Testing

ANSWER SHEETS

·         When will districts receive the answer sheets?  NERIC plans to start printing by 5/24; the day following the deadline to send your district's .csv file.  NERIC plans to have all sheets mailed on or about 6/1/2011.

·     What is the expected turn-around time for an exam to be scanned, scored, and then files sent back to the district?  Scores will be delivered to the district, via NERIC Connect, NERIC’s secure web interface, no more than 24hrs after the answer sheets have been verified at a NERIC scanning center.

·     What about retakes, walk-ins, out of district placed students?  On the CSV demographic file submitted by your district, elements 1-8 are most important.  Since these students are most likely not enrolled in a course nor have a teacher to list on the answer sheet, Use 0000 for the CourseSection and N/A for the TeacherName.  Elements 1-8 give basic demographic information and item 11 tells us which test answer sheet to provide by providing the specific StateCourseCode for the exam.  Of course there will be students who take an exam that you weren’t expecting, so, read on to the next question…

·     Will blank answer sheets be included with the pre-printed answer sheets?  We are going to include a more than usual amount of blank sheets, knowing that not all re-takes or out of district students made it in to the .csv file.  If a district happens to realize that they have a large number of students that did not make the .csv file, a separate file should be sent to NERIC ASAP so that we can print sheets for those students.

·     How should the N-24 form be filled out?  Should there be a separate form per CourseSection or per StateCourse Code (exam)?  Your district does not need to return the N-24 form to NERIC for the Regents exams.  It is important that testing administrators work closely with the district CIO and Guidance counselor to make sure that all students (including walk-ins, re-takes, and out of district placements) are in Level 0 with a demographic and enrollment record so that a match can be made with the assessment.

VERIFYING AND SCORING OF EXAMS

·         Can districts still hand score their exams?  Yes.  A district can hand score their exams, but answer sheets must still be delivered to the NERIC to be scanned.  The deadline for delivering district-scored answer sheets to the NERIC is Friday, July 8.

·     What needs to be done before delivering sheets to a scan site?  All constructed responses should be graded and the scores must be bubbled in prior to scanning.

·     When should I arrive at the scan site?  NERIC will be coordinating with your district to schedule a time for you to deliver completed answer sheets.

·     Should District and BOCES answer sheets be scanned at the same time?  After an exam has been administered and the district receives (or assumes to receive) all answer sheets back from the BOCES, they will bring them to a scan site to be scanned. 

·     What happens if answer sheets are missing?  One of the reports that we will be distributing is a roster report.  Districts will be able to see answer sheets that were distributed from the NERIC but not scanned.  The district at that point can follow up with offsite testing locations (such as BOCES Buildings) to find the missing exams.  A district has until July 8^th to get the answer sheets to the NERIC.

·     Will the reports display a raw or scaled score for each exam?  For each exam, we will provide the district with a few different reports.  In particular, the scaled score will be listed on the report with scores.

·     What does the verification process check for during the scanning process?  The verifier software stops on bubbles that are:  multiples, missed responses, crossed off, or lightly filled in, for example.  The verifier also stops on sheets with a hand-written Student ID number; and will stop on sheets where any of the barcodes or tracking marks have been altered by someone drawing in them.  The verification process allows for each of these situations to be handled so the appropriate data can be collected.

      When answer sheets cannot be processed because of multiple answers marked for a given question, etc. and the answer sheets need to be reviewed, does the NERIC staff member make the determination or a representative from the school?

 o   It is somewhat of a combination approach.  We strongly suggest you review the sheets before bringing them to the NERIC so as to avoid any glaring errors.  In addition, once the sheets have been scanned, if time permits without significant backing up of districts waiting to scan, a member of the NERIC Staff will work to verify the exams while you're on site.  It will provide an opportunity for you to observe how any discrepancies are being dealt with.   

o   Multiple Choice questions - if a student fills in multiple bubbles for a multiple choice question and does not cross off the bubbles they do not want, no bubble is accepted and the student gets zero points for that question.

o   Constructed Response Questions - If a rater fills in multiple bubbles for a constructed response question and does not cross off the bubbles they do not want, that sheet can be put in research.  Sheets in research can be deleted from the batch.  The district will then have to decide which is the correct bubble and have the sheet rescanned.  We strongly recommend the sheets be looked at before they sent to NERIC for scanning.

DATA COLLECTION AND LOADING

·         What is an Assessment_Fact file?  This is the actual score or performance level achieved by the student including the test language and any test accommodations. 

·     What is an Assessment_Response file?  This includes the responses to all of the questions as indicated by the student on the answer sheet among other items such as constructed response and essay question response. 

·     What might cause the Fact file not to match the Response file?  If a district chose to manually load/import their Regents scores into Level 0, but a grade was inadvertently changed in the source system (csv file, SMS, etc.), it is possible that the assessment fact file (score) could have a discrepancy from the response file that NERIC will be loading.  The responses are derived as a part of the scanning process.

·     Can scores loaded by NERIC be overwritten?  Since NERIC will be loading scores directly to Level 1, a district could still in advertently load Regents scores to Level 0.  Regardless, if a district chose for NERIC to load the scanned scores directly to Level 1, even if you inadvertently load scores to Level 0 and lock and load to Level 1, they will not overwrite the NERIC scanned score.