The Testing Coordinator Connection
August 2021
Welcome Back to School!
We are excited to announce that Mary Caywood has joined our team as an Educational Consultant specializing in Secondary Counselor Support (including Safe Schools, Accountability, and State Assessment). Before joining Region 18, she most recently served as the Director of Accountability and School Improvement for Midland ISD. Certified as an English Language Arts and Reading teacher in grades 7-12 and School Counselor (EC-12), Mrs. Caywood received a Bachelor of Arts from Regis University, a Masters of Science from Clemson University in Youth Development Leadership, and is currently a PhD candidate at Texas Tech University in Educational Psychology.
Contact Mary at (432) 567-3266 or mary.janousek@esc.net
Oaths of Security and Confidentiality
The 2020-2021 Security Oaths for superintendents and district coordinators were due to the state testing contractor prior to July 31st. Districts should print or save a copy of the superintendent and district coordinator oaths prior to submitting. If you have questions about the submission of these oaths, contact ETS. General oaths should be printed, saved, or both, but these oaths do not need to be submitted to the state testing contractor.
- All oaths are required to be maintained by the district for a period of five years.
Required DTC Training
- Mark your calendars for October 12th or 14th for the required DTC training.
To better accommodate a variety of schedules and needs, we will offer one F2F training at the ESC and one virtual training. At this time, it is anticipated to be a full-day training with a break for lunch. You will only need to attend one of these days. I ask that you limit attendance to you and 2 others from your district. Please note: Attendance at this training by a CTC does NOT take the place of the CTC training that you must provide.
TSNAP New DTC Academy
This Academy is designed for District Test Coordinators with 2 years or less experience. Participants will learn the basics of how to manage the state assessment program. Topics presented during the training will include: the calendar, test security, materials management, online testing, inventory, shipping, planning and much more.
Online registration is available until August 13, 2021.
- When: Sept.15 - 16, 2021
- September 15, 8am to 4 pm & September 16, 8 am to noon
- Where: Embassy Suites
- 5615 Landmark Parkway
- San Antonio, Texas 78249
Timelines
From July 11–August 31, educators should visit https://tx.portal.cambiumast.com/ to find:
Access to all components of the testing system
Accommodation resources
Assessment resources for educators and administrators
Test administration manuals
As a part of the contract transition, ETS will be providing all necessary STAAR, STAAR Alternate 2, Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS), and TELPAS Alternate score data to CAI. Any districts that would like to retain copies of their individual district results for STAAR should download those results from the Reports > Results in the ETS Assessment Management System prior to August 31, 2021.
Districts will be able to access score reports in the Pearson Assessment Management
System until the following dates:
STAAR Alternate 2: August 31, 2021
TELPAS and TELPAS Alternate: September 30, 2021
For step-by-step instructions on accessing individual district results, click here.
Any corrections requested by the district after the August 31, 2021 date for STAAR, STAAR Alternate 2, TELPAS or TELPAS Alternate will be updated by CAI once the system is available.
On September 1, all resources will be located on the newly designed www.TexasAssessment.gov.
This user guide provides instructions on how to use TIDE. At its core, TIDE is a registration system for users who will access CAI systems and students who will take CAI tests. Users of all CAI systems must be added to TIDE before they can access any CAI system. Students must be added to TIDE before they can test in the Test Delivery System (TDS). Rosters must be added in TIDE so Reporting can display scores at the classroom level. During testing, TIDE users can print test tickets, manage invalidation requests, and monitor test progress. After testing, TIDE users can clean up data and track return shipments of paper testing materials. NOTE: Tasks available in TIDE vary based on your user role and assessment program.
How is the participation rate calculated for the alternative evaluation?
The participation rate is calculated only for the All Students group with all subject areas combined.
- Number of answer documents with a score code of “S”
- Number of STAAR Alternate 2 testers with a score code of “N”
- Number of “A” or “O” reading answer documents with a scored TELPAS or TELPAS Alternate assessment
- Number of “A” or “O” mathematics answer documents with a scored TELPAS or TELPAS Alternate assessment for year 1 asylee/refugees and SIFEs
- Number of accelerated testers’ EBRW SAT or ELA ACT assessments and mathematics SAT or ACT assessments*
---Divided by---
- Number of “scored” (S),
- “Absent” (A),
- “No authentic academic response” (N)
- “Other” (O) assessments, and
- Accelerated testers (from CAF)
*SAT results include assessments from August 2017 through the May 2021 administration, and ACT results include assessments from August 2017 through the April 2021 administration.
NOTE: To be eligible, the campus must have a 95 percent participation rate for 2021.
STAAR Resources Toolkit
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has heard from districts that there is a need to better prioritize communication with all families. In response to ongoing district requests, we have developed a toolkit of resources to support districts in communicating directly with families about this year’s administrations of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR®).
The toolkit can be found on the TEA COVID-19 Support: Student Assessment webpage under Tools, Templates, and Resources. These materials, including flyers in English and Spanish, were developed in partnership with school districts across the state, such as Aldine, Austin, Laredo, and Tornillo. We will continue to post additional resources as they are developed, and we encourage you to use them where applicable, and as appropriate, for your district.
STAAR Online Features & Supports Checklist
Note: Not all of the designated supports are available on all tests. For more information see the Accessibility within the STAAR Program Educator Guide.
NOTE: The 2021-2022 DCCR will be released after the ESC training on September 30th.