High School AND MIDDLE SCHOOL

Testing Meeting

TAPCONovember 2, 2015

This Test Administration Handbook is distributed and discussed at general faculty conferences, grade conferences, and on staff development days.

Principals will complete an online survey on the Principal's Portal certifying that the handbook information was delivered to staff.

The complete document can be found on NYCDOE’s website by navigating to the NYCDOE Homepage>Performance & Accountability>Yearly Testing>Test Memoranda, Procedures, and Contacts.

Also available on the TAPCo. website by navigating to the Teacher Corner> Professional Activities 2015-2016>10/19/15

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Introduction

Before Testing DO NOT:◦ Access secure test booklets and answer sheets prior to

the time allowed under NYCDOE guidelines, or copy, reproduce, or keep any part of secure exam materials.

◦ Review secure test booklets in order to: Determine and record correct responses for use

during testing. Create “cheat sheet” for students to use in taking

the test, including formulas, concepts or definitions necessary for the test.

Create pre-test lessons or discussions with students or any other person about concepts being tested.

Prohibited Conduct by Adults

Give students any clues or answers, including:◦ Coaching students about proper answers.◦ Defining terms and concepts included in the test.◦ Pointing out wrong answers to a student and suggesting that the student

reconsider or change the recorded response.◦ Reminding students during testing of concepts they learned in class.◦ Making facial or other non-verbal suggestions regarding answers.

Allow any student more time to take the test than is allowed for that student, or give any other testing accommodations to students who are not entitled to receive them.

Leave any materials displayed in the room containing topics being tested or write formulas, concepts, or definitions necessary for the test on the board.

Allow students to copy information from, duplicate, or remove test booklets, answer documents, or other testing materials from the classroom.

During Testing DO NOT

Review an answer sheet for wrong answers and return it to a student with instructions to change or reconsider the wrong responses.

Alter, erase, or in any way change a student’s recorded responses after the student has handed in his/her test materials.

Rescore portions of the test with the intention of altering the student’s score in any way that deviates from established scoring procedures.

Deviate from State-provided scoring rubrics.

After Testing DO NOT

New York State and New York City have implemented procedures to maintain the security and validity of all city and state exams.

These procedures apply to all school staff involved in the handling/administration of State and City tests.

Review Security Procedures…Questions? Concerns?

Suspected violations must be reported.

TEST SECURITY

Keep the door closed except rooms with no windows and make sure there will be no distractions from the hallway.

Post a sign on the door indicating “TESTING DO NOT ENTER”. Do not cover the window.

Keep students’ desks cleared of books, papers, and other non-testing material.

Seat students so they cannot look at each other’s work.

Cover or remove all bulletin boards, displays, and/or charts that may contain material pertinent to each test…

TEST ADMINISTRATION: Room Organization (Excerpts)

All students are prohibited from bringing cell phones and certain other electronic devices into a classroom or other location where a State exam is being administered.

Test proctors, test monitors, and school officials shall retain the right to collect and hold any prohibited electronic devices prior to the start of the test administration.

Admission to the test shall be denied to any student who is in possession of a cell phone or other prohibited electronic device and refuses to relinquish it.

If a student is found in possession of an electronic device during an exam, confiscate the device but allow the student to finish the exam. Report the incident to the administration immediately.

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Use of Communications Devices

You cannot have any communication devices, including a cell phone, with you during this exam or during any breaks (such as a restroom visit). Such devices include, but are not limited to:◦ Cell phones◦ Blackberry devices and other PDAs◦ iPods and MP3 players◦ iPads, tablets, and other eReaders◦ Etc. (continued on page 9 of manual)

At the beginning of each test administration, proctors must read the following to all students:

Proctors ◦ Circulate around the room and ensure that students are

working independently.◦ Should not point out missed questions or correct an individual

student’s work in any way.◦ Should not use cell phones or other prohibited electronic

devices, or engage in any other activity that would distract from monitoring the students.

◦ Answer only student questions that pertain to the directions. Read only the portion of the directions addressed by the student’s question. Do not interpret the directions for students.

◦ Do not give help on specific questions. Do not give clues that indicate an answer. Do not help to eliminate answer choices. Do not tell a student to review an answer.

Active Proctoring – Avoid Problems

Under Section 8.5 of the Rules of the Board of Regents, fraud includes the use of unfair means in taking an examination; giving aid to or obtaining aid from another person during an examination; alteration of any Regents credential; and intentional misrepresentation in connection with examinations or credentials. Section 225 of the Educational Law makes fraud in examinations a misdemeanor, whether perpetrated by a student, by a teacher or administrator, or by any other person.

No one, under any circumstances, including the student, may alter the student’s responses on the test once the student has handed in his or her test materials. Teachers and administrators who engage in inappropriate conduct with respect to administering and scoring State examinations may be subject to disciplinary actions in accordance with sections 3020 and 3020a of Education Law or to action against their certification pursuant to Part 83 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education.

FRAUD

HIGH SCHOOL TESTING

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Students use pre-slugged answer documents to answer multiple choice questions. Answer documents for Regents are two pages.◦ Page one is for student entered multiple choice questions.◦ Page two is for school entered accommodations and for teacher use only at the scoring site to record grades for the constructed response questions.

Students use the following to record responses◦ PENCIL for all multiple choice questions and student declaration.◦ PEN for all essay and DBQ questions.◦ Responses are only to be marked on the answer document.

Proctors ensure student answer documents are signed and bubbled appropriately before students are dismissed.

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Pre-slugged Answer Documents

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Regents Scanning - Answer Documents

This year’s documents will be two pages

DRAFT

Restricted Exams require special handling:◦ Teachers may not view the exams except when reading to students as

an IEP accommodation.◦ Physical Setting/Physics Regents (January only) No decision by SED about how answers will be recorded for January.

◦ All RCTs except Reading and Writing are restricted. Answers are recorded on DOE supplied answer documents and scored at the

school.◦ Most Braille versions of exams are restricted.

Refer to directions posted on the SED website prior to the exam for specific administration and scoring instructions.

ALL restricted exam materials must be sent back to SED in the Regents chests at the conclusion of the Regents period.

Restricted Exams

ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS: ◦ TIME EXTENTION: TIME AND A HALF◦ SEPARATE LOCATION◦ BILINGUAL GLOSSARIES ◦ THIRD READING OF LISTENING PASSAGES◦ SIMULTANEIOUS US OF ENGLISH AND

ALTERNATIVE LANGUAGE EDITIONS OF EXAMS◦ ORAL TRANSLATIONS◦ WRITING RESPONSE IN NATIVE LANGUAGE.

ADMINISTERTING THE TEST TO SPECIAL POPULATIONS

Students will be provided testing accommodations included in their IEP, 405 plan, or declassification IEP.

STUDENTS WITH IEP OR 504

Scoring

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• In October 2011, the Board of Regents voted to prohibit teachers from scoring their own students’ state assessments, beginning in SY 2012-13.

• NYC has moved to strengthen this requirement for Regents exams by shifting to a distributed scoring system (DSS), where teachers will not score the exams of any student that attend their school.• Requirement: Teachers will not score the exams of students attending

their school.• Preference: Each student’s exam is marked by staff from at least two

different schools. • NYC is implementing distributed scoring in all high schools

during the 2013 Regents administrations.

Background

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January 2015: Scoring Format & Models

Day-Scoring: Only schools administering these exams in January will be required to contribute staff to meet the scoring requirements.

Per-Session: Staff from schools citywide will be eligible to apply for per session scoring positions.

NYC will continue to score using a distributed scoring system (DSS). All Regents exams are picked up from

schools by couriers for delivery to scoring sites.

Teachers will also be sent out of the building to score at central sites.

All Regents exams, including translated versions, are sent out of the building for scoring at central sites.

Teachers will also be sent out of the building to score at central sites.◦ Schools no longer schedule in-house scoring except RCTs.◦ No exams will be sent to the same site to which the school’s teachers are

assigned. Exams are packaged according to strict requirements to ensure they

are accounted for during the entire shipping, scoring, scanning and return process.◦ Two methods of packaging:

Traditional scoring process. Electronic scoring

◦ Schools will be notified of which packaging to use for each exam.◦ Test coordinator meetings in December will address distributed scoring

specifically. ◦ Resource materials for test coordinators will be online.

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Distributed Scoring

Teachers must rate strictly according to the key provided by the Department. They may allow credit for other answers to open-ended questions only if those answers are clearly equivalent to the key answer.

Schools must obtain permission from the Department before students can be given credit for any answer that is not clearly equivalent to the key answer. A teacher may not give credit for answers that the teacher considers merely “possible” or “reasonable.”

Rating support can be found on the SED website http://www.p12.nysed.gov/osa/scoring/111/home.htm or by calling (518) 474-5099 or (518) 474-5902

At the conclusion of scoring raters must sign the Examination Scoring Certificate.

Scoring Process

• When the teacher scoring committee completes the scoring process, test scores must be considered final and will be entered onto students’ permanent records via the scanning process.  

• Scoring committees, once they have scored an exam, are not permitted to re-score them, regardless of the final score. Specifically, exams receiving a final score of 60-64 or 50-54 may not be re-scored.

• Principals and other administrative staff in a school or district do not have the authority to set aside the scores arrived at by the teacher scoring committee, and may not rescore student examination papers or change any scores assigned through the procedures outlined in the scoring materials provided by SED.

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The Finality of Examination Scores

Cheating – Allow student(s) to finish the test. If an investigation by the administration substantiates cheating:

Problems

Official Misconduct – A teacher or administrator is alleged to have acted inappropriately either in the administration or scoring of the exam.

Security violations must be reported immediately to the BAID, Grace Pepe gpepe2@schools.nyc.gov, the Office of the Special Commissioner of Investigation (SCI) at 212-510-1500 and SED at 518-402-5596 or via e-mail to emscassessinfo@mail.nysed.gov.

Problems

Collect all answer materials. HS: Students must sign the declaration line at the

bottom of the student answer page. Make sure you sign the “Test Material Security Form”

when you return the test booklets. If the numbers of booklets returned is not equal to the number signed for when received, notify the principal immediately.

Report all perceived test administration irregularities to the principal.

Report all unusual circumstances, such as defect test booklets, problematic answer documents, students getting sick, etc.

AFTER THE TEST

There will be content specific training for each of the exams.

…some changes for Middle School Math…

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MIDDLE SCHOOL

The following are the required tools for each grade level for the 2016 Grades 3-8 Mathematics Tests:

• Grades 3-8 students must have the use of a ruler for the entire test.

• Grades 4-8 students must have the use of a protractor for the entire test.

• Grade 6 students will not use a calculator with Book 1 because this part of the test measures students’ proficiencies involving calculations. Students must have the use of a four-function calculator with a square root key or a scientific calculator for Books 2 and 3 of the test. (Schools may choose which type they purchase.)

• Grades 7 & 8 students will not use a calculator with Book 1 because this part of the test measures students’ proficiencies involving calculations. Students must have the use of a scientific calculator for Books 2 and 3 of the test.

MS MATH TESTS

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS