DATE:
Thursday, August 11, 2022
TO:
Elementary School Administrators
FROM:
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching & Learning
Ben Jameson, Director of Evaluation, Research and Accountability
SUBJECT:
BOY Acadience Reading and Math Testing Reminders
The beginning-of-year Acadience Reading and Math testing window opens on the first day of school and closes on Friday, September 30th. As we prepare for Acadience testing, there are a few friendly reminders that help the district testing teams be as efficient as possible while they are at your school testing students:
- Because our assessment teams are still not fully staffed, we are asking that instructional coaches plan to assist with testing on your school’s scheduled day(s) again this year. Full-time personnel from Evaluation, Research & Accountability will also be assisting with testing.
- Please avoid scheduling kindergarten and first grade classes back to back, when possible. They take longer because assessment assistants are administering both the reading and math measures. Staggering them between second and third grade classes helps the team stay on time.
- Encourage your teachers to be flexible. They need to be prepared to come early or late to their allotted time.
- Be sure to have an adult runner available who knows the school and can quickly get the next class to come to the testing area, distribute student cards, and help the testing run as efficiently as possible. If schools don’t have a runner available, a parent who knows where teacher classrooms are is a viable option. If there is no runner, one of our assessment assistants has to do it, which means she is testing less students.
- Because Kindergarten students will not be in school the first six days of the testing window, there is very little time for district assessment assistants to come back to your school to do absent testing. While we will do our best to complete testing with students who were absent on test day, please plan on having school personnel help to complete absent testing.
Change to Accommodations Policy:
Please note that USBE has updated its accommodations policy for both Acadience Reading and Math. They are no longer allowing us to translate the instructions provided for each measure for English Learners. All EL students, regardless of language proficiency level, will be given the measure instructions in English.
Please contact Ben Jameson or Shannon Johnson in Evaluation, Research & Accountability with any questions or concerns about the reminders listed above as well as the change in USBE’s accommodation policy.
