Strategy: We will develop infrastructure to support robust technology integration across the organization and all curricula.
Examples:
End of course exams
TAKS
IRI
DRA
Need: (1) TAKS, TELPAS, EOC Online Testing – Currently the state requires only TELPAS reading be done online, which is about 14% of our students district wide at this time, so we have to have the capacity to test that number using computers which is the currently deployed technology by the state. Our existing technology meets that capacity requirement at most campuses. The bilingual elementary schools are the only ones that currently have a capacity problem for TELPAS reading and currently they test for four or five days to get it done. There is no current requirement to do any of the other TAKS tests online and it does not look like the state is going to move in that direction at this time. Then there are the End of Course tests which are being developed for the new state assessment system that will be implemented in the 2011-2012 school year. Originally TEA had said the EOCs would be online only assessments but that position has been softened this year and we are not sure how much of the EOC testing program will be required to be online in two years when it is implemented. EOCs take a lot of computers to administer given that we are talking about giving approximately 6,000 separate EOC assessments for a high school of around 1,900 students. In order to give that many EOC assessments online within 5 school days it would take 1,200 computers. Needless to say that greatly exceeds our current computer count at our high schools. Then we know that currently college testing and AP testing is pretty much pencil and paper assessments. But as the college testing companies move forward I expect they will want to do more of their assessments online. Therefore my recommendation is that every high school campus should have the capacity to test 20% of their students in grades 9-11 in one day. For elementary and middle school campuses I would recommend that they be able to test 15% of their students in grades 3-8 in one day. In other words the usable computer count needs to be 20% of high school enrollments in grades 9-11 and 15% of elementary and middle school enrollments in grades 3-8. (2) Response to Intervention (RTI) assessments. Currently we are using computerized screening and progress monitoring assessments using AIMS Web. RTI assessments are required but AIMS Web is our district’s choice for which assessments to use. Currently we use several days to conduct these assessments which are computer based. Recommendations should be the same as they are for TAKS since the same computer systems can be used for both and they do not occur at the same time. (3) Electronic assessments - Unfortunately, all of the current electronic assessments are either web based browser formats or computer data-base graphical user interfaced assessments. That means they all currently require computers with network or Internet access in order to administer them. Most of our campus computers are located in labs so students have to go to the lab to take the tests, which interferes with the use of those computers for instructional uses. The future needs to be devices that can be brought into classrooms for students to use in regular classrooms settings. We cannot build enough computer labs to meet the needs for electronic assessments at a campus. That gives rise to the issue of wireless technology so that students could be issued netbooks or other similar devices that they could use to take a test at their desks in regular classrooms. We have shied away from using our wireless infrastructure in our district for testing for a variety of reasons. But I would recommend that we build wireless infrastructure with the capacity and reliability to handle simultaneous online testing for 50% of the total enrollment at each campus.
(4) Data warehousing and access to data. Eduphoria is a remarkable technology tool that has the capability to be the primary data warehouse for student assessment data for all types of assessments. We are currently using it for all components of the state assessment system, for reading inventory assessments (DRA, EDL, QPS), district benchmarks, and campus formative and summative assessments. Eduphoria can also store SAT, ACT, AP, ITBS or other norm referenced achievement tests. Another big category of assessment are RTI (response to intervention) assessments and program documentation. I will be working to establish that component of Eduphoria this spring for implementation next August. I am working on importing the testing data results from AIMS Web into Eduphoria also. Therefore my recommendation is to expand the server capability for the Eduphoria server. The software is scalable which means that it’s access and response limitations are only those of the server it is on.
Examples:
Need:
(1) TAKS, TELPAS, EOC Online Testing – Currently the state requires only TELPAS reading be done online, which is about 14% of our students district wide at this time, so we have to have the capacity to test that number using computers which is the currently deployed technology by the state. Our existing technology meets that capacity requirement at most campuses. The bilingual elementary schools are the only ones that currently have a capacity problem for TELPAS reading and currently they test for four or five days to get it done. There is no current requirement to do any of the other TAKS tests online and it does not look like the state is going to move in that direction at this time. Then there are the End of Course tests which are being developed for the new state assessment system that will be implemented in the 2011-2012 school year. Originally TEA had said the EOCs would be online only assessments but that position has been softened this year and we are not sure how much of the EOC testing program will be required to be online in two years when it is implemented. EOCs take a lot of computers to administer given that we are talking about giving approximately 6,000 separate EOC assessments for a high school of around 1,900 students. In order to give that many EOC assessments online within 5 school days it would take 1,200 computers. Needless to say that greatly exceeds our current computer count at our high schools. Then we know that currently college testing and AP testing is pretty much pencil and paper assessments. But as the college testing companies move forward I expect they will want to do more of their assessments online. Therefore my recommendation is that every high school campus should have the capacity to test 20% of their students in grades 9-11 in one day. For elementary and middle school campuses I would recommend that they be able to test 15% of their students in grades 3-8 in one day. In other words the usable computer count needs to be 20% of high school enrollments in grades 9-11 and 15% of elementary and middle school enrollments in grades 3-8.
(2) Response to Intervention (RTI) assessments. Currently we are using computerized screening and progress monitoring assessments using AIMS Web. RTI assessments are required but AIMS Web is our district’s choice for which assessments to use. Currently we use several days to conduct these assessments which are computer based. Recommendations should be the same as they are for TAKS since the same computer systems can be used for both and they do not occur at the same time.
(3) Electronic assessments - Unfortunately, all of the current electronic assessments are either web based browser formats or computer data-base graphical user interfaced assessments. That means they all currently require computers with network or Internet access in order to administer them. Most of our campus computers are located in labs so students have to go to the lab to take the tests, which interferes with the use of those computers for instructional uses. The future needs to be devices that can be brought into classrooms for students to use in regular classrooms settings. We cannot build enough computer labs to meet the needs for electronic assessments at a campus. That gives rise to the issue of wireless technology so that students could be issued netbooks or other similar devices that they could use to take a test at their desks in regular classrooms. We have shied away from using our wireless infrastructure in our district for testing for a variety of reasons. But I would recommend that we build wireless infrastructure with the capacity and reliability to handle simultaneous online testing for 50% of the total enrollment at each campus.
(4) Data warehousing and access to data. Eduphoria is a remarkable technology tool that has the capability to be the primary data warehouse for student assessment data for all types of assessments. We are currently using it for all components of the state assessment system, for reading inventory assessments (DRA, EDL, QPS), district benchmarks, and campus formative and summative assessments. Eduphoria can also store SAT, ACT, AP, ITBS or other norm referenced achievement tests. Another big category of assessment are RTI (response to intervention) assessments and program documentation. I will be working to establish that component of Eduphoria this spring for implementation next August. I am working on importing the testing data results from AIMS Web into Eduphoria also. Therefore my recommendation is to expand the server capability for the Eduphoria server. The software is scalable which means that it’s access and response limitations are only those of the server it is on.