Spring Testing Schedule Released

The State Education Department just released the new schedule below.  The biggest change is adding a third day for ELA and Math.  These exams are much longer than in previous years because they need to test the new type of questions.  The guidance memo from SED states:

 “In 2010, the department announced its commitment to embed multiple choice questions for field testing with the Spring 2012 Grades 3-8 ELA and Math Tests.  Embedding field test questions allows for better representation of the student population and more reliable field test data on which to build future operational tests.  It will not be apparent to students whether a question is a field test question that does not count towards their score or an operational test question that does count toward their score.  The embedded field test questions will reduce the amount of stand-alone field testing during the spring of 2012, but will not eliminate the need to conduct stand-alone field tests later this year “

While the State transitions to a new exam to match the common core it may be awhile before the results are helpful to inform instruction.  That is why we have stressed the importance of the NWEA exams and working with students and parents to improve their RIT scores.