Free HEAP Assessment Resources
The Health Education Assessment Project (HEAP) was a major nationwide project from 1994 through 2012. The overall goal of HEAP was to provide K-12 classroom teachers and teacher preparation programs with resources to teach and assess essential health literacy knowledge and skills. It was managed by the Council of Chief State School Officers with funding from the Centers for Disease Control.
Hundreds of health education experts at the state, district, and classroom levels developed a set of high-quality health education assessment resources carefully aligned with National Health Education Standards, 2nd Edition. The assessment item development was expertly guided by American College Testing, a nationally established and respected assessment company known for the ACT tests. HEAP used the technology platform MetaCat, developed by MetaLogic, Inc., to organize easy access to the item bank and for collaborative development of the other resources.
From the many products created by HEAP, the assessment resources highlighted below were placed in the public domain. These resources remain relevant for teachers and for teacher preparation and MetaLogic is pleased to now offer them as a free public service!
HEAP of Books: Integrating Health and Reading
This resource provides rich and detailed guidance to help classroom teachers identify and assess the key health topics and skills addressed in 145 books. The resources are aligned with the National Health Education Standards, 2nd Edition, as well as reading levels and common English Language Arts standards. Books are searchable by title, keyword, grade level, heath topic and health skill.
Cognitive Complexity Sets
This resource offers sets of assessment questions that build systemically in cognitive complexity. Searchable by health topic, skill, keyword, and grade level, this resource is particularly valuable to teacher preparation programs.
HEAP Item Bank
1900+ items, aligned to the National Health Education Standards, include multiple choice, short answer (with scoring rubrics and scored student work examples), and performance assessments (with scoring rubrics and scored student work). Items are searchable by item type, grade level, health skills and health topic. Custom assessments can be made and downloaded.
Additional assessment materials are still widely used and may be purchased from Toucan Ed: https://toucaned.shop/collections/health-standards