Jordan Administrative Memos

DATE:  
Thursday, November 19, 2020

TO:    
Elementary Principals
Elementary Administrative Assistants

FROM:  
Shelley Nordick, Ph.D., Administrator of Teaching and Learning
Ben Jameson, Director of Evaluation, Research and Accountability

SUBJECT:  
MOY 2020 Acadience Reading Testing – In-person and Online Students

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Acadience Reading Benchmarks are once again required this year by the state – both students receiving their instruction in-person and online. USBE has extended the middle-of-the-year testing window by one week to Friday, February 5, 2021. This memo contains information on how the benchmark administration will be accomplished for both.

Students Receiving Instruction In-person:
Principals should have received an updated Monday-Thursday schedule of when district testers 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 testers 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. To better be able to social distance between individual testing areas, we are requesting that schools use one of two room options:

1. Schedule the media center.
2. 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 make 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 testers will follow a similar routine for testing that they have followed in the past.

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 this year.  Parents of online students can choose to have their student tested in-person at their boundary school or virtually via Zoom.  Testing of online students will take place on Fridays at each elementary school.  Evaluation, Research & Accountability will be sending a small team of 4-5 district testers to meet with and administer the benchmark assessments in-person to online students (principals have already been notified if their assigned Friday).  We are requesting that schools set aside a location for the testers 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 online students for a testing appointment.  Schools will not need to schedule anything themselves.  If parents of online students or online teachers request the link to schedule a testing appointment, schools may provide the following link:
https://jordandistrict.sjc1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5mYuLUZcEtt9QOx

Please contact Ben Jameson with any questions or concerns.  We look forward to working with you on a smooth Acadience Reading test administration.