Mississippi Science Test, Second Edition (MST2) Open Labs April 16, 2015 April 21, 2015 April 28, 2015

Agenda 1. Important Dates for MST2 2. Online Validation and Proctor Caching Activities 3. Communication about Java 4. Online Validation Steps and Resources 5. Common Questions 6. Important Reminders for MST2 7. Question and Answer Session 2

Important 2015 Dates for MST2  February 23–27, 2015: Delivery of MST2 Ancillaries DTC, STC, PearsonAccess User Guide and Test Administrator Manuals.  March 23–May 1, 2015: Additional Order Window Verify/adjust orders for large print, Braille, Read-aloud, and any additional testing materials needed.  April (entire month): Site Readiness activities by Technology Coordinators  April 13–17, 2015: Secure test materials will be delivered to districts that placed orders by April 3. All other materials will be shipped as orders are placed. 3

Test Administration and UPS Pickup Dates for MST2  April 13–May 1, 2015: Online Validation and Proctor Caching Window. Note: MST2 and SATP2 uses PearsonAccess and TestNav 7.5 for spring  May 4–15, 2015: Grades 5 and 8 Online Test Administration Window.  May 19–20, 2015: UPS Pickup of ALL Online test administration materials (all non-scorable booklets). Note: This is the same timeline that SATP2 materials will be picked up. Keep the programs separated when packing. Remember that many districts will have scorables (answer documents) for SATP2 and these boxes have to be sent overnight to Pearson. 4

Site Readiness Checklist 1. Identify Technology Coordinators 2. Configure firewall, content filter, proxy server and spam filter 3. Identify the testing rooms and workstations to be used for testing. Please note that for TestNav 7.5, iPads and Chromebooks cannot be used as testing workstations. 4. Identify the proctor caching machine(s) and install ProctorCache 5. Complete SystemCheck tests to verify testing workstations and number of concurrent testers supported using proctor caching 6. Update testing workstations to comply with TestNav hardware / software requirements 7. Enter TestNav configuration(s) in PearsonAccess site 5

Technology Resources Setup Documents & Training found on PearsonAccess > Support Tab > User Documentation link  PearsonAccess Hardware and Software Guidelines  TestNav 7 Technology Guidelines  TestNav 7 Proctor Caching User Guide  TestNav 7 Proctor Caching Quick Start Guide  TestNav 7 Proctor Caching Verification Quick Start Guide  TestNav 7 32/64 Bit Browser Configuration  SystemCheck for TestNav  Online Training #2 and Online Training #2 PowerPoint Presentation: (This recording and PowerPoint presentation provides step-by-step guidelines of how to set up systems successfully for online testing.) Resource Documents for Use During the Testing Window  TestNav 7 Early Warning System User Guide 6

TestNav Support Tools and Services TestNav includes a range of complementary tools, functions, and services that help ensure a smooth, consistent, and reliable online testing experience for school IT personnel, test administrators and monitors, and students. SystemCheck tool Proctor Caching software TestNav Early Warning System 7

Java and Flash Java and Flash are 3 rd party software applications required for TestNav 7.5. Updates may periodically occur and information related to the updates can be found on the Technical Bulletin page linked from the Hardware and Software Requirements for TestNav 7.5 and Proctor Caching page.Technical BulletinHardware and Software Requirements for TestNav 7.5 and Proctor Caching Generally, we do not recommend updating testing computers during a test administration; however, some environments may require an update to allow access to Java and Flash. Schools not actively participating in an administration should ensure that all testing devices have been updated with the newest versions of Flash and Java, and are able to run a successful SystemCheck. 8

SystemCheck Tool Location 9 Available from the MS PearsonAccess website; no need to login Select: Support > User Documentation > Page 2 > System Check Tool

SystemCheck for TestNav SystemCheck helps district and school technology personnel better assess the overall “readiness” of their local network for online testing. 10 Checks 3rd party software and screen resolution Complete on all testing machines at least 1 month prior to testing

SystemCheck for TestNav Network User Capacity Tab Measures network user capacity Complete 1 month prior for each testing network 11

TestNav Proctor Caching Proctor caching is:  Pearson-supplied software used in conjunction with TestNav to reduce bandwidth requirements and accelerate the delivery of test content;  used to enhance the performance of existing technology in schools; no additional hardware is required. Districts are required to utilize proctor caching. Districts who fail to proctor cache will place their schools and students at risk of technology failure during the test administration. This may impact schools ability to complete testing within the district’s approved time schedule. 12 Test content is served from a local computer instead of traveling from Pearson over the Internet. Proctor Caching enables smooth delivery of large numbers of student tests — even in a low-bandwidth network environment.

Benefit of Proctor Caching 13 When properly used, caching or proxy solutions can reduce the load of data traffic that online assessments place on the network capacity When testing begins, multiple streams of identical, redundant data can clog up and overwhelm the system or school network

Proctor Caching Installer Installers for Mac and PC environments are available on the Support tab of the Resources page. Installation generally takes less than 5 minutes. If you have already installed Proctor Caching for PARCC, you can use the same installation for MST2 and SATP2 online assessments without reinstalling.

Early Warning System - During Testing Resource TestNav is designed to tolerate interruptions in Internet service and to safeguard against lost or inaccurate student response data. The Early Warning System (EWS) is integrated functionality that gives TestNav a high degree of fault tolerance and provides additional fail-safes in the event of unexpected network disruptions during online testing. 15

Online Validation Activities Complete these steps as early as possible: 1. Confirm student list 2. Confirm the students are in a Group (Science Test or custom name for score reports) 3. Confirm the students have a test assigned (Grades 5 or 8 Science) 4. Create test sessions and add students to the sessions 5. Ensure Proctor Cache software is installed and pre-cache content Please note: Step-by-Step instructions along with screenshots may be found in the following manuals:  2015 MST2 DTC Manual – pages  2015 MST2 STC Manual – pages

Support/Resource Documents DTC, STC and Test Administrator Manuals 17

Support/Resource Documents User Documentation & Training Tab 18

Common Questions During the Validation/Registration Window Sessions set up as of : Grade 5: 1605 sessions with 25,773 students Grade 8: 1364 sessions with 24,767 students Questions commonly received from the districts and schools (These questions and answers along with recording links for sessions 1 and 2 are available on PearsonAccess > Support > User Documentation link). 19

Important Tasks During Testing The three MST2 manuals contain important information to follow during testing:  The 2015 DTC Manual – pages  The 2015 STC Manual – pages  The 2015 Test Administrator Manual – pages Common questions during testing (These questions and answers along with recording links for sessions 1 and 2 are available on PearsonAccess > Support > User Documentation link). 20

Important Reminders for MST2 1. Refer to mini-recorded trainings for demonstrations on completing steps in PearsonAccess 2. Practice Using ePAT (electronic practice assessment tool) 3. 3 hour time limit: Time begins when students actually start the test, not when the Test Administrator is reading the directions. TestNav will not shut down once the students reaches their 3 hour limit. 21

Questions? 22

Support PearsonAccess Support Center Monday through Friday 6:00 a.m.–7:30 p.m., Central Time 23