The Health Education Assessment Project is an assessment development project. It was started in 1993 and now is in its third phase of development. Currently 24 education agencies are members of the HEAP collaborative which makes it the largest CCSSO~SCASS project.
It is a non-profit organization that provides leadership, advocacy, and support to state and territorial superintendents of schools and their staff.
The State Collaborative on Assessment and Student Standards is an initiative started by CCSSO in 1991 to support states in working together to develop standards/assessments/accountability systems. There is a state participation fee for joining a SCASS project. Presently there are 11 SCASS projects. There are two types of SCASS projects - issues and development projects.
In Phase I, the project developed approximately 1300 assessment items. In Phase II the project developed another 1300 assessment items using the National Health Education as the foundation for development. It also developed the scoring system for the performance-based assessment items. The project has also developed a variety of professional development materials aimed at supporting state members in building their capacity to align curriculum, instruction, and assessment to increase teachers’ competencies in providing standards-based health education to result in health literate students. See the HEAP timeline for a list of accomplishments and products.
Members pay a yearly participation fee of $12,000. These fees support three functions of the project: travel to meetings, administration, and product development. For new members, there is an initial fee of $30,000 to enter the project. This enables new members to receive all the assessment items and professional development materials developed during the lifetime of the project.