September 2, 2020
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Lisa Gray at 614-668-9471
COLUMBUS, Ohio – As Ohio students are being confronted with a variety of learning environments due to COVID-19, many parents still have questions about the past school year, wondering how well their children have navigated the final months of study that were spent out of the classroom.
“As the new school year gets underway, many families want to know where their children stand academically after an entire spring of online learning,” said Lisa Gray, president of Ohio Excels, a non-profit coalition of Ohio business leaders focused on strengthening education policy and workforce solutions. “Fortunately, families have the tools and resources to see where their children stand so they can be active partners in ensuring their kids are on track and minimize any disruptions or loss of learning due to the pandemic.”
The Ohio Department of Education offers several ways for parents to assess student learning levels, Gray says.
Using practice tests available at: https://oh.portal.cambiumast.com/users/students-and- families.stml, students can take online tests at home. In addition to seeing how well students do academically, the practice test site allows users to experience the sign-in process, navigate the online testing system and become familiar with online testing.
Additional student practice resources are also available at https://oh.portal.cambiumast.com/resources/, and include scoring guides, answer documents and other practice tests.
According to Gray, the Ohio Department of Education has also been providing school districts with assessment tools and resources to help them gauge students' knowledge around Ohio's Learning Standards. These tools can help parents, teachers and district leaders better target instruction to meet the needs of students. While it is always important at the beginning of the year to assess where students are, this year it is especially important.
Leaders of the Ohio business community created Ohio Excels in 2018 to serve as a non-partisan coalition of business leaders committed to ensuring that all Ohio students have access to excellent early childhood, K-12 and postsecondary education experiences. Strictly non-partisan, Ohio Excels works to keep the business community's voice at the forefront of policy descussions on education and workforce issues to ensure that Ohio maintains high expectations for preparing students for the emerging knowledge economy.
For more information, visit ohioexcels.org.
About Ohio Excels: Ohio Excels is a non-partisan, non-profit organization created in 2018 by leaders of Ohio’s business community who are committed to helping improve educational outcomes for Ohio’s students and ensuring that all K-12 schools prepare students for success in the next step of their lives, whether it is higher education, the military or the workforce.