In mid-February, Cornerstone Preparatory Academy in San Jose became one of the first schools in Silicon Valley to administer the new interim assessment. We recently talked with Cornerstone’s Valerie Douglass, Dean of School Culture and Matthew Dickel, Blended Support, who shared their experiences administering the test for the first time and shared their top five tips for getting ready for game day.
“I feel like we’re super prepared, but we expect to see scores drop. The test is hard for an adult. It’s a deeper level questioning that most third grade students have experienced. That’s going to take us some time,” said Douglass. “It’s a lot more writing, more application and deeper level thinking with multiple steps even in third grade as opposed to the California Standards Test (CST) which had more foundational skills and rote memory.”
While Cornerstone has been doing lots of prep since fall to get ready for testing this year, the broader transition to Common Core has been underway much longer and spans the way they structure their day, curriculum, professional development for teachers and more.
Your Checklist to Get Your School Ready for the SBAC Assessment
- If you’re the test coordinator, make sure you are deeply familiar with the system so you can field any and all questions from staff.
- Make sure all your teachers can sign into Test Operations Management System (TOMs) and the testing interface.
- Make sure all the school computers have the secure browser ready for students. Test it by switching to secure browser mode on each device before the first day of testing.
- Prep the log-in info for students. There isn’t currently an easy way to print cards for students. Cornerstone staff went into TOMS -> Students -> grade, then simply printed the whole page and cut it up so each student had a slip with their log-in info.
- Make sure both students and teachers are trained and ready to sign on.
California is transitioning from the California Standards Tests (CST) to the new California Assessments of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP), which is different in two key ways. First of all, the content and format are different since the new tests align with the new Common Core standards that California adopted in 2010. Secondly, rather than filling in bubbles on paper exams, students take the full tests on computers and they’re computer-adaptive which means that if a student gets a question correct, the next one will be even harder. In spring 2014, students took the test for the first time, but schools didn’t receive scores. Schools are also now able to access a practice tests for which they will receive scores soon after they complete the exam.
How was setting up the computers?
Matt: The set-up was fairly easy since we’re on Chromebooks and there is an administration management system to assign apps centrally. The biggest thing that is different is that you have to set this up under device instead of under user. The other tip for Chromebooks – they all need to be enrolled in your management domain. We thought about using tablets for the kindergartners, but if you use tablets or iPads, you have to set up external keyboards and mice, so we decided it would be easier to get students used to the Chromebooks from the start.
What are the big changes you’ve made over the past few years to get your school ready for Common Core?
Valerie: The way we’re implementing technology as a whole is really ramping it up. We’re always looking to be moving with society and where things are going. Our mission is getting our students to and successfully through college. None of that changed – the process changed.
In the past, we just had two Chromebook carts, but this year, we went to 1:1 (supported by a grant from the Silicon Schools fund). We also have the students taking specific tech skill classes. For instance, Matthew used to do a coding club after school. Now Matt is on staff full-time supporting our technology and classrooms during the day. He teaches coding to 4th and 5th grade. Students in grades 1-3 have tech skills and we start typing practice in first grade. With the NWEA MAP exam, we noticed some kids came into kindergarten totally prepared to do it and others didn’t know how to use a mouse. We use sneaky tech skill programs like a fun online drawing program or game that builds some skill that we want them to get good at. We also have more direct lessons about passwords, cyber bullying, digital citizenship and literacy, appropriate sites to go to, how to create a safe password.
Matthew: The computer used to be something that comes in and you have computer time vs. now your computer time is part of the day – it flows more naturally.
What has been helpful in preparing for the tests?
Valerie: Having our students take NWEA MAP three times a year has been really helpful because the administration system is very similar for the teachers and the sign-in in very similar for the kids. As the coordinator, I’d recommend you prep as much as you can. Teachers have lots of questions and you have to be ready to help. I’d call the LEA CAASPP Coordinators help desk and often they wouldn’t have the answers so it could take time to get an answer. I sent teachers a total of two hours of webinars that they had to watch on their own, then we did an hour together to walk through logging in.
What have been some of the challenges for students as they navigate the new test?
Both: #1 – Drag and drop! Also using a mouse.
Valerie: Drag and drop is very hard for a kindergartner in terms of fine motor skills. There are questions on the test where they have to drag numbers or letters to form fractions or spell words so that is challenging. For the older students, they have to practice highlighting and annotating the text. Some of the passages are long so by the time they get to the prompt at the bottom, they’ve forgotten the question at the top, so highlighting is important to keep track of evidence as they read.
What have been some of the challenges for administering the test?
Valerie: It was very hard to figure out the scheduling. The first day, we were running around a lot to do all the troubleshooting, but after that point, it was very smooth. It took about 30-45 minutes to do log in on the first day, but much less after that. CDE and other sites that provide resources do not provide any advice on scheduling that I could find. It also would have been helpful to have a step-by-step list that says “This month, do this.” For the interim assessment, teachers have to score the student responses and submit the hand-scoring in order to get results. Our teachers got very frustrated with the tools provided for that because sometimes the exemplar didn’t always match the prompt.