NECAP Online Writing Pilot – Coming in March 2011
Published:December 17, 2010
The Maine Department of Education and the other NECAP states are committed to providing greater fidelity between writing in the classroom and writing for state assessments. We are very pleased to announce an opportunity for selected schools to participate in a NECAP Online Writing Pilot at grade 8. Students in successful participating schools will be able to use the online writing tool in the October 2011 NECAP test.
Department MLTI and assessment staffs have questioned Measured Progress very closely about the upgrades to their system since Maine experienced problems with its initial implementation. The iTest product has been streamlined (no matching of students’ names for instance) and made more user-friendly. We now feel that the product should work, but are requiring NECAP pilot schools in all states to successfully pilot the test before we allow the iTest product to be used in the operational test.
The purpose of the pilot test is essentially to confirm that iTest will work successfully in your school for students in future actual NECAP tests. That means that the pilot testing environment should be the same as it will be next October: your entire 8th grade class should participate at one time, students should be positioned in the rooms in which next year’s 8th grade class will participate, and both writing sessions consisting of released items should be administered. Schools should allow a minimum of 45 minutes for each of the 2 sessions. The pilot is intended to be both a test of the school’s capacity to administer iTest and the iTest product itself, so student work will not be scored or returned to schools.
Please review the NECAP Online Writing Pilot materials. All MLTI MacBooks with the 2010 image meet the technical requirements. If you are one of the first 25 schools responding to this invitation, you may be part of the first cohort of schools to qualify for operational testing in 2011. While it is our intent to bring more schools online operationally over the next 2 years, this will be impacted both by schools’ ability to participate successfully during piloting and by state funding considerations.
If your school is interested in inclusion in the pilot, please forward the following information to Susan Smith, MEA/NECAP Coordinator as soon as possible or by January 7, 2011 or call her at (207) 624-6775. Priority will be given to those schools that used the MEA Online test during the last year of its existence; others will be reviewed in order of receipt.
- Principal and School Name
- Technology Coordinator Name
- Contact Information for Each
Susan C. Smith, MEA/NECAP Coordinator, Maine Department of Education
(207)624-6775