Title: New York State Grades 38 Testing Program
1New York State Grades 3-8 Testing Program
January 5, 2006
2The Basics
3- 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.
4Grades 3-8 Testing Schedule
5- 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.
6- 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.
7How 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.
8Whats New?
9NYS 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
10New 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.
11New 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.
12New 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.
13What 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.
14What 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.
15Using 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
16Using 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
17Issues
18Will 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.
19Will 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.
20Will 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.
21The 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
22How 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.