1. Test Security Policies , Procedures and Best Practices
Lake County Schools
Lake County Schools Testing Department

2. Lake County Schools requires security training for all personnel involved in state and district testing. This training will provide district & state policies regarding test security in an effort to ensure the integrity of all testing in Lake County Schools, as well as to protect teachers, proctors and students throughout the testing process.

3. Test Security Policies and Procedures
Florida State Board of Education Rule 6A , FAC, was developed to meet the requirements of the Test Security Statute, s , F.S., and applies to anyone involved in the administration of a statewide assessment. The Rule prohibits activities that may threaten the integrity of the test.
Inappropriate actions can result in student or classroom invalidation and/or loss of teaching certification.

4. Test Security Policies and Procedures
All school personnel, including itinerant teachers and proctors, must receive thorough training in test administration and security policies and procedures, familiarize themselves with all relevant content of the test administration manual(s), read the Statute and Rule in the state provided testing manual, and then sign a Test Administration and Security Agreement.
All test administrators must be certified educators and must read and sign the Test Administrator Prohibited Activities Agreement.
School assessment coordinators must maintain an accurate Test Materials Chain of Custody Form for all paper tests.

5. Test Administration
and
Security Agreement

6. Test Administration and Security Agreement
Only required to be signed one time a year and covers Florida Standards Assessments, FCAT 2.0, and EOC’s.
Florida State Board of Education Rule 6A , FAC, was developed to meet the requirements of the Test Security Statute, s , F.S., and applies to anyone involved in the administration of a statewide assessment.
The Rule prohibits activities that may threaten the integrity of the test.
The Florida Test Security Statute and State Board of Education Rule are located in the appendices of each test administration manual.

7. Test Administration and Security Agreement
Example of Prohibited activities:
Reading or viewing passages or test items
Revealing the passages or test items
Copying the passages or test items
Explaining or reading passages or test items for students
Changing or otherwise interfering with student responses to test items
Copying or reading student responses
Causing achievement of schools to be inaccurately measured or reported
*If any of the above examples are allowable accommodations for students with current IEPs, Section 504 plans, or ELL plans, test administrators are permitted to provide the accommodation(s) as described in the appendix of each test administration manual.

8. Test Administration and Security Agreement
All personnel are prohibited from examining or copying the test items and /or the contents of the test. The security of all test materials must be maintained before, during, and after the test administration.
Please remember that after ANY administration, initial OR make-up, materials must be returned immediately to the school assessment coordinator and placed in locked storage.
Secure materials should not remain in classrooms or be taken out of the building overnight.

9. Test Administration and Security Agreement
The use of untrained test administrators increases the risk of test invalidation due to test irregularities or breaches in test security. Inappropriate actions by district or school personnel will result in further investigation, possible loss of teaching certification, and possible involvement of law enforcement agencies.
Therefore:
No person will be allowed to administer or proctor a test in Lake County until officially trained by their School Testing Coordinator.

10. Test Administration and Security Agreement
This what you are agreeing to when you sign this form:
I, _______________________________, understand that I must receive adequate training regarding the administration of statewide assessments and read the information and instructions provided in all applicable sections of the relevant test administration manual(s), including the Florida Test Security Statute and State Board of Education Rule. I agree to follow all test administration and security procedures outlined in the manual(s), Statute, and Rule.
Further, I will not reveal or disclose any information about the test items or engage in any acts that would violate the security of statewide assessments or cause student achievement to be inaccurately represented.

11. Protect Yourself!
FLDOE provides the Lake County School Testing Department with yearly training materials for all FSA ELA/Math, FCAT 2.0 Science, and EOC tests.
Lake County School testing personnel train school test coordinators and provide the training presentation used to train test administrators and proctors
If you feel that you have not been adequately trained by your school or district test coordinator, you have the right to ask that further training or clarification be given to you before you administer or proctor a test
Simply ing the Training is NOT considered adequate training

12. Prohibited Activities
Test Administrator
Prohibited Activities
Agreement

13. Test Administrator Prohibited Activities Agreement
It is important for you, as a test administrator of a statewide assessment, to know that the following activities are prohibited. Engaging in such activities may result in an investigation, loss of teaching certification, and/or prosecution for violation of the law.
I understand that before testing I may not:
Leave test materials unattended
Remove test materials from the school’s campus
Open and check through test books
Read test items
Copy, photocopy, or photograph test content

14. Test Administrator Prohibited Activities Agreement
I understand that during testing I may not:
Read test items or student responses as I monitor the room
Assist students in answering test items
Give students verbal cues (“you may want to re-check number 7”) or non-verbal cues (pointing at a specific item)
Give students more time than is allotted for the session (unless a student has an extended time accommodation)
Encourage students to finish early
Display or fail to cover visual aids (e.g., word lists, multiplication tables) that may help students
Use my cell phone, check , grade papers, or engage in other activities that will result in my attention not being on students at all times

15. Test Administrator Prohibited Activities Agreement
I understand that during testing I may not:
Leave the room unattended for any period of time
Allow students to talk or cause disturbances
Allow students to use cell phones or other electronic devices, even if they have already submitted their tests
Instruct students to test in a session other than the one designated for that day/allotted testing time (going on to Session 2 during Session 1, reviewing work in Session 1 during Session 2)
Coach students during testing regarding test-taking strategies
Administer the assessment to my family members

16. Test Administrator Prohibited Activities Agreement
I understand that after testing I may not:
Leave test materials unattended
Remove test materials from the school’s campus
Read through student test documents
Change student answers
Discuss the content of the test with anyone, including students or other school personnel
Reveal the content of the test via electronic communication, including but not limited to , text, or post to social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.)

17. Test Administrator Prohibited Activities Agreement
If you are administering a test(s) to students with flexible-responding or flexible-presentation accommodations that require you to read test items, you may not:
reveal, copy, or share the items, or use the test content during instruction after testing.

18. What Would You Do?
Best Practices on how to protect yourself, your fellow educators, proctors and students

19. While proctoring the state test you notice the test administrator tapping student’s answer books while they are testing.

20. You are administering a test with a fellow teacher in the computer lab
You are administering a test with a fellow teacher in the computer lab. The teacher points to a student’s computer screen and says, “No choose this.”

21. You witness a test administrator responding ‘yes’ or ‘no’ as students signal with their fingers 1, 2, 3 or 4 while they test.

22. You walk in the teacher or test coordinators room and see them erasing in students’ test booklets.

23. Scenarios: Common Misperceptions …and Best Practices to limit investigations based on misperceptions

24. Scenario 1 You CAN: Encourage a student to “keep working” You CANNOT:
While proctoring the state test you notice the test administrator tapping student’s answer books while they are testing.
Finding After Investigation:
Teacher was redirecting students to focus on the test did not provide answers or ask students to ‘recheck’ answers.
You CAN:
Encourage a student to “keep working”
You CANNOT:
Point to a question and ask the student to ‘answer this one’ or ‘check this one’
Best Practice:
Don’t tap on a student’s desk or test while they are testing

25. Scenario 2
You are administering a test with a fellow teacher in the computer lab. The teacher points to a student’s computer screen and says, “No, choose this.”
Finding After Investigation:
Teacher was showing student how to go to ‘exit and submit’ properly.
You CAN:
Assist students that ask for help with computer navigation issues, ex. ‘How do I submit my test?’ ‘How do I go to the next question?’
You CANNOT:
Point to a specific question and tell a student to ‘check this one’
Help a student choose a answer
Best Practice:
Not to touch a student’s computer screen. Instead, verbally instruct them ‘click the arrow bottom right that says- submit’ ‘click where it says- next’
Do NOT take a student’s mouse and click something for them during the test

26. Scenario 3
You witness a test administrator responding ‘yes’ or ‘no’ as students signal with their fingers 1, 2, 3 or 4 while they test.
Finding After Investigation:
Teacher was using signaling system that she normally did in class to communicate with students. 1 was need to go to bathroom, 2 was need to get water etc.
You CAN:
Have non-verbal signals that you utilize daily in the classroom setting
and use them during the test
You CANNOT:
Make gestures to students that would indicate an answer to a question or
help them figure out the answer to a question
Best Practice:
Inform your proctor of the non-verbal system being used BEFORE test begins

27. Scenario 4
You walk in the teacher or test coordinators room and see them erasing in students’ test booklets.
Finding After Investigation:
Person erased demographic info that was bubbled incorrectly.
You CAN:
Erase stray marks ONLY on the student demographic page
You CANNOT:
Erase on any page with student responses (questions or essay)
Best Practice:
Let the school test coordinator make any erasing needed on demographic area of students test book
Teachers not to erase ANYTHING on a student’s test*
*If the test administrator allows students to bubble the demographic information on the test books, the test coordinator may require that he/she erase the information WHILE they monitor that the demographic page is all that is being erased

28. If you are concerned that a security breach may have occurred
DO:
Ask for clarification of action that is suspect
Contact the test coordinator if you still suspect security was breached
DO NOT:
Discuss the issue with anyone other than the test coordinator and principal
Anonymously report security breaches
Best Practice:
Meet with your test administrator/proctor prior to testing and discuss classroom procedures

29. Scenarios: Security Breaches

30. Security Breaches Examples:
You hear someone give an answer to a student:
Report the breach to the test coordinator and principal per school policy/process
Do not mention or discuss the issue with ANYONE else
You see someone copying a test book or writing down test questions from the test:
You hear teachers discussing test questions after the test:

31. Bottom Line
School Administrator needs to develop mandatory test security reporting procedures and protocols and ensure that they are followed
If you witness anyone violating test security or the prohibited activities agreement, YOU MUST report it to the test coordinator and principal per school policy and procedure
Do not discuss your report or concerns to anyone other that your test coordinator and principal

32. How a Student Reports a Problem with a Test Question
If a student reports to the test administrator that they believe there is an error with a question (Ex. “there isn’t a right answer”):
DO:
Encourage the student to re-read the question
If they still believe the question is flawed, tell them that you will report their concern to the proper people and have them look into it
Ask the student for the number of the question and the reason they feel it’s flawed
Assure the student that someone will look into the matter and if they find the question is indeed flawed, the question will NOT count against their score or any student’s score
Give the information to the School Test Coordinator, who will pass it along to the District Test Coordinator to give to FDOE for investigation
DO NOT:
Work the problem to see if the student is correct
Send the question via to anyone to ‘check this question to see if there is a problem with it’
Have the student write down the problem so you can submit it to someone to check later

33. Protecting Students
Allowing students to cheat is also considered a security breach and should be reported
Caveon is a company hired by FDOE to examine student answer patterns and erasures after each test.
Lake County has students each year, each test administration, whose scores are invalidated due to similar answer patterns. The student will show an NR8 where a score should be. That means the state invalidated the score.
There is an appeals process but if students were sitting side by side, which is the case in 99% of the time, it is hard to prove cheating did not occur
FDOE requires test administrators to write up a report of what occurred during testing even if a parent/students does not appeal
Best Practice: Circulate during testing, watch students and warn them before testing that if they cheat, their scores will be invalidated.

34. What to watch for…

35. Erasures
Caveon also conducts erasure analysis on all paper based tests
The report will show how many students changed an answer from right to wrong, wrong to right and wrong to wrong
If the FDOE determines that the threshold is reached in percentages of erasures for a school, FDOE will assign the school an ‘I’ grade until the investigation is complete and a determination is made as to whether students made the erasures or someone else or if students were encouraged to change their answers
There has been discussion of computer based testing answer patterns being analyzed by Caveon

36. Erasures Best Practice
Teachers DO NOT erase anything on student answer booklets or tests unless directed by and in the presence of the test coordinator
Put the time of day each time you sign tests in an out
Inform the test coordinator if any erasure/s are needed on the student’s demographic page
Never tell a student to erase something on an answer booklet
What if a student is using an answer sheet and discovers that he/she miss-bubbled or skipped an answer and needs to erase multiple answers to re-bubble correctly?
Inform the test coordinator after testing
Write a brief statement as to what occurred- Include student name and test booklet barcode
Test coordinator- file the statement with other required testing documentation at the school

37. Questions