TAPCO
November 2, 2015
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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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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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…
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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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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:
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Cell phones
Blackberry devices and other PDAs
iPods and MP3 players
iPads, tablets, and other eReaders
Etc. (continued on page 9 of manual)
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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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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Proctors ensure student answer documents are signed and
bubbled appropriately before students are dismissed.
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This year’s documents will be two
pages
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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)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Students will be provided testing
accommodations included in their IEP, 405
plan, or declassification IEP.
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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.
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NYC is implementing distributed scoring in all high
schools during the 2013 Regents administrations.
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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.
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.
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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.
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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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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.
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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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Cheating – Allow student(s) to finish the
test. If an investigation by the
administration substantiates cheating:
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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.
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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.
There will be content specific training for each
of the exams.
…some changes for Middle School Math…
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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.