All Things Assessment

Most Amazing CTCs,

Please be sure to forward this newsletter to anyone on your campus who supports you with testing. This will help everyone get the timely information they need to accomplish their assigned duties.

Take care,

JL

TELPAS and TELPAS Alt results have arrived and will be sent to you through interoffice mail this week. Even though the tests did not count towards accountability, TEA's expectation is that you still share these reports with parents and place the labels in students' files as we would normally do.

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is launching TFAR, which is a new, free, optional, online tool consisting of an item bank aligned to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). This optional tool, housed on Schoolnet, is designed to support teachers in gaining real-time, formative feedback on student learning as instruction occurs. Teachers will be able to create and deliver quizzes and analyze results to help inform instructional choices such as making immediate lesson plan adjustments or providing specific interventions for students at the level of individual standards. TFAR can be used as part of on-campus or virtual instruction.

TFAR is meant to supplement and support existing district resources and formative assessment practices. Quizzes built using this tool should be combined with a broader set of classroom formative practices that are part of a coherent instructional framework.

TFAR will be available starting August 31, 2020, with registration opening August 27, 2020. Initially, the item bank within TFAR will contain STAAR released items, but over time, additional items will be added. Teachers will be able to create their own TEKS-aligned items and quizzes to administer within the platform.

A TFAR General Webinar is intended for testing coordinators and curriculum coaches interested in learning more about TFAR, including how to register. The webinar will take place on August 24, 2020, at 1:00 p.m. (CT) and can be accessed using the following information:

Please click the link to join the webinar: https://zoom.us/s/92006096495

Or join by phone: 346-248-7799, Webinar ID: 920 0609 6495

A recording will be placed on the Texas Formative Assessment Resource webpage following the webinar. To read the frequently asked questions and view other resources, please visit the Texas Formative Assessment Resource webpage.

This communication is to inform you that the Texas Student Assessment Program is releasing testing materials from the 2020 administration of the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS).

The release includes the TELPAS listening and speaking tests and the TELPAS reading tests that were administered for grades 2–12 in spring 2020. These tests are available through the TestNav 8 login screen in the installable app under the Practice Tests link. Answer keys for these released tests are available at TELPAS Released Tests and at Texas Resource Center.

In addition to the TELPAS released tests, the Texas Student Assessment Program developed speaking scoring guides to accompany the released tests. Each scoring guide includes exemplar student responses to four questions from the speaking assessment for that grade band, the score that each response received, and an explanation of why the response received that score. Scoring guides can be found at the Texas Resource Center.

I have great news! As you know, McKinney ISD has added MAP Reading Fluency to our suite of assessments. I am so excited about this and know that your teachers will not only be thrilled with the assessment but, most importantly, the amount of time they will save administering it.

Problems:

Historically, we have used DRA 2/EDL to ascertain students' reading level for instruction and as part of the dyslexia screener. The problem with that is we cannot use the DRA 2 to test our virtual students.

In addition, the time it takes teachers to individually administer the DRA 2 has always caused quite a bit of stress as well as taken up quite a bit of instruction time. Given our current situation, we cannot afford to lose that kind of time.

Solution:

We are replacing DRA 2/EDL with MAP Reading Fluency for our K-2 monolingual and bilingual students.

Please take a deep breath and trust me.

Warning:

THIS DOES NOT MEAN YOU SHOULD GET RID OF ANY DRA 2/EDL KITS.

KEEP THOSE ON YOUR CAMPUS.

DRA 2/EDL can still be utilized by upper grade levels, special ed, and even K-2 teachers for a variety of reasons.

Benefits of MAP Reading Fluency:

• Can be administered remotely
• Offered in English and Spanish
• Is designed to be administered in small groups or as a whole class
• Only takes about 20 minutes to complete
• Teachers are already familiar with MAP and the learning curve will be small.
• This will be used instead of DRA 2/EDL as part of the dyslexia screener

In order to help us better prepare for this transition as well as to properly train teachers, we will bump the DRA 2/EDL window (now known as the MAP Reading Fluency window) from Sept 9th-Oct 9th to Sept 16th-Oct 16th.

Please click on the link below to read a quick one-pager providing a basic overview of what to expect. More information will be coming soon regarding our next steps in rolling this out.

MAP Reading Fluency Fact Sheet

Just to be clear...

MAP Growth Reading is replacing iStation for K-1.

MAP Reading Fluency is replacing DRA 2/EDL for K-2. (Just like with DRA 2/EDL, Kinder will not participate in BOY testing.)

iStation testing will no longer be a part of the MISD assessment suite for all K-5 students.

We will be utilizing remote testing for MAP Growth and MAP Fluency this year. Information will soon be pushed out to campuses. However, if you would like to get a jumpstart on what that will look like, NWEA has a link on their website with tons of information.

This window has been moved from Sept 9-Oct 9 to Sept 16-Oct 16. In addition, it will now be referred to as the MAP Reading Fluency window.

2020 - 2021 District Assessment Calendar

• October 22, 2020 1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. CT
  This webinar training will provide an overview of the STAAR online test platform including a review of accessibility features used for during testing. Register HERE

• Sept 11 ~ Deadline to register for October CBEs
• Sept 16 - Oct 16 ~ BOY MAP Reading Fluency Window
• Sept 21 - Oct 16 ~ BOY MAP Window
• Oct 10 ~ Credit by Exam (CBE)

• Sept 11 ~ Deadline to register for October CBEs
• Sept 21 - Oct 16 ~ BOY MAP Window
• Oct 10 ~ Credit by Exam (CBE)

• Aug 24 - Sept 16 ~ PSAT Payment Window
• Sept 11 ~ Deadline to register for October CBEs
• Oct 10 ~ Credit by Exam (CBE)
• Oct 21~ HS CTC Annual STAAR/EOC Training

In the event I need to get information to you quickly, I will send it out first through Remind and then will follow up with an email. I will also use Remind to remind you of important deadlines.

• Elementary CTCs - @e2ea62

• Middle School CTCs - @2hadcc

• High School CTCs - @geg4db

• District & Campus Coordinator Resource

• McKinney ISD Assessment Weebly

• Texas Education Agency

• Texas Assessment (TAMS/ETS) website

• Pearson Access Next

• TestHound

• NWEA

Coordinator of Student Assessment

Email: jlittle@mckinneyisd.net
Website: misdassessment.weebly.com
Location: 1 Duvall Street, McKinney, TX, USA
Phone: 469-302-7712
Twitter: @jenniferhlittle