In This Issue: Welcome! HEAP Updates State Updates Arkansas Maryland South Carolina South Dakota State Member List http://scassheap.org Please email Sara Moshman, or call MetaLogic, Inc., 402 474-6194 for more information.	South Carolina using the web-based assessment system to field-test HEAP items for a statewide health education assessment   Rhonda Kemmis and students South Dakota
Welcome! Dear HEAP members and friends, We are providing you with our next edition of the HEAP Web-based Assessment System (WBAS) newsletter just in time for the March 2008 HEAP meeting. The purpose of this newsletter is to update you on how member states use the WBAS to improve teaching and learning using standards-based health education and assessment. The WBAS is an important tool that is providing us with data to document students' progress in achieving health literacy. As you will see from the state stories below, HEAP teachers are using the data generated from the WBAS to make data-driven decisions in planning their instructional activities. The SCASS HEAP members are also using the WBAS to document implementation of state standards in health education. Should you want to advance your state's implementation of the WBAS, please feel free to contact Sara Moshman or me. We are here to provide you with technical assistance to write the next chapter of your state story! If you're not a member, please contact me for more information! Nancy Hudson, HEAP Coordinator HEAP Updates 1. HEAP Item Development: A number of HEAP members, Tami Benham-Deal (WY), Larry Deal (WY), Nancy Emberley (VT), and Barbara Sullivan (MD), are working on strategies to improve assessment items in the current HEAP bank, including increasing the cognitive complexity. The outcome will be more reliable processes that can be used by HEAP members and teachers to develop quality assessment items. (See Sample Training Document.) The WBAS will continue to be tailored to incorporate these processes for ongoing web-based item development and improvement. 2. Potential International Collaboration: An international symposium on school health literacy is scheduled for mid-March, 2008, in Vancouver, British Columbia. Nancy Hudson has been invited to attend this meeting along with Lloyd Kolbe from Indiana University. The symposium, organized by the British Columbia Health Literacy Team, will bring together health literacy experts from the U.S., Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, and Israel, to discuss creating opportunities for research and collaboration to improve student health literacy. Nancy will present "lessons learned" from the HEAP. 3. New Members: We are pleased to welcome Idaho and Mississippi as the newest state members to the HEAP! Contact Nancy Hudson, nancyh@ccsso.org, for more information. Arkansas Update Kathleen Courtney, the Arkansas state representative to the HEAP, went back to the classroom again to experience how using the WBAS can improve teaching. She also utilized the WBAS with a class of Alternative Learning Education students. She feels this is an invaluable way to remain relevant to the teachers she trains while continuing to learn how to utilize the many facets of the WBAS. She will be sharing her lessons learned at the March HEAP meeting. "The kids enjoyed hearing how the class averages increased from pre- to post-tests. They enjoyed taking the tests online and getting immediate feedback. As a teacher, I enjoy getting immediate student results and test information." Take a look at a pre- and post-test comparison report disaggregated by grade level and gender. Kathleen is now initiating a pilot project to use the HEAP materials and WBAS with a Juvenile Detention Center (JDC). Training for JDC teachers is scheduled for February 28, 2008. "I think that utilizing the web-based assessment system will be a GREAT tool for the JDC people who have such limited time for any kind of health and prevention education in the facilities." Kathleen has developed effective strategies to incorporate many of the HEAP products and services to support the guidelines established by CDC/DASH for using HIV prevention cooperative agreement funds. Contact Kathleen courtney, Kathleen.Courtney@arkansas.gov, for more information. Maryland Update With the support of Brian Griffith, the MD state representative to the HEAP, a Maryland health teacher used the WBAS last spring to administer her final exams online. This past fall, three more health teachers administered their final exams online. The teachers plan to continue using the WBAS for final exams this spring. For more information please contact Brian Griffith, bgriffith@msde.state.md.us. South Carolina Update In 2005, the South Carolina State General Assembly passed a comprehensive bill to improve student health. A statewide health education assessment will be given regionally to all 5th, 8th and 10th grade students within a three year period beginning in the 2008-2009 academic school year. HEAP items were modified to align with the South Carolina Health and Safety academic standards and a pilot study to field-test the items will soon be conducted using the WBAS with 5th, 8th and 10th grade teachers and students in 90 schools statewide. Contact Chris Beyer, cbeyer@ed.sc.gov, for more information. South Dakota Update Sandy Klarenbeek, a professor at Black Hills State University, now uses the WBAS with her pre-service health education students. The students learn to create and deliver effective online assessments and practice evaluating test results to inform their instruction. One pre-service teacher used the WBAS in December 2007 during student teaching and was the first health teacher at that school to implement online assessment and use the immediate data to inform instruction. Rhonda Kemmis is a regular user of the WBAS for pre- and post-assessments around certain units of instruction. Rhonda was a leader in organizing the middle school teachers in her district to use the WBAS to determine the effectiveness of a new injury prevention curriculum (see Pre-Test Item Analysis by gender and school). Rhonda has now moved to the high school level and is using the WBAS’s item development tool to design assessments aligned to the high school health curriculum. We look forward to her insights gained from teaching health education at the high school level. With support from the South Dakota Department of Education-Coordinated School Health, Rhonda and Sandy have also presented several workshops on health literacy, skills assessment, HEAP, and the WBAS. As a result of a recent workshop, two new teachers have begun using the WBAS to administer online pre- and post-assessments around units of instruction. For more information, please contact the South Dakota Department of Education-Coordinated School Health, 605-773-3261, Sandy Klarenbeek, SandyKlarenbeek@bhsu.edu, or Rhonda Kemmis, Rhonda.Kemmis@k12.sd.us. State Members of SCASS HEAP For more information, or to join, please contact Nancy Hudson with the Council of Chief State School Officers, nancyh@ccsso.org. Arkansas California Connecticut Delaware Dept. of Defense Education Activity Florida Hawaii Idaho - New Member! Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Mississippi - New Member! New Hampshire New Jersey Pennsylvania Philadelphia School District South Carolina South Dakota Vermont Wisconsin Wyoming SCASS HEAP Web-based Assessment System E-news, Winter 2008, Volume 4, Issue 1 The SCASS HEAP Web-based Assessment System is hosted with MetaCat 2, technology for educational innovation by MetaLogic, Inc., of Lincoln, NE. Call 402 474-6194 or email Sara Moshman for more information.