafer-Wilner, L. (2021). Examining a multisemiotic approach to measuring challenging content for English learners and others: Results from the ONPAR elementary and middle school science study. [Journal Article]. World Journal of Education Research, 8(1), 1-25.
This project was carried out in collaboration with the Rhode Island Department of Public Instruction and funded by the US Department of Education Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) Enhanced Assessment Grant Program (PR #S368A060007).