1/14/15 Informal DTC Webinar
Brad Lenhardt, Bryan Toller, Liz French, Amber Helvie, Kathleen Vanderwall, Olivia Padilla, Rachel Aazzerah, Cristen McLean, Jordan Hermens, Derek Brown, Holly Carter, Michelle McCoy, Steve Slater, Elizabeth Greenberg, Jessie McGraw
SLIDES 2 + 3
Jess: So we can skip through this slightly, but we do have a new format, so as a reminder we will be doing our quick reminders and topics at the front end and then we will answer all questions that are submitted throughout the session at the end. Feel free to click the hand icon to submit questions or just type them directly into the question box and we will get to them in the order that they are sent. We will begin with quick reminders.
SLIDE 4
Amber: Quick reminder on the KA reports, three were securely sent to the DTCs Tuesday night, including the student roster reports, the district student roster reports and the school summary, which is sorted by gender and ethnicity. Also, today at 8:30, the 2014-15 statewide kindergarten assessment results were posted to the Kindergarten resource webpage.
SLIDE 5
Holly: Another quick reminder if you go back to your December 18th AA update you’ll also find more information about each of these resources. We did, over winter break, post a series of promising practices and other resources available for districts to use in preparation for the Smarter Balanced assessments: Just to name a few we have two promising practices, one around administering classroom activities and another around developing local school level test schedules for Smarter Balanced. Those include sample schedules, they are certainly not all inclusive, but they should at least model what that process should look like for districts as they go through and come up with their own schedules. In addition, through the Smarter Balanced assessment webpage, through the technology link, there are a couple of resources that we also posted. One is a one pager test check that walks through how to use the practice test to make sure some of the particular technology reliance functionality and acceptability supports are functioning properly and that your system is ready for the testing. The other is a report summarizing the results of the technology capacity survey that we administered back in November. So those are all available from the ODE webpage. And in addition you’ll hear more details around this later from Rachel, but we also have put out a how to video that walks through administering a Smarter Balanced test session.
INFO POSTED ON SLIDE 4
Rachel:Also as an update, many of you have been anticipating and wanting to know where you’ll be accessing your classroom activities for the Smarter Balanced assessments. You’ll be accessing them through TIDE, please stay tuned for additional information in the AA update as well as we will send out on the DTC list serve, with screenshots at a later date, how to access those classroom activities, but you’ll be accessing them through TIDE for both the Math and ELA classroom activities for Smarter Balanced assessments.
SLIDES 5 + 7
Jess: And as a quick update we’re providing all of these informal DTC webinars at the link at the bottom of this page: So you’ll be able to access, this link for instance, probably within a week of it. It gives us time to transcribe it and then the PowerPoint slides will be available almost immediately. This is a test check document that we had previously referenced which is also available on the district coordinator site that we’ve also referenced. We have a couple participation opportunities for you. As a reminder the ELPA 21 field test registration closes this Friday, January 16. If you are interested in participating or want to learn more about the different incentives for participating, please contact Michelle McCoy.
Cristen: So we announced the building educator assessment literacy training through DTC list serve, through the super list serve, through a variety of channels. Those training events will be in Portland, Roseburg and Pendleton. The Portland location is full although we are accepting names for a waitlist, from the previously accepted applicants. So your district was already contacted about this, hopefully we’ve already heard from you or followed up on that. The Pendleton and Roseburg locations still have availability. So if you’re district has additional participants and would like to send them to these sites, please email me, if you have any questions about this training you can also email me.
BEAL is an acronym for Building Educator Assessment Literacy, the focus of this training is Smarter Balanced tasks and there are four breakout sessions, there’s an elementary math, elementary ELA, math secondary, ELA secondary.
SLIDES 8 + 9
Brad: I’m sorry for the “busyness” of this slide; I’m going to try to basically provide a synopsis. This is additional information to the AA update that provided the administration and data entry information windows. As you know they have slightly changed this year because of the new 2014-15 extended assessment operational field test this year. In addition I wanted to let you know that accessing the grades 3-8 and 11 extended assessments will be through our test vendor, they have a research and teaching at the University of Oregonat that particular website. QAs and QTs qualified assessors and trainers, who have already received training in this piece and is posted on the training and proficiency site, see the link above, have access to these secured test tabs and data entry tabs per their required proficiency training. New qualified assessors will need their QT to get them access to the secure test and data entry tabs to ensure security in terms of folks who are accessing that site and accessing the secure materials. If someone in your district other than your QT/A is designated to access the test materials or entry data, then a current QT or QA will need to give that designated access to the secure designated entry tabs as well as provide guidance in terms of the ordering protocol. There will be more explicit information provided to the AA updates and the extended assessments website. But essentially because it’s an operational field test, protocol for ordering tests will be by teacher versus a download for a grade. So folks will be downloading secure test form materials per teacher. The secure test tab will not be functional as is true for all of the extended assessments including the grade 12 retake on February 12 a week before the administration window opens on the 19th. As I mentioned earlier, explicit guidance will be provided on the secure test tab regarding how to access the secure test for grades 3-8 and 11. Again grade 12 retakes will be through the district secure site as it has always been. But grades 3-8 and 11 will be through the secure site of our test vendor. So when you’re ordering forms, that’s essentially the protocol or information in a nutshell that needs to be provided, some of the critical information that will identify the forms that are being pulled for particular students in particular grades as I mentioned because it is an operational field test. So when an assessor has students in multiple grades, they will need to continue ordering for each grade much like filling your shopping cart at amazon.com. Again look for additional, more specific guidance on the extended assessment website, QAs and QTs that have already been trained in this piece as well as information will be posted on the district secure site and secure test tab.
NO SLIDE AVAILABLE
Michelle: I wanted to let you know that in tomorrow’s AA update, there will be an article concerning the English learners with disabilities four domain exemptions, a topic that has been going around since July. In July the U.S. Dept. of Education released guidance prohibiting states from having four domain exemptions starting in 2014-15 and beyond. ODE has a cross-office team; we’re working on solutions for the students whose specific disabilities are prohibiting them from accessing any domain of the ELPA right now. Tomorrow’s article will outline some guidance that ODE is recommending and has a link for you to contact your regional ESD help desk partner if you have additional follow up questions. Because we have a cross-office team there’s no single person that is taking emails or sharing the load so the ESD partners will be your first line of contact with your specific questions once that article comes out tomorrow afternoon.
Q from Field: Is the extended assessment information that Brad just shared also being shared with SPED directors?
Brad: That’s correct Brian; the information is going out to the special education director list serve as well as posted on the extended assessment website. They’ve also been encouraged to sign up for the AA updates.
SLIDE 10
Rachel: As Holly mentioned earlier, we did develop a Smarter Balanced test session “how to set up a test session” in the TA interface, as well as in that how to video you go through each of the different accessibility supports that are available in regards of how to access like “text to speech.” So if you have new TAs that need to learn how to set up a test session and understand how to use the TA interface as well as what it looks like via the student interface, we have a helpful optional training video that you can access at the website that’s listed above.
SLIDE 11
Bryan: We have just created an equation editor tutorial for math for the equation editor Smarter Balanced. It’s available right now in English only, it has eleven pages, students go through and practice entering different expressions into the equation editor and then they click on “express” to see how they did. Then it tells the student how they did, if they got it right or whether they got it wrong with the syntax. Right now it’s available at the URL that’s on that slide, and as soon as the Spanish translation is complete it will be available at oaksportal.org.
SLIDE 12
Rachel: Many of you have been wanting to know how to access the interim assessments if you gained access to the interim assessments and digital library for Smarter Balanced. As you all notice this is via the OAKS Portal. When you go in under test administrator you’ll click on test administration. All of those interim assessment comprehensive will be listed at the very bottom, no matter how they are sorted by subject or grade; we have listed them so that they will always be at the very bottom of all the tests that are available. Just to let you know right now, the only ones that are available are the interim comprehensive assessments, the interim assessment blocks will be released later this month. So, again when you set all of your accessibility supports in TIDE, they will also reflect into the interim assessments. It’s the same TA interface that you use for summative assessments, so please make sure that when you’re selecting those interim assessments that you look towards the bottom where it has the ICAs so that you don’t accidentally click on, for example, when the summative assessments are available.
INCLUDES QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FROM SLIDES 13-15
Q from Field: Are these Free?
Rachel: No they are not free. You’re district would need to contract it and contact the Oregon Association of ESDs with Jim Mabbott, and have purchased the digital library of interim assessments before you have the access to gain them.
Holly: Essentially, ODE has a department with AIR to make these available through the portal but they are not being provided by ODE so it’s available to the districts that have separately contracted for those resources but it is not being provided by the state due to some budgetary restrictions.
Derek: Just one more point on that. That also means that help desk support for the interim and for the digital library is not available through the ESD regional partners. I understand that that’s probably a little bit confusing to everybody so we will put out some communication on that.
Holly:There will be an article in this week’s AA update, or maybe last week’s update, and it points to the helpdesk that’s hosted by AIR for the interim, so you will have that information on how you can access helpdesk.
Rachel: And in regard to the different topics, when you see what the interim assessment blocks look like, they actually have the title of what content is being covered, listed in the title for each individual interim assessment block, for both math and ELA for each of the different grade levels.
Q from the Field: Where is the Smarter Balanced “how to” video located?
Rachel:The how-to video is also located, if you go into the page Holly mentioned earlier, all those best practices pieces are in the same spot:
Q/A Time
Brad: The non-embedded glossaries are for paper-pencil tests only and each paper form has its own set of glossaries to ensure that those are created item-by-item and with the terms that are construct irrelevant. There was a question related to using an electronic translator that would be a student using the embedded translator glossary instead, you would not be bringing an electronic glossary into the test environment that would be problematic in ensuring that we don’t compromise the test items and that they’re only accessing construct irrelevant terms.
Holly: Just to make that really clear, that an electronic translator is still considered an impropriety this year. We do have the embedded resources but an external glossary would be an impropriety.
Brad: Yepp, essentially that’s true. There are some…review the print on demand option, but otherwise that’s not available.
So the crosswalk and the accommodations to the TIDE settings….um….there isn’t. What’s reflected in TIDE is intended to reflect what’s in the Oregon Accessibility Manual but we don’t have a direct crosswalk that has been published in that regard.
Brad:Can a line be added to the title page? Sure, that’s likely, I can speak to the Oregon Accessibility Manual in that beginning last month I created a log page per a couple of people’s input from the field. Then you wouldn’t have to print out the manual each time, you would know exactly where some of the changes were made and just print out the particular page to update your manual or hardcopy. I apologize in advance, while we indicate these things are final, you know that this is unfortunately a work in progress. In the best interests of students we are trying to update in as timely a manner as possible. As a result, we have had updates from Smarter Balanced, from the U.S. Dept. of Justice, that we’ve had to respond to. So again, all in the interest of ensuring the student, in particular two students with IPs have the supports necessary to effectively participate in the state wide assessments.
Holly: And for the test administration manual, we’ve had a very set publication process, this year we had one extra step, we said it was the preliminary draft which was from April, an interim draft from August, and the final which was posted in October. Consistent with our commitment to the field over the last couple of years, we have committed to not making changes once we publish that final. I do have one caveat this year, we did learn earlier this week of an oversight in section 6 of the administration manual, which is for administration of the Smarter Balanced assessment, that omitted a set of paraphrase for student directions, we did feel that it is critical that TAs have access to those, so we did make the decision earlier this week to go ahead and release a revised section 6 that would include those paraphrased directions. We will have that posted, hopefully, later today. There will be an article announcing that tomorrow in the AA update, and again, because it is restricted just to section 6, we will be posting it as a separate stand-alone file so you don’t have to print out the whole test administration manual again. It’s really the only update…adding those paraphrase directions. We do apologize for that oversight when we published the final back in October.
Brad:There’s a question regarding the difference between designated support of printed test items and stimuli and the accommodations support of print on demand. What you’re citing there is the difference between what’s allowed in Smarter Balanced and what is allowed in the OAKS currently. Wherever we have found that Smarter is a bit more restrictive for OAKS assessments, we allow the flexibility that students have enjoyed in the past.
Q from Field: Can students on IP use these if it’s in the IEP?
Brad: The students on an IEP can use universal tools, designated supports as well as accommodations per their IP. Anything that’s in the manual, essentially, the only restriction is for all students not on IEPs and 504s with regards to accommodations. Accommodations are restricted or reserved for students on IEPs or 504 plans. So those supports are an option for students on IEPs.