TO
LEA Superintendents
Charter School Directors
FROM
Rebecca B. Garland, Chief Academic Officer
Academic Services and Instructional Support
DATE
December 5, 2013
SCORING AND REPORTING FOR THE ENGLISH II END-OF-COURSE ASSESSMENT
To comply with G.S. §115C-174.12(a), “all annual assessments of student achievement adopted by the
State Board of Education pursuant to G.S. §115C-174.11(c)(1) and all final exams for courses shall be
administered within the final ten instructional days of the school year for year-long courses and within the
final five instructional days of the semester for semester courses.” For state tests which include
constructed response (CR) items, these shorter testing windows may result in a delay in test scores. Tests
that will be affected in 2013–14 include the English II and NCEXTEND2 English II end-of-course (EOC)
assessments only. The scores will not be delayed this year for any other end-of-course assessment, endof-grade assessment, or NC Final Exam. The purpose of this memo is to explain when the test scores will
be available for the English II assessments and to provide guidance on how to assign grades and make
placement decisions.
LEAs/charters are encouraged to schedule administrations of the English II assessments at the beginning
of the testing window. This will allow maximum time to submit, score, and return English II scores.
LEAs/charters are also encouraged to administer the English II assessments online. The online delivery
mode decreases the time required to submit, score, and return English II scores.
Fall—English II
Scoring Timeline for
LEAs & Charter
Schools
For fall administrations, English II scoring is scheduled to begin on Monday,
December 9, 2013. For students testing between November 12 and December
6, 2013, under the EOC Flexible Test Schedule Waiver, their English II
assessments will be submitted for scoring on December 9, 2013. LEA test
coordinators must ensure test materials are provided to Questar (the scoring
contractor) by the deadlines specified.
Online. As a reminder, LEAs/charters will not receive English II or
NCEXTEND2 English II test records on the day of testing. Test records for
English II and NCEXTEND2 English II online assessments, which must have
all required coding completed, are submitted electronically to the vendor each
night at 7:00 pm.1 The vendor begins scoring the morning after the test record
1
Online test records are not submitted to the vendor until all required coding (i.e., Accommodations Provided tab
for students marked as requiring an accommodation) is complete.
DIVISION OF ACCOUNTABILITY SERVICES
6314 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-6314 | (919) 807-3769 | Fax (919) 807-3772
AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY/AFFIRMATIVE ACTION EMPLOYER
LEA Superintendents/Charter School Directors
December 5, 2013
Page 2
is received and returns the scored online test records electronically to the North
Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) within 72 hours (3
business days) of starting the scoring process. Therefore, test coordinators
should allow 4–5 business days to receive scored English II online test records.
LEAs/charters must complete all English II online assessments (including
required coding) no later than 4:00 pm on Friday, January 31, 2014. There will
be no exceptions. All English II online test records will be submitted to the
vendor Friday evening regardless of completed coding. Schools will not have
another opportunity to complete required coding in NC Education. Once
submitted, test records are scored in the order of receipt.
Paper-and-Pencil. English II and NCEXTEND2 English II assessments must
be shipped by the LEA/charter test coordinator to the vendor. The vendor will
score all items (i.e., multiple-choice and constructed response). The scoring
process will begin the morning after the test record is received. Scored paperand-pencil test records are returned electronically to the NCDPI within 7
business days of starting the scoring process. Therefore, test coordinators
should allow 7–8 business days to receive scored paper-and-pencil English II
test records.
LEAs/charters must ship all English II paper-and-pencil materials to Questar
no later than Friday, January 31, 2014. Any paper-and-pencil assessments
shipped February 1, 2014, or later will not be scored until May 2014. Once
submitted, test records are scored in the order of receipt.
Spring—English II
Scoring Timeline for
LEAs & Charter
Schools
The spring 2014 online testing system will open on Monday, February 10,
2014. Spring online English II assessments completed February 1, 2014, or
later will be submitted for scoring in May 2014. The opening day of the spring
scoring window will be published when it becomes available.
LEAs/charters must ship all English II paper-and-pencil materials to Questar
no later than Friday, June 13, 2014. LEAs/charters must complete all English II
online assessments (including required coding) no later than 4:00 pm on
Friday, June 13, 2014. Scores from the English II assessments submitted for
scoring after the deadline will not be included in accountability calculations
and will count against participation.
All English II online test records will be submitted to Questar Friday evening
regardless of completed coding. Schools will not have another opportunity to
complete required coding in NC Education. LEAs and charter schools should
allow 3 business days for online and 7–8 business days for paper-and-pencil
scores to be returned for English II and NCEXTEND2 English II assessments.
Once submitted, test records are scored in the order of receipt.
LEA Superintendents/Charter School Directors
December 5, 2013
Page 3
Assigning
Grades, Making
Graduation and
Course
Placement
Decisions
English II. The scoring period must include time to score the constructed response
items and to return to the LEA/charter a single score for each student for his or her
multiple-choice and constructed response items. Students administered the English II
assessments during fall 2013 and spring 2014 semesters should be assigned
“incompletes” until scores are returned from the vendor. The scores must then be
used to calculate the final grade for the course and to determine if students are
inappropriately enrolled in spring 2014 or upcoming fall 2014 courses. (Scores
should be back in time not to affect the 10/20 day rule.)
Graduates—2013–14. State Board policy GCS-C-003 requires public schools to use
results from all operational EOC assessments as at least twenty percent (20%) of the
student's final grade for each respective course (with the exception of students
following the Occupational Course of Study). Because test scores may not be
returned by the last day of the semester, an exception to this policy will be made for
high school seniors. LEAs/charters may choose not to use the scores from the EOC
assessment of English II as a minimum of 20% to calculate the final grades for
seniors. This will allow schools to make graduation decisions in a timely manner for
graduates.
Course Placement Decisions. The NCDPI realizes the English II scores may not be
returned before the end of the semester, which may impact student placement
decisions that must be made before the receipt of the scores. Course placement
decisions should be made the same way decisions are made in other courses not
requiring an EOC assessment (e.g., performance on classroom assessments,
homework grades). Once the English II test score is incorporated as at least 20% of
the student’s final grade for the course, the LEA/charter school must determine if the
student is inappropriately enrolled in a spring/fall English course. The 10/20 day rule
applies. The deadline to drop students who are inappropriately enrolled is within the
first 10 days of enrollment in a 4x4/semester course or the first 20 days of enrollment
in a traditional yearlong course.
We appreciate all that you do for the children of North Carolina. If you have questions or need further
clarification regarding information contained within this memo, please contact your Regional
Accountability Coordinator (RAC).
RBG/whw
c:
June St. Clair Atkinson, State Superintendent
Tammy Howard, Director, Accountability Services
Joel Medley, Director, Charter Schools
Nancy Carolan, Section Chief, Testing Policy and Operations
Hope Lung, Section Chief, Test Development
Ken Barbour, Data Manager, Accountability Services
Regional Accountability Coordinators
Test Coordinators