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ASSESSMENT & TECHNOLOGY FORUM June 19, 2004

2004 Gallery Walk Projects Title: Online Assessment Accomplishments in Miami-Dade County Public Schools Organization: Instructional Technology Department, Miami-Dade County Public Schools Web site:  http://www.portal.dadeschools.net/Students/a2l.htm

Contacts / Presenters:	Luciano Cossi , lcossi@dadeschools.net Carlos Lopez , clopez@dadeschools.net
What purpose does your assessment tool serve?	The purpose of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools online assessment tool, Assess2Learn , is to deliver assessments to students that are appropriate and are designed to help students practice the skills outlined in the Florida Sunshine State Standards. The assessment tool assists teachers by reducing the burden of scoring and analyzing tests. Additionally, student responses are immediately scored and a detailed analysis of strengths and weaknesses by objectives are provided. This teaching tool produces a Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) classroom profile of students' mastery of skills, along with individual student reports, which can serve as a diagnostic tool for focused instruction and intervention.
Please indicate the category that best describes your project:	Technology as an Assessment Tool: ___ NCLB Statewide Assessments (Preparation, Delivery, Analysis) X Classroom Assessments (tests, quizzes) ___ Electronic/Digital Portfolios ___ Computer Scored Essays ___ Information Management Systems ___ Tools for Observation of Student Work/Behavior ___ Special Needs/Alternative Assessments ___ Other:________________________   Assessing Technology Skills (NETS * S and NETS * T): ___ Digital Transcript ___ NCLB 8 th Grade IT Literacy ___ High School IT Graduation Requirements ___ IT Certifications (Cisco, Microsoft, etc.) ___ 21 st Century Skills ___ Other:________________________
How long has this assessment tool been in use within your organization?	The assessment tool was implemented in 2001 and has been in use for four years.
Who is the audience for this assessment tool?	Students, teachers, administrators, and district office.
What technology is used? (Please indicate hardware, software, and networking requirements)	Assess2Learn 4.8.0 (Miami-Dade install) System Requirements Minimum System Requirements 133 Mhz Pentium® compatible CPU 64 MB RAM Microsoft Windows 98®, NT 4.x®, 2000®, or XP operating system VGA monitor with a screen resolution of 800 x 600 Mouse or compatible pointing device Internet connection with a minimum access speed of 56K Browser supporting Java Script Internet Explorer 5.0® or Netscape 4.7® Adobe Acrobat Reader® 5.0® is required to print tests and view PDF versions of reports. Optimal System Requirements 233mhz Pentium compatible CPU 128 MB RAM Microsoft Windows 98, NT 4.x, 2000, or XP operating system VGA monitor with a screen resolution of 1024 x 768 Mouse or compatible pointing device Internet connection with a minimum access speed of 56K Browser supporting Java Script Internet Explorer 5.0 or Netscape 4.7 Adobe Acrobat Reader® 5.0® is required to print tests and view PDF versions of reports. Browser Requirements Internet Explorer 5.0 through 6.0 is recommended. Netscape 4.78 is recommended. Netscape 6.0+ is currently not recommended. Macintosh Browser and Operating System Requirements iMac®, iBook®, G3, G4 Netscape 4.77-4.78 is recommended. OS 8.6, 9.04, 9.1,10.0 + are recommended. Internet Explorer 5.0 and 5.15: Riverside has identified specific anomalies in Microsoft IE version 5.1.3 for the Macintosh, which may cause tests to not render properly. Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 is required to print tests and view PDF versions of reports.
Approximately how many people are currently using this system?	75,000 K-12 Students (current year) Please indicate grade level(s): 1-12 20,000 K-12 Teachers   Teacher education students   Teacher education faculty   Other � District staff
What professional development (for students or assessors) is required to use the tool?	The Assess2Learn tool requires no professional development for the students. Currently, our district provides two levels of professional development for administrators and teachers: introduction to Assess2Learn and test design using Assess2Learn. Professional development can either be hosted at any of the three Instructional Technology labs or delivered at any school site. Teachers that participate in the one day Assess2Learn introduction class are provided a comprehensive overview of the tool. Training components include: administering a test, reviewing results, and test authoring. A separate one day professional development class is available to schools and teachers that are interested in becoming more skilled in online test authoring. Additionally, system administrators are also trained on entering in new students, teachers, and classes into the management system. Furthermore, an online Assess2Learn class is available every month that combines both level one (introduction) and level two (test authoring) into one class.
To use the tool effectively, what else should the school have in place?	To use this tool effectively, schools should have an Internet connection and workstations that meet the minimum system requirements. Additionally, schools should provide professional development to their staff on using the tool to deliver district provided assessments or specific training that focuses on test authoring to provide staff with the skills necessary to develop their own online assessments.
If you haven't already addressed it, how does your tool help students or teachers demonstrate that they are meeting standards?	The solution provides students with a graphically enhanced report upon completion of a test that provides information regarding their performance on that test. The report indicates overall performance and provides information on individual questions and benchmarks. For the teacher or school administrator, Assess2Learn offers twelve comprehensive reports that give educators at every level the information needed to achieve success in their schools. The reports can be used by teachers and school administrators to monitor students' skills and progress based on established learning objectives. Reports provide aggregation of data across district, school, grade, class, and student results. The Assess2Learn reports provide valuable student and school data to teachers and to administrators that can be included in a school's School Performance Excellence Plan (SPEP) to demonstrate that students are meeting standards.
What questions would you like participants to address?	1. Based on the demonstration and materials provided, what are the strengths and weaknesses of this tool? 2. Assess2Learn provides a test bank rather than an item-bank. Based on feedback received from teacher users, it was found that the use of a test bank greatly assisted the teachers in their workload in terms of constructing their own tests. Would the addition of an item bank feature increase, decrease, or make no difference on the likelihood of using this type of system? 3. Are there any issues that we did not address in the presentation that you would like answered?