New York State Grades 38 Testing Program

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New York State Grades 3-8 Testing Program
January 5, 2006
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The Basics
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• No Child Left Behind extended State assessment
  system for English and math to all grades, 3-8.
• All students must be tested.

• Tests start next week with the Grades 3, 4 5
  English Tests.

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Grades 3-8 Testing Schedule
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• Tests are aligned to NYS Learning Standards and
  Performance Indicators, grade by grade.
• English tests will have both reading and writing
  at each grade level.
• Mathematics tests will focus on math skills and
  will require problem-solving at each grade level.

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• This new family of tests was developed with
  extensive input from NYS teachers.

• The tests evolved from, and are similar in format
  to, the Grade 4 and 8 English and Mathematics
  Tests.

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How Will These Tests and the New Resources Help?

• The Grade 3-8 Tests will provide educators and
  parents with new information and resources that
  havent been available before.
• Educators will be able to adjust and/or revise
  instructional programs to meet the identified
  needs of districts, schools, and individual
  students.
• Parents will receive annual reports of their
  childrens test results and will be able to track
  their progress over time.

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Whats New?
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NYS Learning Standards Core Curricula

• Grade-by-grade definitions of what students
  should know and be able to do

• New PreK-12 Mathematics learning standard, as
  recommended by the Mathematics Standards
  Committee

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New Data Collection System

• By the 2006-07 school year, every student will
  have a unique identifier.
• This will
• Enhance student data reporting
• Improve data quality
• Ensure that students can be tracked over time,
  even as they transfer between districts.

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New Data Reporting System - Overview

• Provide district and school administrators and
  staff with secure access to reports and data
  analyses.
• Report summary data by grade, age, disability,
  LEP status, race/ethnicity.
• Provide media and school superintendents with
  access to the NYS Report Cards.
• Provide public access to the NYS Report Cards
  with the ability to organize the data online.

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New Data Reporting System - Advantages

• Explain test results to a variety of users.
• Provide teachers and administrators with easy
  ways to analyze data to meet individual needs.
• Maintain privacy of student data.

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What Data Will Teachers and Administrators Have?

• For each student, information will be available
  on
• Scale score and performance level(Level 1, 2, 3,
  4)
• Performance on each English standard and Math
  strand
• Item-level data.

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What Data Will Parents Have?

• Reports will include
• Scale score and performance level(Level 1, 2, 3,
  4)
• Performance on sub-skills
• For example Math measurement, statistics and
  probability
• Reports include internet address with additional
  parent resources.
• Beginning in 2007, reports will include the
  childs performance in previous years.

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Using Information From Grow Reports

• Online resources are available
• Aligned with NYS Learning Standards and Grow
  Reports
• Targeted toward improving student performance and
  supporting student growth.
• The NYS Virtual Learning System provides free
  online instructional resources, for example
  lessons, for teachers.
• http//eservices.nysed.gov/vls/
• Directly tied to NYS Learning Standards
• Contains lessons aligned to NYS Learning
  Standards from MarcoPolo NY

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Using Information From Grow Reports

• The MCI Foundations MarcoPolo program provides
  free online instructional resources through NYS
  Virtual Learning System.
• http//marcopolo.mci.com/home.aspx
• Lessons aligned to NYS Learning Standards by NYS
  teachers
• Lessons developed by national experts in subject
  areas, such as the Kennedy Center for the Arts,
  National Endowment for the Humanities, National
  Geographic Society, American Association for the
  Advancement of Science
• Currently over 3,000 lessons available more to
  come
• Professional development also provided through
  NYS Teacher Centers, to assist teachers in using
  the resources

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Issues
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Will These Tests Take Too Much Class Time?

• Analysis of all State tests in grades 3-8 shows
  that most students will spend less time taking
  standardized tests than in the past.
• The majority of districts are already using
  off-the-shelf national tests at every grade
  level.
• Because all districts will now participate in one
  comprehensive, statewide testing system, less
  than 1 of a students school time will be spent
  taking State tests in the years between grades
  3-8.

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Will These Tests Take Too Long to Score?

• Writing and problem-solving sections must be
  scored by NYS teachers, consistent with the
  recommendations of NYS educators.
• Experience with Grade 4 and 8 Tests shows that
  scoring speed and efficiency will increase in
  subsequent years.
• Department has provided extensive scoring
  training and resources
• Fall 2005 Over 2,000 NYS teachers participated
  in 24 State-sponsored training workshops
• Regulations adjusted to allow districts to use
  superintendents conference days for scoring the
  Grades 3-8 Tests for 2 years.

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Will Score Reports BeReturned in a Timely Way?

• The Department must follow standard processes to
  score, scale, and analyze the new tests.
• These technical research processes take more
  time, but they are conducted only in the first
  year the tests are administered.
• This means that in subsequent years, the
  turnaround time will be dramatically reduced.

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The Big Picture From Standards to Assessment to
Instructional Impact
GrowReports Custom Data Analysis -
District,School, Student
NYS LearningStandardsCoreCurricula
LocalCurriculaInstruction
State Assessments
Data Repository
Instructional Resources for Teachers
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How Will These Tests and the New Resources Help?

• The Grades 3-8 Tests will provide educators and
  parents with new information and resources that
  havent been available before.
• Educators will be able to adjust and/or revise
  instructional programs to meet the identified
  needs of districts, schools, and individual
  students.
• Parents will receive annual reports of their
  childrens test results and will be able to track
  their progress over time.