2nd Annual NECAP Online Writing Pilot – Coming in March/April 2012
Published:January 20, 2012
This message is being sent on behalf of Susan Smith, MEA/NECAP Coordinator at the Maine Department of Education. If you have any questions or your school is interested in participating, please contact Susan Smith at susan.smith@maine.gov.
Thank you
The MLTI Team
Please share the following time-sensitive information with grade 8 writing staff and others as appropriate.
2nd Annual NECAP Online Writing Pilot – Coming in March/April 2012
(Participation is limited to 20 new schools, so sign up now!)
Eighth grade students in 29 Maine middle schools successfully participated in the NECAP writing test on their MLTI MacBooks in October. Due to the success of the Measured Progress iTest system and positive feedback from both students and schools, we are expanding the program to include additional middle schools in a second pilot test. We feel that moving toward online testing will provide greater fidelity between writing in the classroom and writing for state assessments.
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, which consist 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 a test of the school’s capacity to administer iTest, so student work will not be scored. However, student responses will be returned to schools in May.
All MLTI MacBooks with the 2011 image meet the technical requirements and contain the necessary software to participate in the pilot. The technical requirements are available for review here. If you are one of the first 20 schools responding to this invitation, you may be part of the second cohort of schools to qualify for operational testing in 2012 and will be notified of required training sessions which can be accessed electronically from your school.
If your school is interested in inclusion in the pilot, please forward the following information to Susan Smith, MEA/NECAP Coordinator at Susan Smith at susan.smith@maine.gov as soon as possible or by February 16, 2012.
- School Name and Number of Grade 8 Students
- Principal Name, Email and Phone
- Technology Coordinator Name, Email and Phone
- Test Coordinator Name, Email and Phone
- Designation of Main Contact for Communication: Principal, Technology Coordinator, or Test Coordinator
Please direct all questions to:
Susan C. Smith, MEA/NECAP Coordinator, Maine Department of Education
susan.smith@maine.gov; phone (207)624-6775; fax (207)624-6771