3301.0711 Administration and grading of tests.

(A) The department of education shall:

(1) Annually furnish to, grade, and score all tests required by section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code to be administered by city, local, exempted village, and joint vocational school districts, except that each district shall score any test administered pursuant to division (B)(10) of this section. Each test so furnished shall include the data verification code of the student to whom the test will be administered, as assigned pursuant to division (D)(2) of section 3301.0714 of the Revised Code. In furnishing the practice versions of Ohio graduation tests prescribed by division (F) of section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code, the department shall make the tests available on its web site for reproduction by districts. In awarding contracts for grading tests, the department shall give preference to Ohio-based entities employing Ohio residents.

(2) Adopt rules for the ethical use of tests and prescribing the manner in which the tests prescribed by section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code shall be administered to students.

(B) Except as provided in divisions (C) and (J) of this section, the board of education of each city, local, and exempted village school district shall, in accordance with rules adopted under division (A) of this section:

(1) Administer the reading test prescribed under division (A)(1)(a) of section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code twice annually to all students in the third grade who have not attained the score designated for that test under division (A)(2)(c) of section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code.

(2) Administer the mathematics test prescribed under division (A)(1)(a) of section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code at least once annually to all students in the third grade.

(3) Administer the tests prescribed under division (A)(1)(b) of section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code at least once annually to all students in the fourth grade.

(4) Administer the tests prescribed under division (A)(1)(c) of section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code at least once annually to all students in the fifth grade.

(5) Administer the tests prescribed under division (A)(1)(d) of section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code at least once annually to all students in the sixth grade.

(6) Administer the tests prescribed under division (A)(1)(e) of section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code at least once annually to all students in the seventh grade.

(7) Administer the tests prescribed under division (A)(1)(f) of section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code at least once annually to all students in the eighth grade.

(8) Except as provided in division (B)(9) of this section, administer any test prescribed under division (B) of section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code as follows:

(a) At least once annually to all tenth grade students and at least twice annually to all students in eleventh or twelfth grade who have not yet attained the score on that test designated under that division;

(b) To any person who has successfully completed the curriculum in any high school or the individualized education program developed for the person by any high school pursuant to section 3323.08 of the Revised Code but has not received a high school diploma and who requests to take such test, at any time such test is administered in the district.

(9) In lieu of the board of education of any city, local, or exempted village school district in which the student is also enrolled, the board of a joint vocational school district shall administer any test prescribed under division (B) of section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code at least twice annually to any student enrolled in the joint vocational school district who has not yet attained the score on that test designated under that division. A board of a joint vocational school district may also administer such a test to any student described in division (B)(8)(b) of this section.

(10) If the district has been declared to be under an academic watch or in a state of academic emergency pursuant to section 3302.03 of the Revised Code or has a three-year average graduation rate of not more than seventy-five per cent, administer each test prescribed by division (F) of section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code in September to all ninth grade students, beginning in the school year that starts July 1, 2005.

(C)(1)(a) Any student receiving special education services under Chapter 3323. of the Revised Code may be excused from taking any particular test required to be administered under this section if the individualized education program developed for the student pursuant to section 3323.08 of the Revised Code excuses the student from taking that test and instead specifies an alternate assessment method approved by the department of education as conforming to requirements of federal law for receipt of federal funds for disadvantaged pupils. To the extent possible, the individualized education program shall not excuse the student from taking a test unless no reasonable accommodation can be made to enable the student to take the test.

(b) Any alternate assessment approved by the department for a student under this division shall produce measurable results comparable to those produced by the tests which the alternate assessments are replacing in order to allow for the student’s assessment results to be included in the data compiled for a school district or building under section 3302.03 of the Revised Code.

(c) Any student enrolled in a chartered nonpublic school who has been identified, based on an evaluation conducted in accordance with section 3323.03 of the Revised Code or section 504 of the “Rehabilitation Act of 1973,” 87 Stat. 355, 29 U.S.C.A. 794, as amended, as a child with a disability shall be excused from taking any particular test required to be administered under this section if a plan developed for the student pursuant to rules adopted by the state board excuses the student from taking that test. In the case of any student so excused from taking a test, the chartered nonpublic school shall not prohibit the student from taking the test.

(2) A district board may, for medical reasons or other good cause, excuse a student from taking a test administered under this section on the date scheduled, but any such test shall be administered to such excused student not later than nine days following the scheduled date. The board shall annually report the number of students who have not taken one or more of the tests required by this section to the state board of education not later than the thirtieth day of June.

(3) As used in this division, “limited English proficient student” has the same meaning as in 20 U.S.C. 7801.

No school district board shall excuse any limited English proficient student from taking any particular test required to be administered under this section, except that any limited English proficient student who has been enrolled in United States schools for less than one full school year shall not be required to take any such reading or writing test. However, no board shall prohibit a limited English proficient student who is not required to take a test under this division from taking the test. A board may permit any limited English proficient student to take any test required to be administered under this section with appropriate accommodations, as determined by the department. For each limited English proficient student, each school district shall annually assess that student’s progress in learning English, in accordance with procedures approved by the department.

The governing authority of a chartered nonpublic school may excuse a limited English proficient student from taking any test administered under this section. However, no governing authority shall prohibit a limited English proficient student from taking the test.

(D)(1) In the school year next succeeding the school year in which the tests prescribed by division (A)(1) or (B) of section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code or former division (A)(1), (A)(2), or (B) of section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code as it existed prior to September 11, 2001, are administered to any student, the board of education of any school district in which the student is enrolled in that year shall provide to the student intervention services commensurate with the student’s test performance, including any intensive intervention required under section 3313.608 of the Revised Code, in any skill in which the student failed to demonstrate at least a score at the proficient level on the test.

(2) Following any administration of the tests prescribed by division (F) of section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code to ninth grade students, each school district that has a three-year average graduation rate of not more than seventy-five per cent shall determine for each high school in the district whether the school shall be required to provide intervention services to any students who took the tests. In determining which high schools shall provide intervention services based on the resources available, the district shall consider each school’s graduation rate and scores on the practice tests. The district also shall consider the scores received by ninth grade students on the reading and mathematics tests prescribed under division (A)(1)(f) of section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code in the eighth grade in determining which high schools shall provide intervention services.

Each high school selected to provide intervention services under this division shall provide intervention services to any student whose test results indicate that the student is failing to make satisfactory progress toward being able to attain scores at the proficient level on the Ohio graduation tests. Intervention services shall be provided in any skill in which a student demonstrates unsatisfactory progress and shall be commensurate with the student’s test performance. Schools shall provide the intervention services prior to the end of the school year, during the summer following the ninth grade, in the next succeeding school year, or at any combination of those times.

(E) Except as provided in section 3313.608 of the Revised Code and division (M) of this section, no school district board of education shall utilize any student’s failure to attain a specified score on any test administered under this section as a factor in any decision to deny the student promotion to a higher grade level. However, a district board may choose not to promote to the next grade level any student who does not take any test administered under this section or make up such test as provided by division (C)(2) of this section and who is not exempt from the requirement to take the test under division (C)(3) of this section.

(F) No person shall be charged a fee for taking any test administered under this section.

(G)(1) Each school district board shall designate one location for the collection of tests administered in the spring under division (B)(1) of this section and the tests administered under divisions (B)(2) to (7) of this section. Each district board shall submit the tests to the entity with which the department contracts for the scoring of the tests as follows:

(a) If the district’s total enrollment in grades kindergarten through twelve during the first full school week of October was less than two thousand five hundred, not later than the Friday after all of the tests have been administered;

(b) If the district’s total enrollment in grades kindergarten through twelve during the first full school week of October was two thousand five hundred or more, but less than seven thousand, not later than the Monday after all of the tests have been administered;

(c) If the district’s total enrollment in grades kindergarten through twelve during the first full school week of October was seven thousand or more, not later than the Tuesday after all of the tests have been administered.

However, any such test that a student takes during the make-up period described in division (C)(2) of this section shall be submitted not later than the Friday following the day the student takes the test.

(2) The department or an entity with which the department contracts for the scoring of the test shall send to each school district board a list of the individual test scores of all persons taking any test prescribed by division (A)(1) or (B) of section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code within sixty days after its administration, but in no case shall the scores be returned later than the fifteenth day of June following the administration. For any tests administered under this section by a joint vocational school district, the department or entity shall also send to each city, local, or exempted village school district a list of the individual test scores of any students of such city, local, or exempted village school district who are attending school in the joint vocational school district.

(H) Individual test scores on any tests administered under this section shall be released by a district board only in accordance with section 3319.321 of the Revised Code and the rules adopted under division (A) of this section. No district board or its employees shall utilize individual or aggregate test results in any manner that conflicts with rules for the ethical use of tests adopted pursuant to division (A) of this section.

(I) Except as provided in division (G) of this section, the department or an entity with which the department contracts for the scoring of the test shall not release any individual test scores on any test administered under this section. The state board of education shall adopt rules to ensure the protection of student confidentiality at all times. The rules may require the use of the data verification codes assigned to students pursuant to division (D)(2) of section 3301.0714 of the Revised Code to protect the confidentiality of student test scores.

(J) Notwithstanding division (D) of section 3311.52 of the Revised Code, this section does not apply to the board of education of any cooperative education school district except as provided under rules adopted pursuant to this division.

(1) In accordance with rules that the state board of education shall adopt, the board of education of any city, exempted village, or local school district with territory in a cooperative education school district established pursuant to divisions (A) to (C) of section 3311.52 of the Revised Code may enter into an agreement with the board of education of the cooperative education school district for administering any test prescribed under this section to students of the city, exempted village, or local school district who are attending school in the cooperative education school district.

(2) In accordance with rules that the state board of education shall adopt, the board of education of any city, exempted village, or local school district with territory in a cooperative education school district established pursuant to section 3311.521 of the Revised Code shall enter into an agreement with the cooperative district that provides for the administration of any test prescribed under this section to both of the following:

(a) Students who are attending school in the cooperative district and who, if the cooperative district were not established, would be entitled to attend school in the city, local, or exempted village school district pursuant to section 3313.64 or 3313.65 of the Revised Code;

(b) Persons described in division (B)(8)(b) of this section.

Any testing of students pursuant to such an agreement shall be in lieu of any testing of such students or persons pursuant to this section.

(K)(1) Any chartered nonpublic school may participate in the testing program by administering any of the tests prescribed by section 3301.0710 or 3301.0712 of the Revised Code if the chief administrator of the school specifies which tests the school wishes to administer. Such specification shall be made in writing to the superintendent of public instruction prior to the first day of August of any school year in which tests are administered and shall include a pledge that the nonpublic school will administer the specified tests in the same manner as public schools are required to do under this section and rules adopted by the department.

(2) The department of education shall furnish the tests prescribed by section 3301.0710 or 3301.0712 of the Revised Code to any chartered nonpublic school electing to participate under this division.

(L)(1) The superintendent of the state school for the blind and the superintendent of the state school for the deaf shall administer the tests described by section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code. Each superintendent shall administer the tests in the same manner as district boards are required to do under this section and rules adopted by the department of education and in conformity with division (C)(1)(a) of this section.

(2) The department of education shall furnish the tests described by section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code to each superintendent.

(M) Notwithstanding division (E) of this section, a school district may use a student’s failure to attain a score in at least the basic range on the mathematics test described by division (A)(1)(a) of section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code or on any of the tests described by division (A)(1)(b), (c), (d), (e), or (f) of section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code as a factor in retaining that student in the current grade level.

(N)(1) In the manner specified in divisions (N)(3) to (5) of this section, the tests required by section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code shall become public records pursuant to section 149.43 of the Revised Code on the first day of July following the school year that the test was administered.

(2) The department may field test proposed test questions with samples of students to determine the validity, reliability, or appropriateness of test questions for possible inclusion in a future year’s test. The department also may use anchor questions on tests to ensure that different versions of the same test are of comparable difficulty.

Field test questions and anchor questions shall not be considered in computing test scores for individual students. Field test questions and anchor questions may be included as part of the administration of any test required by section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code.

(3) Any field test question or anchor question administered under division (N)(2) of this section shall not be a public record. Such field test questions and anchor questions shall be redacted from any tests which are released as a public record pursuant to division (N)(1) of this section.

(4) This division applies to the tests prescribed by division (A) of section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code.

(a) The first administration of each test, as specified in section 3301.0712 of the Revised Code, shall be a public record.

(b) For subsequent administrations of each test, not less than forty per cent of the questions on the test that are used to compute a student’s score shall be a public record. The department shall determine which questions will be needed for reuse on a future test and those questions shall not be public records and shall be redacted from the test prior to its release as a public record. However, for each redacted question, the department shall inform each city, local, and exempted village school district of the statewide academic standard adopted by the state board of education under section 3301.079 of the Revised Code and the corresponding benchmark to which the question relates. The preceding sentence does not apply to field test questions that are redacted under division (N)(3) of this section.

(5) Each test prescribed by division (B) of section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code that is administered in the spring shall be a public record. Each test prescribed by that division that is administered in the fall or summer shall not be a public record.

(O) As used in this section:

(1) “Three-year average” means the average of the most recent consecutive three school years of data.

(2) “Dropout” means a student who withdraws from school before completing course requirements for graduation and who is not enrolled in an education program approved by the state board of education or an education program outside the state. “Dropout” does not include a student who has departed the country.

(3) “Graduation rate” means the ratio of students receiving a diploma to the number of students who entered ninth grade four years earlier. Students who transfer into the district are added to the calculation. Students who transfer out of the district for reasons other than dropout are subtracted from the calculation. If a student who was a dropout in any previous year returns to the same school district, that student shall be entered into the calculation as if the student had entered ninth grade four years before the graduation year of the graduating class that the student joins.

Effective Date: 06-09-2004; 09-16-2004; 05-18-2005; 07-01-2006; 03-30-2007; 2007 HB119 06-30-2007; 2007 HB190 11-14-2007