Preparations for Math Practice Test during PLC Meeting on Monday

After implementing the SBAC Practice test for ELA we learned some valuable lessons and will therefore make slight adjustments to the SBAC Practice test Math activity on 2/26/14. We found the solution to the "Kiosk Application cannot be installed" error message and need to address the high number of students who didn't submit the Google form.

In PLC on Monday, please review the lesson plan and Directions for Administration and please note the following revisions/additions from the ELA lesson:

• Added instructions at the beginning of the Directions for Administration to include Wifi authentication (this will eliminate the Kiosk application error) and teacher verification for the submission of the student Google Form
• Added teacher verification forms
• Hard copy to be filled out at the end of each period, signed and submitted to the SBAC Site Coordinator
• Google Form Electronic copy to be filled out by the teacher at the end of the testing day
• Demo the Ontario video on adding lines and points

Please email or call me Friday or over the weekend if you have any questions. Please leave a comment on this blog with a clarifying question (don't be a pumpkin eater and ask something goofy just to say you asked a question), or a value added comment. 

SBAC 2-7-14 Things to Do on Monday

Good afternoon SBAC Site Coordinators,

Here are a few last reminders on things to do to prepare for the SBAC Practice test activity on Tuesday, February 11th:

• Visit your ELA PLC Monday morning to review the Directions for Administration Presentation on the Lesson Plan and specifically the last few slides on troubleshooting and highlight the SBAC Practice Test FAQ's document. Also address the following:
• Where should kids report if they don't have their Chromebook? 
• Where will your Techs be located? Who do the teachers call if they get any of the common error messages? 
• Review the student survey with the teachers. Remind them that if the student wasn't able to take the test on their own chromebook, they need to mark no on the form and the reason why. Take this survey yourself before Monday, demo it in PLC. 
• Please post a brief comment on this blog regarding any specific questions you have, a bright idea that may benefit one of your colleagues, or your general plan of attack on Monday. 

• Review your master schedule and distribute the extra headphones to teachers. You may want to ask them to keep the little wire ties and have the kids tie them up when they are done. They get really tangled and messy without these. Remember that there are only a few per teacher

• Send a phone dialer on Sunday and/or Monday reminding students to bring their Chromebooks and headphones. (Make the message known that we are not requiring students go out and buy headphones and we will provide them if necessary but we want to give them the option of using their own). 

• The site techs will checkout a few loaner Chromebooks to the teachers (these will be scanned in and out) and they will collect them on February 12th. 

• The site techs will be available to walk classrooms with you and you will need to communicate to staff that they will be unavailable for other day to day duties. 

• Testing Coordinator Manual was posted on February 7th. Review at your leisure, no need to memorize at this point. 

Good evening, 

The email message below went out to all students in grades 5-11. This will hopefully help us with getting students the most updated Chrome version so they can access the SBAC app. 

Updated instructions for students to access the SBAC Practice Test have been added to the SBAC Practice Test Lesson Plan. There are some troubleshooting slides that I added and there are two screens on the practice test that SBAC changed slightly. Please post a clarifying question or comment at the bottom of this blog (making sure you are paying attention). 

The site techs are doing a great job of working with students to put their devices back on the PUHSD Management system. Please continue to monitor and coordinate the effort to get students into the library so that they can have the techs review their devices. 

Joe and his team are working to get loaner Chromebooks to the ELA teachers on February 11th and we need you to add the classrooms to this Google Spreadsheet for all ELA teachers at your site. He is also working with the some of our Network/Wifi contractors to have them out to observe our network being pushed to the limit, thanks Joe!

Thank you for all of your hard work, happy testing!

Student Email Message: 

Hello students, 

In the next week you will be working on a few activities in class that will require the latest Chrome web browser updates. Some of your teachers will walk you through this in class but we would like you to update your Chrome browser ahead of time if possible. To complete the update, please do the following: 

1. Click on the Chrome Browser button (muliti color circle on the bottom left hand side of the screen)

2. Type chrome://chrome in the browser window and then push enter

3. Chrome will begin the update process. Please check back in a few minutes and then click on the button that says restart. 

Thank you for your attention to this, have a great week!

Sincerely, 

Perris Union High School District Technology Department

SBAC Chrome App Preparations

Good afternoon,

Based on feedback from our Techie Tester Teachers and extensive testing with students in classrooms, we have learned of two unique problems that are preventing students from accessing the Chrome SBAC App.

1. Student devices have been disenrolled from the PUHSD management system. This is problematic for numerous reasons but the immediate concern is that these devices will not pick up the SBAC App and will be unable to access the practice/field test. It is easy to identify this by having the student click on their profile picture (bottom right hand side of the screen) and then looking for the "This device is managed by puhsd.org" message."

2. Some devices are not receiving the latest Chrome update and the SBAC app freezes. This can be improved by having the student power down their device and then power it on again. After this, have the student open up the Chrome browser and type in chrome://chrome/ and the browser should update.

Thanks to Shane Pinnell in the Technology department for several hours of advanced voodu and technical work we were able to identify students who have a Chromebook checked out to them but those devices haven't logged into our network in the last two weeks. There are a few possibilities here that include the following:

• Device was disenrolled from the PUHSD management system 
• The student hasn't brought their Chromebook to school/signed into our network

What do you need to do? 

Work with your office staff, site technology technician, and your temporary technicians to review the list of student devices and determine if the device is on the management console and that it is updated to the latest version of Chrome. Site Techs will need to document students who have devices that are not in the PUHSD Management system. 

Please ensure that all students have their Chromebooks reviewed prior to February 10th. I suggest working with your History department to identify the dates that they will be administering the LCAP Survey to their students as that will be a double incentive for kids to have their devices on campus those days. The student list was emailed to you on 1-31-14. 

1-30-14 SBAC Test Coordinator Manual, Tutorials, and Communications

SBAC Coordinators,

Smarter Balanced recently posted the Test Administrator Manual (TAM) that gives us some clarification and guidance on the administrative aspects of the Field Test. Please "peruse" this document but know that in the next week or so, the California Department of Education (CDE) and Educational Testing Service (ETS) will release test coordinator and test administrator manuals specific to California. We will learn these new regulations and procedures together in our Coordinator meetings but I wanted to share the online resources with you at: http://sbac.portal.airast.org/field-test/resources/

The Training Test has now been released and it is slightly different than the practice test. The significant differences are outlined on pages 27 to 29 of the TAM. (See screenshots below)

The district will be communicating information to parents regarding the SBAC practice test activity on February 11th with a letter sent to all students in grades 5-11 and an Ed Connect phone dialer. The letter will reach parents on or around 2/7/14 and the dialer will be sent on 2/3/14. The phone dialer will inform students to bring their Chromebooks and their headphones on the day of the practice test. Students are not required to bring headphones, we will provided them if needed.

SBAC Practice Test vs Training Test

SBAC Field Test Resources

#SBAC has released updated Field Test training materials posted on the portal site http://goo.gl/0GcTnc.

CAASPP Calendar Due

The California Assessment of Student Progress and Performance (CAASPP), (formerly CalMapp which was formerly STAR) calendars need to be resubmitted to account for the SBAC maintenance downtime scheduled on 4/10 and 4/11. We also need to have either ELA, math, or a combo of ELA/math teachers proctoring the SBAC Field test. Please re-submit your calendars by next Wednesday, January 29th at 5:00 pm.  I don't need the calendars in any special format but they should be in a professional and presentable format that can be shared with your staff once they are approved by Ed Services and Cabinet. Please review the SBAC Site Coordinator document from December and the information below for the complete list of mandated assessments.

Remember that SBAC is down for maintenance on the following dates:

Thursday, April 10 – Sunday, April 13, 2014

Thursday, May 8 – Sunday, May 11, 2014

California Assessment of Student Progress and Performance (CAASPP)

• EAP ELA in Grade 11
• Writing exam Feb-March (1 class period)
• Full CST, two parts (Part 1- 85 min, Part 2- 100 min)
• EAP Math in Grade 11
• 11th grade students  in Algebra 2, and courses beyond Algebra 2 (Stats, Calculus etc)
• Full CST, two parts (Part 1- 90 min, Part 2- 105 min)
• Grade Level Science
• All students in Grades 5,8, and 10
• CST, CMA, and CAPA
• Two parts (60 min each for a total of 120 min)
• CAPA ELA and Math
• Grades 2-11
• SBAC Field Test (see below)

SBAC Field Testing Window and Assignments

• Test Coordinator Manuals and documentation to be released in late January by SBAC
• Field Test Window is 4/7 to 5/16 for all schools in our district and almost all schools in the county
• 95% of students will take a combo test of both ELA and Math items and a Performance Task in one content area. 5% of students will take an ELA only test or a Math only test (PTs included)
• Both groups (combo and single testers) will test for approximately 4.5 hours and both include a full performance task
• It is anticipated that the test will be broken up into 4 separate sections of 45 to 55 min each but schools can test students in longer or shorter sessions
• Performance Task content area assignments probably won’t be known until students log in. Questions regarding the classroom activity were raised to staff at CDE, possible that PT will be towards middle. More to follow
• In PUHSD, only students in grades 5-8 and grade 11 will test. No 9th or 10th graders were selected for the Scientific sample