Since school districts received notice on July 10 that a U.S. Department of Education (USDE) peer review of Oregon's standards and assessments will result in many changes, there has been a growing level of concern among educators.  The forthcoming changes dominated discussion at the OACOA Executive Committee meeting in Salem earlier today.

The recommendations from the USDE require a review and possible revision of the current Oregon state test "cut scores" at grades 3, 5, 8 and 10, as well as a number of changes around the testing of students with disabilities.  In the field, OACOA leaders reported, there is significant concern about the process for determining the changes, as well as the very tight timeline that requires implementation and training in time for the 2006-07 testing cycle.

Kelvin Webster, OACOA President from Multnomah ESD, and Bill Stewart, OACOA Executive Committee member from Gladstone, will be participating in a workshop with Tony Alpert from ODE and the Region 1 Assessment Consortium tomorrow.  They will be providing a summary of what they learn, which will be posted on the COSA website next week.

The OACOA Executive Committee also urged COSA staff to work with ODE to provide regional training around this issue.  This topic will  be a focus at the "Off The Record" meeting next Friday, 11:30 a.m., at the Salem Convention Center.

In other business, the OACOA Executive Committee:

• Approved a 2006-07 budget that allocates additional funds to provide regional professional development opportunities to assist central office administrators.
  
  
• Heard a report on the plans for the upcoming OACOA/OASE Winter Conference, set for February 1-3 in Salishan.
  
  
• Developed a plan for electing officers for 2007-08.
  
  
• Reviewed OACOA survey results.  Members reported that their greatest professional development needs are in the areas of Response to Intervention, Effective Use of Data to Inform Instruction, Effective Educational Leadership, Special Education/IDEA, Closing the Achievement Gap and NCLB/AYP.
  
  
• Discussed new guidelines for the OACOA Achievement of Educational Excellence Award. Information and application materials will be released later this month.