2017 TESTING ACT Tessera Administration Manual www.act.org/act-tessera
Visit actaspire.pearson.com for links to the following sites: ACT Aspire Portal administrator/teacher sign in ACT Aspire Student Sandbox Avocet (a collection of manuals, guides, and help sheets) Many more helpful resources ACT Tessera Customer Care: 855.730.0400, 8:30 a.m. 5:00 p.m. central time, Monday Friday 2017 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. MA80001.OPS2733
Contents Introduction 1 General Information 2 Policies and Procedures 2 Equal Treatment 2 Fair Testing Practices 2 ACT Tessera Data Use 2 Accessibility for ACT Tessera 3 Overview 3 Assessment Format 3 Online Assessment Instructions 4 Preparing for ACT Tessera 4 Technical Requirements 4 The ACT Aspire Portal and TestNav 8 4 Desirable Testing Conditions 5 Online Testing Guidelines 5 Post-Testing Instructions 6 Assessment Administration Procedures 7 Student Authorization Tickets 7 How to Schedule Testing 8 Room Supervisors 8 Responsibilities of Other Testing Staff 9 iii
Introduction This manual contains the instructions for coordinating administration of the ACT Tessera assessment for both Middle School and High School versions. Training and test administration resources are available online: The Training Management System (TMS) at actaspire.tms.pearson.com The Avocet site at actaspire.avocet.pearson.com The ACT Tessera site as www.act.org/act-tessera 1
General Information Policies and Procedures This manual provides direction in administering ACT Tessera tests, including specific instructions for conducting the assessments. It is important to follow these instructions to successfully measure students skills. The following actions are prohibited: Photocopying, making an electronic copy, or keeping a personal copy of the test or of any test items Taking notes about or paraphrasing assessment items to aid in preparing students for the assessment Aiding or assisting a student with a response or answer to a secure assessment item Rephrasing assessment items for students Creating an answer key or crib sheet of answers to assessment items Editing or changing student responses after completion of the assessment, with or without the student s permission Equal Treatment All staff are required to administer and supervise ACT Tessera in a nondiscriminatory manner. Fair Testing Practices ACT and its affiliates endorse the Code of Fair Testing Practices in Education and the Code of Professional Responsibilities in Educational Measurement, which guide the conduct of those involved in educational testing. ACT and its affiliates are committed to ensuring that each of its testing programs upholds the guidelines in each Code. ACT Tessera Data Use Student scores and other information provided through the online testing system are governed by the ACT Aspire Data Usage Policy at www.discoveractaspire.org/legal/data-usage-policy. 2
General Information Accessibility for ACT Tessera ACT Tessera strives to provide equal access to all students, recognizing that some students need technological and other forms of support to be able to test fairly and to the best of their abilities. The need for accessibility is universal. Default Embedded System Tools are those accessibility features that are made available as needed to all students for ACT Tessera. See the ACT Tessera Accessibility Guide, available on the website, for further information on the types of accessibility tools and how to administer them. Overview ACT Tessera is a comprehensive next-generation assessment system for social and emotional learning factors. It features an advanced assessment methodology that goes beyond traditional self-reporting to yield more reliable, valid results. Created for middle and high school students, the assessment system includes detailed reports at the individual and aggregate level as well as resources to address areas requiring increased focus. ACT Tessera measures six areas of social and emotional learning: Tenacity/Grit Composure/Resilience Organization/Responsibility Curiosity/Ingenuity Teamwork/Cooperation Leadership/Communication Style Assessment Format The ACT Tessera assesssment is composed of: Self-report items Students will rate the extent to which they agree with several statements. Situational judgment items Students are presented with several scenarios and possible responses to each. They then rate the likelihood that they would engage in each response. Forced choice items Students are presented with several statements and asked to select the statements that are most like me and least like me. 3
Online Assessment Instructions Preparing for ACT Tessera To prepare your school for online testing for ACT Tessera, you will need to: Ensure your testing machines meet the minimum supported operating system (OS) and OS version using App Check. After it checks the OS, App Check confirms that the device or computer is configured to launch TestNav in kiosk mode. You must run App Check on every device in your testing environment. Ensure all student information has been entered into an online test session in the ACT Aspire Portal. Train staff on the use of the ACT Aspire Portal and TestNav 8 (the online testing system). Note: Firefox is the only browser that is compatible with TestNav 8. Users are encouraged to utilize the TestNav app, which can be downloaded at http://download.testnav.com/. To prepare your students for online testing, refer them to the Student Sandbox at tn.actaspire.org/client. Sandbox log in information can be found on the Exemplar tab of the landing page, actaspire.pearson.com. While the Student Sandbox presents test questions as they are presented in the format of the live test, example questions are not intended to be a practice test for content. Their purpose is to familiarize students with the functions and presentation of test items in TestNav 8 to prevent delays or mistakes due to an unfamiliar interface. Technical Requirements Equipment used for online testing must meet the minimum system hardware and software requirements. Updates of the latest hardware and software requirements can be found under TestNav on Avocet. Please note that Android is not supported. The ACT Aspire Portal and TestNav 8 Your school testing staff will need to use the online testing system to enable student testing. Step-bystep instructions on using the system can be found in the ACT Aspire Portal User Guide, available on the Avocet website. 4
Online Assessment Instructions For ACT Tessera you will use the following online components of the online assessment system. ACT Aspire Portal (www.actaspire.org): This is where you will perform your administrative and proctoring tasks. TestNav 8 app: This is where students will sign in to take tests. After the organization file is verified, invitation emails will be sent to the contacts listed in the organization file. The position on the record indicates the initial permission level that user will receive. The email invitation will allow each user to set their own login credentials. This school staff member, referred to in the testing system as an Administrator or Test Coordinator, will need to create Room Supervisors (i.e., invite other school staff members to create accounts within the system) so that more than one school staff member can authorize groups of students to test. For further information about the testing roles defined in the ACT Aspire Portal, refer to the Portal User Roles section of the Avocet website. The following ACT Aspire Portal tasks listed here in approximate chronological order are examples of what will be described in detail in the ACT Aspire Portal User Guide. (The guide can be found on Avocet.) Delegating administrative tasks and inviting additional users into the ACT Aspire Portal Student data file Accessibility and accommodations Create groups Technology setup and configuration Desirable Testing Conditions Test session setup Pre-cache computer-based test content Print student authorization tickets Start all test sessions in the portal Administer the test Post-test cleanup Most room supervisors will administer the assessment to their students in the school s computer lab during regular class periods. Rooms used for testing should offer ample seating, good lighting, comfortable temperatures, a quiet atmosphere, and freedom from distraction. Adhering to the following guidelines will help minimize the possibility that students will look at each other s work. Online Testing Guidelines Because of the nature of online testing and typical computer lab arrangements, the following guidelines should be followed in order to prevent prohibited student behavior. If computers can be moved, arrange them in such a way that students will not be able to see another student s work. If computers cannot be moved, take steps to seat students in such a way that they cannot see another student s work. U-shaped seating arrangements are acceptable if they meet this guideline. If available, place privacy guards on the sides of computer monitors to provide additional privacy. TestNav 8 must be the only application running on the computer during the assessment. Testing staff should circulate around the room regularly. This will discourage students from any prohibited behaviors. 5
Online Assessment Instructions Post-Testing Instructions After testing, it is the room supervisor s or test coordinator s responsibility to sign in to the ACT Aspire Portal and check the status of each student s test in the session you just concluded. If necessary, you can submit a student s test on behalf of the student, if the student did not already do so, by closing the test session in the ACT Aspire Portal. Close the test session according to the instructions in the ACT Aspire Portal User Guide. Be sure all students have completed the assessment or the allotted time has expired before closing the test session. Once test sessions are closed, they cannot be reopened. 6
Assessment Administration Procedures Before students are admitted to the test room, setup activities should be completed. Instructions for completing these tasks and the successful starting and running of test sessions will be provided by your test coordinator and are also available in the Portal User Guide on the Avocet website. All computers to be used for testing should be turned on, and the TestNav 8 url or TestNav application should be launched so the student sign-in screen is visible. Note: The TestNav app can be downloaded at http://download.testnav.com/. Student Authorization Tickets Ahead of test day, print the student authorization tickets for each subject test to be administered and familiarize yourself with the format of the authorization tickets. If all authorization tickets were printed out at one time for all students testing, ensure with your test coordinator that you received only the tickets for your students and sessions. See the related task about printing authorization tickets in the Portal User Guide. Keep these tickets secure at all times and do not distribute them to students until testing. You must start the test session in the Portal before students can sign in to TestNav to start testing. See the related task in the Portal User Guide. Once the test session has been started and students are admitted to the room and seated, securely distribute the student authorization tickets. Hand the authorization tickets to each student; do not pass them down aisles. Each student must have his or her authorization ticket before signing in to the assessment. Students should not have access to their login credentials before testing. No one except the students should have access to the contents of the assessment. The time allowed to complete different subject tests varies by grade and subject. All students in a room must take the same subject and grade tests. If a student needs to have their time extended while testing, a proctor may use his or her proctor password found on the test session s Test Session Details page to extend that student s time after their time runs out. Please note: The proctor must do this prior to the student clicking Submit Final Answers. 7
Assessment Administration Procedures How to Schedule Testing After student information has been uploaded into the ACT Aspire Portal, students must be assigned to an online test session. You may choose the date(s) on which you want to test. Students should not start a test unless there is adequate time for them to finish on the same day. Room Supervisors Typically, teachers will administer the tests to students during regular class periods. Be sure that everyone involved in test administration has access to this manual and is familiar with its contents. A room supervisor is needed in each testing room to assist and monitor students. Room Supervisor Qualifications The ACT Tessera test coordinator should confirm that the room supervisor(s) meet all of the following criteria. Each room supervisor should be: Proficient in English Experienced in testing and classroom management A staff member of the institution or district where the test administration will take place To protect both students and the room supervisor from questions of possible conflict of interest, relatives or guardians of students taking ACT Tessera should not serve in the role of room supervisor in the same test room as the student relative. It is permissible for relatives or guardians of testing students to serve as a room supervisor in the same school/district as a related student, provided that student tests in a different room. In such circumstances, the school/district should monitor the testing process so that test coordinators who have a relative testing do not handle the test materials of the relative without another responsible individual present. Private consultants or individual tutors whose fees are paid by a student or student s family should not serve as a room supervisor. Room Supervisor Responsibilities Specific responsibilities are: Read and thoroughly understand the policies, procedures, and instructions in the Administration Manual and other materials provided. Supervise a test room. Start a test session if administering online tests. Help students sign in to the online testing system. Walk around the test room during testing to observe student behavior. Monitor the online testing system as needed. Ensure students have stopped testing and have correctly signed out of the online testing system. 8
Assessment Administration Procedures Responsibilities of Other Testing Staff Other school staff can assist the room supervisor with an administration to a group. Another staff member is recommended if a room has 26 or more students. Other staff members can be added for each incremental increase of 25 students in the case of testing in a large group setting. The staff member can assist in the administration of the tests according to the policies and procedures in the appropriate Administration Manual. If used, the staff members should meet the same qualifications as a room supervisor (see page 8). The testing staff member s responsibilities can be: Read and understand the appropriate Administration Manual. Help students sign in to the online testing system if administering an online assessment. Walk around the room during testing to observe student behavior. Ensure students have stopped testing and have correctly signed out of the online testing system. 9