Informational Letter #102, SAT Registration Roster Verification and Accommodations Update

INFORMATIONAL LETTER NO.: 102

POLICY CODE: ILB

TO: Superintendents of Schools, High School Principals, Guidance Counselors, and Assessment Coordinators

FROM: Susan A. Gendron, Commissioner

DATE: February 16, 2006

SUBJECT: SAT Registration Roster Verification and Accommodations Update

During the past two months, the guidance director or designated test coordinator at your high school completed and returned an initial SAT registration roster along with paper registration forms to the College Board. The roster was designed to give an early indication of those students who will use testing accommodations through the checking of one of the two accommodations categories for individual students:

College Board approved accommodations, or
Maine accommodations

An SAT Roster Verification Form for your school has been prepared based on those preliminary rosters and completion of a College Board review of the documentation for most students requesting College Board accommodations. In order to ensure that ample quantities of appropriate materials are on-site for those students and others requiring Maine accommodations, it is critical that each school review and validate the category to which each student has been assigned. Changes will need to be made to specify Maine accommodations when appropriate.

On Thursday, February 16th, the revised rosters will be made available online to schools for the verification process. Please review the SAT Roster Verification Form to verify that:

all students who were registered for the Maine SAT Initiative at your school appear on the list;
each student’s category of participation is accurate. Students will be listed as receiving “None” or “College Board” accommodations. The “None” category may include some students for whom you wish to provide Maine accommodations.

In order to change the status of students needing Maine accommodations, you must click on the “Edit” button in the student’s record and enter appropriate Maine accommodation codes as directed in the Step-by-Step Instructions provided on the MEDMS site. The online verification must be completed and submitted by Friday, March 3, 2006.

To ensure that the information is kept secure and viewable only by local school officials, the updateable roster is a form housed inside the Maine Education Data Management System (MEDMS). If the guidance/test director does not have access to this form, please make sure to provide them “Student Admin” level permissions for this verification process. The MEDMS login page can be reached at: https://www.medms.maine.gov/MEDMS.

Specific instructions to access your SAT Registration Roster:

Log on to the MEDMS application (if you do not have a current logon id and password, please contact your district MEDMS administrator).
In the MEDMS “Application” dropdown box, select “Forms” and press the “GO” button.
The “Action” dropdown box will activate. Select “SAT Roster Update Form” and press “GO”.
The form will appear with a dropdown menu of schools in your district that have students who are registered for the SAT. Select your school from the dropdown and the roster for your school will appear.
Instructions on how to complete the process will be specified on the roster form. Please read the instructions carefully before beginning.

If you need assistance with this MEDMS SAT Roster Verification process, please contact Linda Parkin at 207-624-6782 or contact her at linda.parkin@maine.gov. For technical issues regarding the use of MEDMS, please contact the MEDMS helpdesk at 624-6896 or MEDMS.HELPDESK@maine.gov.

Please make sure that your SAT testing officials receive this Informational Letter upon its arrival.

Three SAT reminders:

For general SAT questions (registration, test administration, etc), please contact the SAT Counselor Hotline at 888 SAT-HELP (888 728-4357) or sat.help@info.collegeboard.org. This contact information is for use by education professionals only and should not be given out to students. The use of any other phone number may result in a delayed or inaccurate response to your inquiry.
If the test coordinator and/or head of guidance department at your school has not registered to attend one of the regional test center supervisor training sessions, please encourage them to do so. Although the announced deadline for these sessions has passed, we will still admit participants from unrepresented schools. There are several new protocols associated with the April administration and even the most seasoned SAT supervisors would be well advised to attend. For additional information please go to: http://www.maine.gov/education/sat_initiative/docs/test_ctr_workshops.pdf
As of February 9th, all Maine high school students, faculty and administrators have full access to The Official SAT Online Course (see Informational Letter No. 93: http://www.maine.gov/education/edletrs/2006/ilet/06ilet093.htm ). Please check to see if all parties in your district are aware of and using this resource.

Your continued efforts in ensuring the success of this important initiative are necessary and appreciated.