COE Guidelines

The Collection of Evidence was approved as an assessment option that could be used for graduation purposes in 2006. Educators in the State of Washington requested the policies, rules, and support materials necessary to implement the assessment in their schools. Educators and COE content and operations staff developed the first COE Guidelines. The first publication was a small 25 page booklet that was dubbed “the Red Book”. By 2011 the Guidelines had grown to over 100 pages. Therefore, the decision was made to replace the print document with a web-based document with each section of the COE Guidelines available as an individual link.

 

 

If you have questions about the Guidelines, contact Amanda Mount at OSPI, (360) 725-6037 or amanda.mount@k12.wa.us.

 

Download the Introduction document here.

 

 

In March 2006, the Washington State Legislature passed HB 6475, which authorized the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to implement three additional options for earning a Certificate of Academic Achievement (CAA). The three options are: GPA Comparison, a substitution of college-entrance scores (ACT, SAT, AP) and a Collection of Evidence (COE).

The COE option is an evaluation of a set of work samples based on exemplary work prepared by the student. The evaluation determines if a student is performing at the skill level required for high school graduation. Collections are scored at the state level by professional scorers trained by OSPI content specialists to ensure the validity and reliability of the assessment. The COE is designed to assess content and skills similar to those assessed on the state high school assessment.


Eligibility

A student must have attempted the state assessment two times prior to submitting a collection in reading, writing, and mathematics year 1 or mathematics year 2.

A student who transfers from out-of-state, out-of-country, or from an in-state private or home school setting in the 11th or 12th grade or who was coded as a new student with non-English proficiency (NNEP) may have the school submit the Transfer Student Options application to OSPI for direct access to the CAA Options.

Transfer students may have their school counselor submit the Transfer Student Options application to OSPI requesting direct access to the CAA Options. This allows these transfer students to use the CAA Options without having to take the state assessment first. After the posting of the student’s eligibility status in the CAA/CIA database, or notification of the direct access approval to the student’s school, the student may submit a COE. Please check this webpage for specific information on the direct access process for transfer students: www.k12.wa.us/assessment/WaiverAppeals/TransferWaiver.aspx


Preparation for the COE

For the 2012-2013 school year there are five submission dates for the COE:

 

Submission Deadline	Grade Level	Collection Type
January 9, 2013 Reading and/or Writing	Students in the 12th grade	Full or augmentation
February 1, 2013 Mathematics Year 1 or Mathematics Year 2	Students in the 12th grade	Full collections only
May 1, 2013 Reading, Writing, and Math Augmentation and 12th Grade Only Full Submission	Students in the 12th grade	Students in the graduating cohort of 2013 or earlier who meet the augmentation eligibility requirements from the January/February 2013 scoring window   One-time opportunity for 12th grade students to submit a full Collection of Evidence in reading, writing, and/or math.
June 12, 2013 Reading, Writing, Mathematics Year 1 or Mathematics Year 2	All students who meet all eligibility requirements in reading, writing and/or mathematics	Full collections only   Augmentation only from the April/May 2013 submission

 

 

Students who meet the eligibility and sufficiency criteria and have not yet met standard may submit COEs in reading, writing, mathematics year 1 or mathematics year 2. Students must have received their HSPE or EOC score results from their second attempt prior to submitting a collection. Students will receive scores from reading and writing collections submitted in January before the March High School Proficiency Exam (HSPE) and will receive HSPE results before the June COE submission date.

Principals and teachers will work with their district assessment coordinators to identify eligible students and to follow the COE submission process. The Online COE is a mandatory submission method for reading and writing. The mathematics year 1 and year 2 COE has a unique submission method comprised of an electronic and paper-based process. For detailed instructions on using the reading and writing Online COE and mathematics year 1 and year 2 COE systems, see the COE website at: www.coe.k12.wa.us

No forms are required for use with the Online COE. All required information is included in the student’s profile within the system.

Districts with significant concerns regarding their ability to access the Online COE system, may submit a request for an exemption for one submission window only. The exemption form can be found at: www.coe.k12.wa.us under Key Information.

 
Sufficiency

To submit a sufficient (eligible to be scored) collection, students must have the required number of work samples, two of which are on-demand. In the work samples, high school level rigor is expected in each content area. Students must verify that the work they are submitting is their own.

For reading and writing, students must address the reading assessment strands and targets and/or appropriate examples of expository and persuasive writing from the state high school assessments. Collections must consist of equal coverage of persuasive and expository modes in writing and equal coverage of literary and informational strands in reading. This coverage of the state standards ensures comparability of the content to the state high school assessment. Reading collections must contain no fewer than six and no more than eight work samples with a minimum of three literary and three informational work samples. Each reading strand must be represented in each work sample in the form of one question. There must be at least two different targets represented in each strand across the entire collection. Writing collections must contain no fewer than six and no more than eight work samples with a minimum of three expository and three persuasive work samples.

Mathematics year 1 and mathematics year 2 must contain no fewer than six and no more than eight work samples, two on-demand work samples, all of the work samples that are listed on the work sample documentation form, and the work sample documentation form signed by the student. Each reporting strand in mathematics year 1 or mathematics year 2 must be represented by at least two tasks in the collection. At least two representations of process and course specific performance expectations (PEs) are also required for a sufficient in mathematics year 1 or mathematics year 2 collection.


Proficiency (Meeting Standard)

Once a collection is deemed sufficient, it will be scored by the state’s scoring team. Proficiency is achieved when the collection demonstrates the same or higher level of skill necessary to pass the state high school assessment in that content area. The proficiency cut scores are listed in the reading, writing and mathematics sections of the guidelines.

Content Guidelines

 

The guidelines cover the number and the type of work samples submitted in the COE. A work sample in reading is the student work created in response to a series of questions after reading a text. In writing, a work sample is a persuasive or expository example of student work that is a response to a question, also referred to as a prompt. In mathematics, a work sample is the student work in response to questions focused on a number of defined Performance Expectations. A submitted COE that does not provide the required number of work samples will be considered insufficient and will be returned to the district unscored. The student and the teacher will work together to document the alignment between the work samples and the state content standards. In all content areas, work samples must be written examples of work. The content guidelines help teachers and students choose those work samples that cover state standards in reading, writing and mathematics.

 

Inclusion Banks

Beginning with the January 2013 submission window, all COEs are required to include only reading passages and tasks, writing prompts, and mathematics tasks from the OSPI Inclusion Bank. The assessments are high school level, created by teachers who are experts in their field, and feature content interesting to students. The tasks and prompts are authentic, relevant to students’ lives, and culturally diverse. The use of inclusion bank items is required for submission in COEs.

Tasks and Prompts for Classroom Practice

 

All of the previously used state reading passages and tasks and writing prompts are now available for classroom practice and instruction. They are solely for classroom use. To request a complete set of the materials, please email caaoptions@k12.wa.us.

What is an “extended time” response?

An “extended time” response is one that students may complete over more than one class period or session while still supervised by a teacher or education professional. Sometimes this may be multiple days or sessions. These responses allow the students the opportunity for multiple editing and revising prior to submitting their final response for submission in their collection. All extended time responses must be done under the supervision of the teacher or school staff and are not to be taken home. While there is some opportunity for appropriate teacher assistance, all work on the extended time response needs to be that of the student.

“On-demand” samples

Each content area requires two “on-demand” work samples. On-demand means that students must produce the work sample completely on their own in a supervised classroom setting following appropriate testing protocols. The timeline varies per content area. Typically, however, it should not be shorter than 60 minutes or longer than 90 minutes. Students may not receive any assistance during the time period allotted for the assessment. An educator must be present during the entire on-demand assessment, and students should not be sent to a computer lab without supervision. Reading collections must have at least one literary and one informational on-demand work sample. Writing collections must have at least one expository and one persuasive on-demand work sample. Mathematics collections must represent two different Reporting Strands with the on-demand work samples. These on-demand work samples serve as baseline examples in the collection for comparison with other examples of the student’s work.
 
What it appropriate teacher assistance?

For the extended time responses, it is expected that there is an appropriate amount of teacher assistance. For the “on-demand” items there should be limited teacher assistance as the students should complete the work independently with only teacher supervision. Extended time responses are completed over multiple sessions or class periods and usually involve revisions as well as an editing process. For mathematics, it is expected that teachers will assist with concept development but not teach to the specific inclusion task or use parts of the task to illustrate a point. As students work through extended time responses, teachers may encourage students to check their work and remind them to edit and revise their written materials. Extended time responses must continue to be student work rather than group work.

Strands, Targets and Checklists

In reading, the strands and targets are the same skills assessed on the state high school assessment in reading while the checklists for expository and persuasive writing are the same materials provided for students during the state high school assessment in writing. In mathematics the reporting strands (core content) are the same skills assessed on the high school EOC for mathematics. All of these materials can shape and support instruction and assessment so that work samples show the highest quality alignment with state standards.

Work Sample Specifications

All Online COE reading and writing submissions must have responses word processed directly into the system or word processed and pasted into the response box. Mathematics responses must be handwritten in the space provided.

Testing Irregularities

A testing irregularity is evidence discovered in a student’s COE during scoring that is problematic. One irregularity is evidence of a troubled child alert where a student is making a threat to himself or herself or to someone else. Another instance is a Level 1 plagiarism alert that identifies student work as copied from the internet. Another Level 1 plagiarism alert identifies copied work in two or more student collections. A Level 2 plagiarism alert indicates there is a high probability of plagiarized work based on analysis of all of the components of the student’s COE.

New Student Training Video

 

A student training video on plagiarism, text-based evidence and copied text has been developed for use in COE classrooms or in settings where COEs are produced. Students are required to watch the video and sign a form that states they understand the consequences of plagiarizing work samples in their COEs. The video, teacher materials, and student signature form is available on the COE web site at: www.coe.k12.wa.us/video.

Augmentation

When a student comes close to meeting standard in one or more of the content areas, he/she is eligible to submit an augmented collection. Augmented collections may be submitted in any subsequent submission window. OSPI will notify districts of which students are eligible for augmentation. Augmented collections contain four new work samples that provide examples of every strand and/or purpose. The descriptions of augmented collections are found in the Augmentation Guidelines.

Score Appeals

 

A COE appeal is only appropriate when it is believed that the student did not meet standard due to a scoring error (such as a miscalculation or scoring errors on a performance task.) For information on the appeal process go to the score appeal guidelines in this publication or contact OSPI.