Health Education Assessment Project (HEAP) 2008-2009

$15,000 Yearly state participation fee enables members to send a two-person team to attend two face-to-face meetings per year. The SCASS Health Education Assessment Project began in 1993. The mission of the project is to develop effective health education assessment resources through a collaborative process, and to increase members' capacity to align curriculum, instruction, and assessment to improve student health literacy through improved health education instruction. The project has developed a variety of assessment materials that are appropriate for use by teachers at the classroom level, and for use in district and large-scale assessments of health education at the elementary, junior high/middle school, and high school levels. In addition, the project has developed a variety of professional development materials to support teacher training in standards-based health education and assessment. The HEAP Distance Learning Initiative and the HEAP Web-based Assessment System have been instrumental in helping member states in aligning curriculum, instruction, and assessment, The HEAP Distance Learning Initiative supports a five module professional development course on standards-based health education and assessment that can be personalized with state-specific resources. It also contains a section that helps members develop the technology skills they need to adapt the system for use in their states. The HEAP Web-based Assessment System houses approximately 1900 assessment items that allow teachers in member states to search for items by a variety of criteria (i.e., health content, skill, grade level, item type), and easily create tests to assess students' acquisition of knowledge and skills in health education. The system allows for online assessment, so that students can receive immediate feedback and teachers are provided data that can guide instructional improvement. For the researcher, the web-based assessment system provides the framework to conduct studies using the HEAP assessment items to ascertain if the health instruction provided has resulted in an increase in student health literacy. This technology also allows the HEAP to collaboratively develop new assessment items more efficiently and cost-effectively. MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR 2007-08 Provided technical assistance to members’ to build their capacity to implement teacher training through the HEAP’s distance learning initiative and the eUniversity course Supported states’ capacity to use the HEAP’s web-based assessment system to help teachers implement diagnostic, formative, and summative assessment of standards-based, skills-based health education Built the health and technology literacy of members by providing professional development/business meetings during year through web-ex meetings Produced a health literacy poster targeted to high school and college students to accompany the health literacy poster targeted to elementary and middle school students Developed a sixth professional development module for states to use in face-to-face trainings or within distance learning PD programs Developed and revised the item development tool within the HEAP’s web-based assessment system Developed draft assessment items using the web-based assessment system’s item development tool Revised the present professional development modules to reflect the new wording of the revised national health education standards EXPECTED WORK FOR 2008-09 Through collaborative work sessions and the HEAP’s web-based assessment system, develop more skills-based assessments (based on the skills in the national health education standards) encompassing various levels of cognitive complexity Using the skill-based assessment items of varying levels of cognitive complexity, create professional development packets for states to use in teacher training Convert the HEAP’s distance learning course to a self-based course using open-source learning management system software Continue to develop products to support states in aligning health and reading and train members in their use. Link state health specialists and state reading specialists. Examine the skills cues for the national health education standards to align to a cognitive level. Develop learning progressions for all the skill standards. Publish. Increase use of the Web-based assessment system with online assessment of students to demonstrate how diagnostic assessment influences instructional design Increase use of the Web-based assessment system with online assessment of students to document how teachers are teaching to standards and improving student skill levels Develop partnerships with researchers in health literacy, reading specialists, and assessment experts Provide a series of recorded professional development opportunities for members through web-ex PARTICIATING STATES IN 2007 19 States: AR, CA, CT, FL, HI, ID, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, NH, NJ, PA, SC, SD, VT, WI, WY 2 Education Agencies: DODEA, Philadelphia School District Coordinator: Nancy Hudson, (202) 336-7008, nancyh@ccsso.org Website: www.ccsso.org/heap

Council of Chief State School Officers
One Massachusetts Avenue, NW · Suite 700
Washington, DC 20001-1431
voice: 202.336.7000 · fax: 202.408.8072

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document last updated 7/17/2008