DATE:
Thursday, April 8, 2021
TO:
Elementary School Administrators
Elementary Administrative Assistants
FROM:
Shelley Nordick, Ph.D., Administrator of Teaching and Learning
Ben Jameson, Director of Evaluation, Research and Accountability
SUBJECT:
EOY 2021 Acadience Reading Testing – In-person and Virtual Students
Acadience Reading Benchmarks are once again required this year by the state – both students receiving their instruction in-person and online. End-of-year benchmark testing will begin on April 15th and conclude on June 3rd. This memo contains information on how the benchmark administration will be accomplished for both in-person and virtual students.
Students Receiving Instruction In-person:
Principals should have received an updated Monday-Thursday schedule of when district assessment assistants will be in schools to administer the state-mandated K-3 Acadience Reading Benchmarks. For questions about scheduling, please contact Shannon Johnson at 801-567-8873 or shannon.johnson@jordandistrict.org.
There will be 7-8 district assessment assistants during your assigned testing time. We also ask that the instructional coach, who was trained in September on Acadience Reading testing, assist with testing students as well. If the testing team gets ahead of schedule during the day, we are happy to excuse coaches to go about their other duties. To better be able to social distance between individual testing areas, we are requesting that schools use one of two room options:
- Schedule the media center.
- Schedule two classrooms that are close together. This allows classes to be easily funneled into both classrooms. It also allows team leads to gather cards easily and assist with technology glitches quickly to minimize lost testing time.
If neither of these room options is possible, please contact Ben Jameson at 801-567-8243 to discuss other arrangements.
Each district tester is equipped with an 18x18 plexiglass shield along with their Chromebooks and student materials. For this reason, student desks do not provide enough table space for everything. We are requesting tables with chairs to accommodate our testers’ equipment.
For information on the cleaning and disinfecting procedures district testers will follow after each student, please see the document entitled Acadience Reading Testing Protocols and Procedures for COVID-19 that accompanies this memo.
Besides the changes listed above, our district assessment assistants will follow a similar routine for testing that they have followed in previous years.
Students Receiving Instruction Online:
We are required to administer the Acadience Reading Benchmarks to all students – including our students who have opted to learn online from home this year. Parents of virtual students can choose to have their student tested in-person at their boundary school or virtually via Zoom. Testing of virtual students will take place on Fridays at elementary schools throughout the testing window. Evaluation, Research & Accountability will be sending a small team of 4-5 district assessment assistants to meet with and administer the benchmark assessments in-person to virtual students (principals have already been notified of their assigned Friday). We are requesting that schools set aside a location for the assessment assistants to administer the benchmarks that will have access to larger table spaces to accommodate the plexiglass shield, Chromebooks and student materials.
Evaluation, Research & Accountability will schedule virtual students for a testing appointment through a Qualtrics survey form. Schools will not need to schedule anything themselves. If parents of virtual students or virtual teachers request the link to schedule a testing appointment, schools may provide the following link:
https://jordandistrict.sjc1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1ZZwVyBwPCsud4a
Please contact Ben Jameson with any questions or concerns. We look forward to working with you on a smooth Acadience Reading test administration.
