February 18, 2010 Randy Craven

NCRegistration This session will review NCRegistration, its recent changes (noted with asterisks *), and features being worked on. The session will solicit new ideas and feature requests from users.

Background NCRegistration is a secure distributed online test and data collection management system. It is used to register students, schedule test sessions, collect data, and produce reports on a select group of assessments in North Carolina. NCRegistration was first used during the school year

Background (continued) NCRegistration is a web application accessed by an up-to- date web browser NCRegistration shares data with testing servers so that students can be given access to online tests. NCRegistration is for use by persons responsible for administration of the testing program in North Carolina including Regional Accountability Coordinators (RACs) Local Education Agency (LEA) Test Coordinators (TCs), and School Test Coordinators (STCs).

Data Sharing NCRegistration shares data with testing systems (database servers used to manage online testing) so that students can be given access to online tests by NCRegistration users. NCRegistration also shares data with data collection systems (e.g., NCEXTEND1) in order to process off-line assessments.

Major Features Assessment Selection School Information Management User Administration Student Registration Student Information Questions (SIQs) Session Management Reporting Help PDF of manual located from the help menu Online useable copy of the manual from the help menu

Assessment Selection Active assessments are available from the Assessments menu Some menus act independently from the assessment selected Schools Users Some assessments also have a Type* associated with a testing window (season) and Regular Retest 1 Retest 2 (to be discontinued summer 2010)

Schools Menu The Schools menu permits management of schools listed (by RACs only) Students display if they have been registered at any time during the accountability year View students listed by school View which assessments students are registered Can edit or delete students from schools

User Management Global system function – Not tied to the Assessments menu Hierarchal logic NCRegistration Administrators Regional Accountability Cooridnators (RACs) LEA Test Coordinators (TCs) School Test Coordinators (STCs) School Test Administrators (STAs) Teachers, Educators, other special purpose Top down administration Only STC and STA type accounts can be used to log students into an online test

User Management Rights Rights that can be controlled (allowed/not granted): User Management Rights: Add System Users Modify System Users Delete/Disable System Users Grant/Revoke User Rights Student Management Rights: Add Student Modify Student Record Delete/Disable Student Record Load Students from Pre-code File Answer SIQs Test Session Management Rights: Reserve a Test Session Modify a Test Session Reservation Login Students for Test Application Access Rights: Access NCEXTEND1 Access Writing Instruction System

Students Menu Registration of Students Scho0l districts/schools use the system to indicate students who are eligible for testing Student Information Questions (SIQs) Registration of students for certain assessments require additional data to be collected prior to being ready for a test session. Without this data entered the student will not show on lists to choose from on getting started with an online test.

Test Sessions - Windows A testing window exists for each assessment within NCRegistration that is calendar based – not rule based. The testing window that drives NCRegistration is based on the state testing calendar, but is not the state testing calendar. Your testing calendar may be different based on the state calendar and rules established that influence your testing calendar.

Test Sessions - Management Session Management is for scheduling test administrations within predefined testing sessions for groups of students. The daily windows that test sessions can be scheduled for are periods of time that students can begin a test. Start time windows currently are: Early Moring 7:30 AM – 9:50 AM Mid Morning 10:00 AM – 11:50 AM Afternoon Noon – 6:30 PM* There is a 30 minute ‘grace’ login period for getting online tests started. There is a 90 minute test session timeout for students

Test Session Management Testing Servers have session capacities set to ensure that they do not get overloaded. Session capacity indicators show during setting a session or editing a session Sessions must be set and student SIQs must be completed at least one day prior to the administration Sessions can be edited (moved, number changed) prior to the day of the test Sessions for EOC cannot be edited on the day of the session (it’s locked) Sessions for Writing can be edited on the day of the session* For EOC -- only the number of students registered can have sessions scheduled for an assessment Unused sessions are recovered automatically overnight

Reports Menu Student Completion shows how many students have started/finished CSV – preliminary score report (LEA TCs and higher only) Winscan Format – for importing data into Winscan to get reports (LEA TCs and higher only) Test Sessions – show how many sessions scheduled and when SIQ completion reports show if students can or cannot start a test based on SIQ data entry

Other New Features* Writing project specific Bulk upload of writing scores On-demand scores bulk upload format changed Help documentation updated ( )

Things being worked on Item Tryout implementation Direct pull of data from NCDPI to automatically populate student registrations Session scheduling to work like Writing (no start time windows) New menu system – the current one does not work well with some newer web browsers Clearing of rolled over student registrations from summer 2010 Computer Skills. User account integration with TNN User account integration with NCID and/or Federations for Single Sign On logic.

Questions Suggestions Request Changes Request Additional Features