Comprehensive Social Studies Assessment Project

About SCASS and CSSAP

The Council of Chief State School Officers created a Social Studies SCASS in 1995. An initial meeting of states interested in forming a Social Studies SCASS was held in Washington, D.C. in November of 1995. The first state members were Colorado, Missouri, Oregon, and Pennsylvania. In 1996, Delaware joined as a state member. An Assessment Development Plan was initiated in May of 1996. This plan called for the development of a conceptual framework, a set of exemplars, the development of assessment exercises, and Portfolio assessment models. The SCASS coordinator did a correlation between state standards and civics, economics, geography and history as a basis for a framework. After June of 1996 a series of meetings were established in the five member states to provide assessment training to teachers in the states.
 
In the spring of 1997 a grant proposal was prepared and sent to the Office of Educational Research and Instruction (O.E.R.I) at the United States Department of Education for a multi-state grant for social studies assessment. A 4 million dollar grant was awarded in the fall of 1997. Twenty-two states made up the initial group with three other states added later. The Social Studies SCASS became the Comprehensive Social Studies Assessment Project [CSSAP].
 
By the end of 2001 CSSAP had produced a Professional Development Manual and Portfolio Implementation Guides with student work on CD-ROMs. A social studies assessment item pool of 1322 items consisting of multiple-choice, short-answer, extended-response, and performance tasks were developed for the four social studies disciplines [civics, economics, geography, and history] at the elementary, middle, and high school levels.
 
Between 2001 and 2005, CSSAP initiated a new project to provide more training materials for teachers and lessons for students on social studies with twelve units that demonstrate alignment of standards, assessments, and instruction. Beginning in 2006, more units are being developed and the original twelve are being redesigned.