Pasco County District Finals Fall 2015

Policies and Procedures A.Resources B.Security C.Materials D.Administration E.Grading/Scanning

Resources

District Finals Canvas Page

Logging into Performance Matters Access Performance Matters through UNIFY website: (Links to an external site.) Your login info is the same as your eSembler/Munis Employee Self-Service login username and password. Username: information prior to symbol of the pasco address Default Password: Munis ID or eSembler password *If you have been in the system before, you will now log in with the username and password below to match what you are doing in myPGS *If you do not know your password, you can reset it here Reset Your eSembler/Munis Password (Links to an external site.)

District Finals Courses and How to Administer On the District Finals Canvas Page, there is a Searchable Database that aligns each course in the District to an assessment. This also tells you the type of administration that is expected. o Computer – Mandated to be on the computer There is a column that tells you if there are audio files on the test o Paper – You will receive paper copies, but always have the option to do on the computer There is also a Semester 1 District Finals Spreadsheet that only focuses on Semester 1 Courses

Parent Letter Template Provided in both English and Spanish Customizable to your school’s needs Can be found under the District Finals Resouces icon It is the expectation of the district that each student receives a Parent Letter to go home prior to testing.

Timeline District Finals Timeline can be found under the District Finals Resources icon. Answer Sheets and Tests Delivered to Schools for Fall Semester District Finals Printer and Warehouse Monday, December 7, 2015 and Tuesday December 8, 2015 Fall Semester District Finals Become Available to Schools in UNIFY ARMMonday, December 07, 2015 Students Complete Fall Semester District Finals Schools Tuesday, January 5, Thursday, January 14, 2016 Scanning of All Answer Sheets Complete SchoolsFriday, January 15, 2016 Grades Entered into eSemblerTeachersTuesday, January 19, 2016

Security

Security Agreement Information It is required that all Assessment Coordinators and Test Administrators (teacher or proctor) that are involved in the administration of District Finals complete our District Security Agreement Can be found on District Finals Canvas Page They will first have to enroll in the course and then complete the Security Agreement. If you would like a report of those at your school who have completed the Security Agreement as of a certain date, please Mary Ch-Hab at

District Finals Administration Record/Security Checklist For every testing group, a District Finals Administration Record/Security Checklist must be completed. Serves as: o Record of check-in/check-out of materials o Roster with passwords o Accommodations tracker o Attendance record Can be found under the District Finals Resources icon You are to keep these documents for a year after the testing window is complete.

Secure Testing Environment All students should be assessed in a secure testing environment. When administering a Paper-Based Test, students must be seated at least 3 feet apart. When administering a Computer-Based Test, students should be arranged in a way that limits the access to view one another’s computer. All electronic devices should be turned off and out of reach of students. All content specific resources should be cleared from the testing environment, and all materials should be accounted for prior to students leaving the environment.

Testing Ratio To follow the model of the FLDOE testing ratios we are requiring a ratio of: 1 trained staff per 25 students for Computer-Based Testing 1 trained staff per 30 students for Paper-Based Testing teachers may administer assessments to their own students for their own courses

Materials

Materials Check-In/Check-out Each day the Assessment Coordinator is expected to organize the check-out and check-in process for those Test Administrators giving an assessment that day. The District Finals Administration Record/Security Checklist must be used to record those materials that have been checked-out and checked-in each day. If any materials are missing, the Missing Materials Sheet found under the District Finals Resources icon, must be completed and returned to at the end of the testing window

Materials Delivery and Pick-up Delivery All Paper-Based Test materials (including Pre-Slugged Answer Sheets and Test Booklets) will be delivered by either the printer (Test Booklets) or Courier (Answer Sheets) by December 8, 2015 for the Fall Testing Window Pick-up All tests and answer sheets must be boxed and labelled “To Be Destroyed” using the provided labels. These boxes will be picked up by the Warehouse on January 28 and 29 from your schools for the Fall Testing window. These boxes must be securely located at the Plant Manager’s Office for pick-up to occur. All other testing documentation (scripts, District Finals Administration Record/Security Checklists, seating charts, etc.) should be stored at the school level for a year after the testing window is complete.

Scripts A script will be provided via the District Finals Canvas page under the District Finals Resources icon for both Elementary and Secondary levels for CBT and PBT. Each Test Administrator must be provided a script and must read verbatim from the script.

Administration

Assessment Coordinator Responsibilities Oversee overall administration Ensure security Ensure students are getting the correct assessment for the correct length of time Ensure students are receiving required accommodations Ensure all students data is present

Scheduling Considerations District Finals are designed to be given within a specific length of time listed below: o Middle School – 40 minute assessment in a 50 minute assessment period o High School – 80 minute assessment in a 90 minute assessment period A District Final should be given within one sitting. There is no limit as to how many District Finals a student can take in one day

Test by Enrollment It is essential that students are assessed according to the course in which they are enrolled. Each District Final will be named with the specific course to which it is attached. You can use PascoSTAR to help verify enrollment of students by pulling accurate course rosters. We have provided a PDF with step-by-step directions on how to do this under the District Finals Resources icon.

Required Length of Enrollment If a student is currently enrolled in a semester length course, it is our recommendation that a student only be required to take a District Final for that course if they have been enrolled in the course for at least one quarter. If a student is currently enrolled in a yearlong course, it is our recommendation that a student only be required to take a District Final for that course if they have been enrolled in that course for at least one semester. If a student does not meet the required length of enrollment in a course to take a District Final, it is up to the discretion of the teacher and administration of the school to determine what alternative will be given in lieu of the District Final for that course.

Accommodations As with any assessment, all accommodations required by a students’ IEP or 504 must be provided. The accommodations provided and if it was used must be documented on the District Finals Administration Record/Security Checklist, which can be found on the District Finals Resource Page under the District Finals Resource icon. Also, the Test Administrator will record that the accommodation was provided to the student and if the accommodation was actually used by the student when taking the assessment.

Oral Presentation The test must be read by a person, the computer cannot appropriately read the material to satisfy the accommodation requirement. For ELA tests (K-2 Humanities, English 3, and English 4), please follow the Oral Presentation Guidelines found on the District Finals Canvas page under the District Finals Resources icon. For all other District Finals, the entire assessment may be read to the student if necessary.

Extended Time Follow all specified time limits listed. If the students IEP or 504 simply states they should receive Extended Time, we will adhere to the state’s model of no more than half of the school day.

Paper-Based Materials If an assessment is required to be on the computer, we will provide an ESE Accommodated version of the assessment, when necessary. If the student needs a specific paper-based assessment (Braille, large print, color contrast, etc.) that you cannot provide at the school, we will work with each school to provide this for the student. All accommodated paper-based materials can be requested by completing the Accommodated Paper- Based Materials Form at: This form can also be accessed through the District Finals Canvas page by clicking on the Paper-Based Materials Request icon. This form must be completed by Friday, November 13, 2015 to receive materials by the Fall Testing Window

Online Administration The Assessment Coordinator is responsible for ensuring all work stations are ready and updated to meet the minimum tech specs required for using Performance Matters. o These will be handled through Caspar if your stations are connected through Caspar. Students will log-in using the aplus/aplus district testing profile on the computer. Students can use a desktop or laptop (no iPads at this time). Also, Assessment Coordinators must Release all tests to students at a minimum of the beginning of testing window and Unrelease them at the end of the testing window. If an Assessment Coordinator chooses, they could Release/Unrelease as often as they would like. Students must click Exit when ending a test. If they don’t, they will be stuck In Progress and won’t receive a grade. It is the responsibility of the Assessment Coordinator to ensure all students’ tests are closed out and no students are sitting In Progress using the OLA Student Admin (now in UNIFY).

Online Testing Student Prepartion FAMILIARIZATION WITH THE ASSESSMENT PLATFORM IS ONLY REQUIRED IF THE STUDENT IS TAKING A COMPUTER-BASED ASSESSMENT, NOT A PAPER-BASED ASSESSMENT. o Online Video OR o OLA Tool Test

Paper Administration Every school will receive test booklets for all assessments not mandated to be taken on the computer (per the Searchable Database) based off of enrollment in TERMS. Schools will also receive pre-slugged answer sheets for each student for all paper-based assessments; including a few extra blank answer sheets for each test. The Assessment Coordinator will be responsible for checking in and checking out these materials the day of each testing. They will also be responsible for recording any missing materials.

Paper Administration Students may write in test booklets and blank areas of answer sheets. Although we recommend using a pencil, any writing utensil may be used on the answer sheets. All answer sheets must be scanned using the RICOH copy machine at the school the day the student took the test.

Grading/Scanning

District Thresholds Within myProgress (Performance Matters), the reports for local assessments use color coded achievement bands. The achievement bands are color coded following the below ranges: Red: 0-49% Yellow: 50-79% Green: %

Grading Procedures School based decision on how they will count towards student grade, but must count for something. Based on school-level input and a desire to provide flexibility to schools, we will recommend the removal of the requirement for a weighted semester exam for all weighted level courses (i.e. Honors, AP) from the Student Progression Plan. Instead, this will become a decision made at the school site and agreed upon between administrators and teachers. We recommend that administrators work with PLCs to promote consistency within each building. This does not require a change from current practice, but does allow a school to consider this as an option. This does not have any implications for Dual Enrollment courses. NOTE: A teacher may use the District Finals as a grade for a weighted course.

Make-up Procedures Make-up exams should be scheduled and administered prior to grades being due for that grading period. When a make-up is not able to be given a grade should be assigned in accordance to the Excused Absence Policy in the SPP for the school year.

Scanning Procedures If a school chooses to use Paper-Based Test Administration, it is the school’s responsibility to scan all answer sheets the day the students take the assessment using your RICOH copy machine. The school can structure the scanning of answer sheets however they choose. They can assign one person to this task, a team of people, or have each teacher trained to scan in their answer sheets per class. It is recommended that as answer sheets are scanned, a log is completed to help keep track of all scanned documents to track any errors. o We have provided you a Scan Log template to print and use for this purpose located on the District Finals Resource Canvas page under the District Finals Resources icon. All other step-by-step directions on scanning can be found under the Performance Matters icon on the District Finals Canvas page.

ScanView It is the responsibility of the Assessment Coordinator to monitor the scans for errors using ScanView asco.k12.fl.us. If a blank answer sheet is accidentally scanned, please contact ARM to have that student’s score removed from the system. asco.k12.fl.us

Administering Online

Preparing the Lab for Testing Post the generic student computer login information in a visible location: Username: aplus Password: aplus Post a reminder that students must click on the EXIT icon before closing Performance Matters to submit their test.

Student Login Students will first log in to the computer using the generic logins provided: Username: aplus Password: aplus The above logins will take the students to a streamlined desktop. First the student opens the “Spring-like” or “world” icon.

Student Log-in This will take them to the Test Launch Page. They will then select the Performance Matters District Finals Icon.

Student Login (cont’d) Log into Performance Matters Student Login: student number example: Password: district password example: Crazy13# Password is case sensitive with a capitol letter as the first letter of the password.

Student Log-in You can access the student login information from the LDAP synchbridge or now in PascoSTAR The School ICT has access to this information Having student login information printed and accessible will make testing day go much smoother!

Testing All available tests will appear on the student’s Welcome Screen. Click on the test name to begin the test.

Summary of Symbols This screen will display a quick summary of the buttons available to students during the test. The test administrator may want to provide a printed page of these buttons for quick reference.

Start Screen The start screen displays the number of questions on the test and any special instructions. Note the Start button.

Navigation Answer each question. Use the Next and Previous buttons to navigate through the questions. In the top right-hand corner are any tools selected to appear for this test.

Pause and Resume If you need to stop the test, but aren’t ready to submit it for scoring, click Pause. You will be taken back to the welcome screen. Click the test name when you are ready to begin again. A summary of where you left off will appear. Just click Start to resume the test.

Finishing the test When you reach the last question on the test, you will see a Stop button. Click Stop after you’ve answered the last question.

Summary of Test Status A summary of your test status will appear, listing any questions left unanswered. Return to an unanswered question by clicking on it.

Testing (cont’d) To submit the test for grading, students must click the EXIT icon in the bottom right corner of the last screen. Once a student clicks EXIT, the test will no longer be available to them. If a student needs to complete a test at a later time, they can click the PAUSE icon.

Testing Session Expires

Testing (cont’d) Once exiting the test, students should log out of Performance Matters by clicking the Log Out icon. Timesaving Tip: When students logout, the log in screen reappears and will be ready for your next class!

Troubleshooting Green – Good Connectivity, answers are being saved Yellow – Connectivity is intermittent, answers may be saved Red – No Connectivity, answers are not being saved Tech Specs ***Always use most updated version of browswer

After Testing Log-in to Performance Matters and unrelease the test in Test Center at the end of the testing window. You can re-release tests to classes or individual students through Test Center at any time during the testing window.

Housekeeping – VERY IMPORTANT! To verify that all students submitted their tests correctly, log in to Performance Matters and go to OLA Student Admin. Students who have submitted the test correctly will appear under Finished, Not Loaded or Finished, Loaded. If a student appears in In Progress and they will not be finishing the test at a later time, check their name and click Mark Complete. *note that test results may not be accurate in this view, 24 hours after testing, you can view results in reports*

Administering Paper & Pencil

Prior to Testing All tests and answer sheets will be printed at the district level and distributed to your schools. You will need to organize assessments by proctor/testing room to be distributed. If you need additional blank answer sheets for any reason, please see process on the next slide.

Helpful Tips Please remind students not to fold, bend, staple the answer sheet. Students should not make any stray marks on the paper. If students mark in the QR code area, the answer sheet will not scan! Students can use any writing utensil (pen/pencil).

Sample Answer Sheet

After Testing All materials will be sent back to the district, to the Office of Accountability, Research, and Measurement. Please box answer sheets separately from test booklets and any other additional resources. Keep answer sheets sorted by course.

Questions? If you have any questions regarding District Finals, contact Amanda Phillips at ext or If you have any questions regarding materials and inventory contact Mary Ch-hab at ext or If you have any questions regarding Performance Matters Platform, contact Rebecca Musselman at ext or