Dear New Jersey Science Educator:
In her January 8, 2007 memorandum to all New Jersey districts, Commissioner Lucille Davy announced that the Department of Education (DOE) would develop an end-of -course (EOC) biology assessment based on the life sciences standards to be administered in Spring 2008 to all high school students completing a biology course in the 2007-2008 school year. This biology assessment would replace the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) Science test.
That memorandum noted that this new direction in science assessment policy arose following extensive consultation with New Jersey science educators. Recently, we continued that consultation by requesting your comment on a draft document entitled High School Biology/Life Science Course Description. Toward this end, we set up a special email address to which you could, we hope, conveniently direct your comments.
We are seeking you input once again on a companion document, a draft EOC Biology Directory of Test Specifications. This document is posted on the DOE web site at both the standards section, http://www.nj.gov/education/aps/cccs/science/,
and the assessment section
http://www.nj.gov/education/assessment/hs/.
The purposes of test specifications are to guide test developers in writing test items and to inform field educators about the range and depth of test content. In this regard, the test specifications must of course take New Jersey’s Core Curriculum Content Standards (CCCS) as their starting point.
Our time is short, so we are requesting that you review EOC Biology Directory of Test Specifications, and send us your comments to the following email address: biology@doe.state.nj.us.
Best wishes,
Stephen Goldman, Science Coordinator - Office of State Assessments
Michael Heinz, Science Coordinator - Office of Academic Standards
