NSCAS Science

A repository of classroom formative tasks aligned to the indicator level of the standards. Tasks were developed by NE educators and cover the breadth of the standards giving students an opportunity to provide evidence of what they can know and can do related to that standard.

Click on the link below and enter the password to access the repository.

Formative Task Repository Page

If you are a NE educator and are needing the password, email the Statewide Assessment at nde.stateassessment@nebraska.gov

This recording explains the NSCAS Science test design including information about:

• Field testing 2021
• Blueprint and test design
• NCCRS-S language and connections to the blueprint
• Resources

NSCAS Science Test Design Recording
Time: 32:23
NSCAS Science Test Design PowerPoint 

NSCAS Science Blueprint
This document is an overview of the design of the NSCAS Science test.

NSCAS Science Blueprint Breakdown

This document breaks down the Science blueprint and shows the connections to the Nebraska College and Career Ready Standards.

NSCAS General Science Achievement Level Descriptors (ALDs)  were developed by NE science educators prior to the development of NSCAS science summative tasks. These ALDs are derived from the Nebraska College and Career Ready Standards for Science. Achievement level descriptors (ALDs) describe the knowledge, skills, and processes that students demonstrate on state tests at pre-determined levels of achievement for each tested grade level, 5^th & 8^th . These science ALDs are intended to describe the performance exhibited by students at the Developing, On-Track, and Advanced levels on the state science assessment. ALDs can enhance understanding of a student’s academic strengths and weaknesses and guide educators in planning.

NSCAS Science Summative ALDs

5th Grade Pre-Pilot Science Task

http://bit.ly/prepilot5

5th Gr Pre-Pilot Task – Changing Coral (Pdf)

5th Gr Pre-Pilot Key – Changing Coral (Pdf)

5th Gr Changing Coral Annotated (PowerPoint)

8th Grade Pre-Pilot Science Task

http://bit.ly/prepilot8

8th Gr Pre-Pilot Task – Blue Skin (Pdf)

8th Gr Pre-Pilot Key – Blue Skin (Pdf)

8th Gr Blue Skin Annotated (PowerPoint)

2019 NSCAS Science Pilot Technical Report – Posted 8.819

Spring 2019 Pilot Training (Pdf)

Test Administration Manual (Pdf)

Grade 5 Pilot Task 

Grade 5 Form A Keys

Grade 5 Form B Keys

NDE Grade 5 Form A – Updated 2.11.20

NDE Grade 5 Form B – Updated 2.11.20

Grade 8 Pilot Task

Grade 8 Keys

NDE Grade 8 Task – Updated 2.11.20

Guidance for Text-to-Speech 

About SIPS:

• Stackable, Instructionally-embedded, Portable Science (SIPS) Assessments
• Funded by the US Department of Education’s Competitive Grants for State Assessments Program, announced in September 2020
• Three-year timeline (September 2020 – September 2023)
• Collaborative partnership including eight states, five organizations, and 10 expert panel members
• Nebraska is the grantee and lead state; Alaska, Alabama, Montana, New Mexico, New York, South Carolina, and Wyoming are partner states

SIPS Project Goals:

• Create a bank of instructionally-embedded science assessment tasks aligned with an actionable performance scale
• Build state and local educators’ capacity to offer high-quality science instruction, evaluate students’ learning, and make data-based instructional decisions
• Engage educators, students, and parents in a partnership for student success across a range of circumstances

SIPS Website

SCILLSS

This website houses tools, information, and resources developed as part of the Strengthening Claims-based Interpretations and Uses of Local and Large-scale Science Assessment Scores (SCILLSS) project. We pronounce that just like the word “skills”!

SCILLSS brings together a consortium of three states – Nebraska, Montana, and Wyoming – with a team of researchers and a panel of experts on validity theory, principled-design, psychometrics, and STEM education to establish a foundation for creating enhanced science assessments. Such assessments would yield scores with strong validity evidence to support score interpretation and use.

SCILLSS is funded for a 48-month period from 2017 through 2020 by an Enhanced Assessment Grant from the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education at the US Department of Education, awarded to the Nebraska Department of Education

SCILLSS Website

Developing Classroom Tasks using tools from SCILLSS project

This PowerPoint is a quick introduction to the process and tools for developing a valid 3D classroom science task. It describes the steps and templates to help teachers with this development.

A-Guide-to-Develop-Classroom-based Interpretations and Uses of Local and Large Scale Science Assessment Scores provides more detail about the process and includes the templates for use and examples of completed tasks using the tools.

About Cascia:

• Coherence and Alignment among Science Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment
• Funded by the US Department of Education’s Competitive Grants for State Assessments (CGSA) Program, announced in September 2022
• Three-year timeline (October 2022– September 2025)
• Collaborative partnership including three states, four organizations, and 5 expert panel members
• Nebraska is the grantee and lead state; Alaska and Alabama are partner states

CASCIA Project Goals:

• Establishing replicable and scalable reporting templates and mechanisms that communicate assessment results, their meaning, and how they can be made actionable to improve instruction and learning for all students
• Connecting information from multiple assessments administered for different purposes and uses and at different points in time throughout year-long instruction to create a profile of students’ learning and growth toward achieving end-of-unit and end-of-year learning outcomes
• Building state and local educators’ capacity to interpret assessment results and use data to inform instructional design and classroom practices
• Establishing replicable and scalable processes, tools, and resources that district administrators, educators, students, and parents need to leverage high-quality assessment in ways that prioritize student learning and that drive meaningful shifts to instructional practice.

Cascia Website (link coming soon)

Administrators’ Days 2019 – 7.29.20

• NSCAS Science Update

Administrators’ Days 2019 – 7.31.19

NSCAS Science FAQs

NE Assessment System Brief by ACHIEVE