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Testing Guidelines for the Elementary Schools
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VIII.
IX.
The SLCS Board of Education has given the CITA Department the
responsibility of making the final approval decisions for assessments.
District assessments may not be altered or changed without prior written
approval of the CITA department.
Assessments may not be removed from the school premises without prior
written approval of the CITA department, except for the grading of
constructed essay responses. Further exceptions to this may be made, with
CITA approval, when SAC members are working on the assessment.
Assessments are to be administered in their entirety by the due date
assigned by the district (see Assessment Calendar).
District assessments are secure documents that may not be sent home with
students (including homebound students) or provided to non-school
personnel.
Whenever possible, teachers should avoid having guest teachers administer
district assessments. If having a guest teacher is unavoidable, the
classroom teacher should communicate the expectations.
Student teachers may be involved in the giving of assessments, but they
may not make personal copies for any reasons. The classroom teacher
overseeing the student teacher is responsible for communicating and
monitoring the expectations.
It is the teacher’s responsibility to verify that the assessment they are
administering is the most current version. Information about the most
current version dates can be found on the Intranet
(CITA\Assessment\Assessment Version Summary). Version dates appear on
the assessment and teachers should verify that the date within the footer
of the assessment matches the current version date listed on the Intranet.
Photocopying of the assessment should be done only by the classroom
teacher. In extenuating circumstances, exceptions to this may be granted
by the building principal.
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X.
XI.
XII.
XIII.
District assessments should be kept secure at all times. Copies should not
be left on a desk while the teacher is out of the classroom or unattended in
copy rooms.
Assessment copies must always be hand delivered. At no point should an
assessment be left in a teacher mailbox, dropped off on a teacher’s desk or
sent through interoffice mail. This includes delivery from CITA, from a
principal, or from a fellow teacher.
Assessment copies should be held until the end of the school year in a
secure location. Some documents need to be retained for longer time
periods for the purpose of articulating about student strengths and areas of
concern. Documents being used for articulation purposes will be kept in a
secure location until articulation is complete.
All assessment documents that are no longer needed should be shredded.
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XIV.
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Ethical practices:
Items from district assessments may not be used in other formats- such as
for instruction, in reviews or in classroom assessments.
Questions from the constructed response or essay portions of assessments
may not be disclosed to students in advance. A list of topics may be given
for review.
For the elementary school SLRA, the curriculum requires pre-teaching of
vocabulary. It would be unethical to put a student at a disadvantage by not
pre-teaching the required SLRA vocabulary.
Images from textbooks may be used on assessments when copyright laws
permit.
District assessment scores are intended to accurately reflect students’
understanding of concepts. It would be unethical for a teacher to
knowingly ignore a student’s unintentional bubbling errors on a district
assessment. The bubble sheet should be corrected, based on the
responses given in the student’s assessment packet, and rerun through
Pearson. Teachers should counsel students who regularly make bubbling
errors on answer sheets about good test taking strategies.
Unless otherwise specified in an individual student’s IEP, teachers will
adhere to the specific assessment memo to determine if an assessment
may be administered individually or read aloud to in a cover and reveal
format.
Violation of these guidelines is considered unethical practice. Disciplinary
action may be taken.
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XV. Homebound Students:
 District assessments are secure documents that may not be sent home with
students (including homebound students) or provided to non-school
personnel. When possible, homebound students are welcome to come to
the school buildings to take the district assessment.
 For homebound students unable to come to the building, teachers may use
an alternative assessment. If an assessment other than the district
assessment is given, these students are not included in district compiled
data.
XVI. Special Education Students
 As permitted by an IEP, accommodations and modifications may be made
to assessments and assessment settings.
 Questions about appropriate accommodations and modifications will be
directed to the student’s caseload worker and/or the building principal.
XVII. ESL Students
 Students that score at Level 1 (Entering) English Proficiency on the W-APT/
WIDA-ACCESS will not be assessed on written classroom or district
assessments. The report card will be marked with accommodations.
 Students that score at Level 2 (Beginning) on the W-APT/ WIDA-ACCESS will
be assessed on all classroom and district assessments with
accommodations and modifications according to the adjustments used in
instruction. The report card will be marked with accommodations.
 Please follow the ESL Exam suggestions when reporting on Level 1 and
Level 2 students:
1) Do not run their bubble sheet through the scanner, just hand score
2) On the classroom Assessment Completion Worksheet that gets
returned to CITA, the classroom teacher should write the student’s
name and say not included (ELL)
3) Return the student Scan-tron to CITA with the Assessment
Completion Worksheet
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XVIII.
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XIX.
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Absent Students
Absent students should make up the assessment.
If an extended absence is planned in advance (i.e. a family vacation) and
the student will be absent for the entire testing period, the building
administration will, with teacher input, determine a testing schedule.
In the case of an unplanned extended absence, the building administration
will, with teacher input, determine a plan for testing.
Guest Teachers and Student Teachers:
All efforts should be made to avoid giving district assessments on days
when guest teachers are present. If this becomes necessary, the classroom
teacher must inform the guest teacher that no copies of the assessment are
to be made or shared beyond those needed for students that day. No
copies of the assessment may leave the classroom.
While in the classroom, guest teachers are responsible for securing the
assessment.
In the case of long-term leaves (medical, maternity, paternity, etc.), the
guest teacher, for planning purposes, may review the assessment prior to
each unit of instruction with the building principal or a grade level
colleague designated by the principal. The purpose of these meetings is to
guide instruction for the unit of study. The principal and grade level
colleague should assist the long-term guest teacher in preparing for the
assessment.
Student teachers may be involved in the giving of assessments, but they
may not make personal copies for any reasons. This includes describing or
photocopying any portion of the assessment for sharing in university
coursework or course discussions. The classroom teacher overseeing the
student teacher is responsible for communicating and monitoring these
expectations.
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XX.
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Administration of the Assessment:
In the case of combination classes or grade level subject rotations, an effort
will be made for students to test with their subject area teacher.
Exceptions may be granted by the building principal.
It is the role and responsibility of the classroom teacher to act as a proctor
during district assessments. This requires that teachers actively monitor
their students for inappropriate behavior (i.e. watch students and walk
around the classroom frequently). When reading to a student or small
group of students as necessitated by IEPs, teachers remain responsible for
monitoring all students in the classroom.
All classrooms where an assessment is being given must have teacher
supervision at all times.
Individual copies of the assessment should be provided to each student and
the student must record his or her name at the top of the assessment or on
the cover page.
Any scrap paper used by students must be turned in along with the
assessment.
An effort will be made to keep students in the classroom during the
assessment administration period.
Bubble sheets must be stored in the correct folder of the labeled bins in the
specified building location.
Student assessments must be stored in a secure location until the end of
the school year and then shredded.
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XXI.
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Student and Parent Review of the Assessments:
When teachers distribute scored assessments and review the results of the
assessments with their classes, teachers must make sure that students
return all copies of the assessment and do not record information before
leaving the room. This debriefing will take place during the period of time
specified on the assessment calendar. In the case of Social Studies and
Science, debriefing must occur within two weeks of the assessment.
Parents or guardians may view their student’s performance on the
assessment under teacher or office supervision at the school building.
Parents or guardians may not record any information and must return all
copies of the assessment before leaving the meeting.
After bubble sheets are returned to CITA, it is still possible that a copy of
the students’ bubble sheet can be made available for review with parents
or students. In these cases, teachers and administrators should contact
CITA to request a copy of the bubble sheet. However, this copy must
remain with the teacher or administrator and be shredded after the
meeting.
Teachers may provide parents with a list of general topics for further study
with their child (i.e. dividing fractions) but not specific problems or
questions (including portions of problems or questions) or copies of their
student’s work.
It is important that all staff helps to protect the validity, reliability, and
confidentiality of our district assessments.
All infractions of these expectations should be reported immediately to your
principal.
Failure to follow these guidelines may result in disciplinary action.
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