TESTING SECURITY Ohio Law (Ohio Administrative Code 3301.0710) OHIO’S STATE TESTS 2016-2017 TESTING SECURITY Ohio Law (Ohio Administrative Code 3301.0710)

TESTING SECURITY one of the most important responsibilities of test coordinators, test administrators, monitors, proctors and teachers is maintaining test security; at all times, the district’s and the state’s written procedures for protecting secure test information must be followed; test security is vital to the successful administration of the tests; all district and school personnel are responsible for ensuring the security of the individual test questions; the responsibility to maintain the security of the test questions continues even after the test concludes.

Security Violations Before and during test administration describing the test questions in an email, or discussing the test questions with anyone; standing over a student who is taking the test and indicating in some manner that the student’s answer is incorrect, blank or deficient; coaching a student in any manner to indicate the correct answer or any answer; posting any portion of the test content and/or a student response on social media before, during or after the test administration.

Security Violations, cont. After the administration: marking, tampering with or contaminating a student’s responses in any way, unless by a scribe or test administrator with permission to transcribe the student’s responses with no changes; failing to collect any scratch paper that was provided to and used by students during a test that contains student writing and delivering to the building test administrator for secure shredding; failing to account for and return any secure paper test materials; discussing test questions with colleagues or students after the test has been administered, which may affect students who are tested on a later day;

Security Violation Occurs At any point, if personnel believe that a violation of test security has occurred, he or she should contact the building test coordinator about the alleged test security violation. The building test coordinator should report the alleged security violation to the district test coordinator. The district test coordinator will contact the department to discuss the situation. Information on reporting test incidents to the department is available in the Ohio Statewide Assessment Rules Book. http://www.education.ohio.gov

Additional Test Security Resource The Office of Curriculum and Assessment has developed a resource and reference guide for test security, Guidelines and Procedures: Maintaining Test Security and Reporting Testing Incidents (in the Ohio’s State Tests Rules Book) This resource was developed in consultation with district staff familiar with testing issues from across Ohio, Ohio educational organizations, the department assessment staff and the department legal counsel. These guidelines shall be used in conjunction with specific test administration manuals in the event of a testing irregularity or testing incident. They shall also serve as a complement to test security training resources used by districts.

Electronic Device Policy for Test Administrators test administrators may have a cell phone for medical and technological emergencies, to use as a time keeper or to otherwise perform necessary test-related actions; test administrators must not use the cell phone for non-test related issues or personal issues; test administrators should be reminded to NEVER take photographs of students, tests, computers or the testing room during testing.

Electronic Device Policy for Students accessing an electronic device during testing is grounds for an invalidation; However, if cheating can be ruled out, the district may elect not to invalidate the test. if a student was observed having a cell phone out during or after the test session, it is important to determine if any test question, passage or prompt was photographed, texted or in any way compromised; in extreme cases where test questions, passages or prompts have been posted on any social medium, the district must immediately contact the Office of Curriculum and Assessment. District/school policy will determine if an invalidation is required for any other situation.

Social Media Sharing an image of a live test item or a description in words on social media or other public platforms is a test item security breach, as well as cheating. Sharing images of test items via Twitter, Instagram, or other public social media sites – or posting a description of, or basic information about test items – results in an unfair test environment. This can create an uneven playing field and give some students an advantage over others, and impairs the ability of schools to get valuable information about how students are performing. When the Office of Curriculum and Assessment become aware of a live test items that has been posted to public social media sites or elsewhere on the publicly-visible internet, it treats it as a potential breach of test item security. When the source is identified, the department works with the district to request the student who posted the items to remove it. Twitter, Facebook and other social media all have processes for requesting the removal of copyrighted material which are put into place when necessary. The test for the student who posted the secure matter must be invalidated and no breach will be issued. The district may be asked to conduct an investigation to determine if the test administrator was actively monitoring the testing session.

Penalty for Revealing Test Questions and Consequences of Test Security Violations ORC 3319.151 prohibits any person from revealing to students any test questions known to appear on a test students will take. Violation is grounds for suspension of a teaching license and/or termination of a teaching contract and employment. Any alleged assessment security violation of ORC 3319.151, or any unethical testing practice under OAC 3301-7-01, or any violation of the school’s security procedures under OAC 3301-13-05, is to be reported to the Office of Curriculum and Assessment as soon as the alleged violation becomes known to the school district or participating school.

Standards for the Ethical Use of Tests The State Board of Education has adopted rules of ethical practice for the use of tests and other tests. District and school personnel may reference OAC 3301-7-01 for standards concerning unethical or inappropriate practices that involve preparing students for tests, administering and scoring tests, and interpreting and/or using results. In addition to state testing, these standards apply to all school and district tests. The standards themselves are included in the Rules Book chapter on the administration of tests at this link and in test administration manuals at each grade level.

Test Administrator Criteria any person administering a test must be an employee of the district and hold a license, certificate or permit issued by the Ohio Department of Education; during every administration, a test administrator who meets these criteria must be in the room at all times; this person must actively monitor students to ensure test security; if the test administrator must leave the room in which the test is being administered, another test administrator who meets the criteria must be called to be in the test room;

Test Administrator, Proctor, Monitor Criteria the ratio for testing purposes is one test administrator to 30 students in any testing room; for any group of more than 30 students, a proctor or monitor must be in the room with the test administrator; the proctor or monitor is not required to meet the criteria for administering a test, but should be an employee of the district; a test administrator must be in each testing room, including rooms where small groups are administered the tests or where accommodations are provided.

Actively Monitor Test Sessions A test administrator must actively monitor the test session. This includes, but is not limited to the following: walking around the room (the test administrator may sit at the test administrator desk for short periods; making sure the students are taking the correct test; observing that students are not involved in activities that might be considered cheating; monitoring test completion per student; monitoring how much time is left in a test session and student test completion; and generally being involved with the test session.

Not Active Monitoring Behaviors These are not active monitoring behaviors: reviewing a test so closely that student responses are clearly examined; being involved with non-test administration activities such as grading papers, completing lesson plans or completing tasks on an electronic device for a non-test reason; leaving the students unattended while the test is still in session.

Additional Monitoring Procedures The department will continue to analyze results from the tests to help ensure valid and fair results for students and districts. The Office of Curriculum and Assessment, with guidance from a group of national testing experts, uses a variety of commonly accepted statistical and audit procedures to review and audit both test score data and individual test documents for any anomalies that may be related to testing irregularities. When anomalies appear in the data, districts may be contacted and asked to assist in reviewing and, if necessary, investigating the circumstances surrounding the anomalies. For instance, the audit procedures analyze and try to identify highly unlikely patterns of responses between students from the same classroom or school. Also, specific patterns of erasures and other marks on scannable documents may be examined. The department also will audit vendor testing records to ensure appropriate test participation and administration procedures are followed (e.g., testing at appropriate grade levels and no inappropriate “double testing” of students). The Office of Curriculum and Assessment and its testing vendors will continue to monitor the prompt return of all secure testing materials from each test administration by districts. Finally, the Office of Curriculum and Assessment may request permission from a district to observe and inspect test administration procedures in a given school Rules Book 74 building during a test administration window.

Test Security Power Point Posted on the SCS website