Connecticut Alternate Assessment Overview Training:
Live Demo Transcript
Welcome to the Connecticut Alternate Assessment Overview Training. Today we’re going to do a live demo of the CTAA systems that will be used for test administration. First you will want to navigate to the CT portal homepage. From here you will go to the Alternate Assessments page and this page will provide you with links to all of the systems related to CTAA. We’re going to begin with TIDE and this system is important because we will show you how select a form for Grades 3 and 4 ELA students and for downloading the DTAs.
From here we will login and this is the homepage for TIDE. First we will walk you through how to find Grade 3 and 4 students and adjust the assignment for the ELA non-verbal and verbal forms. You will want to run a search for your students. Here I’m going to select the filters. You’ll want to make sure you have the correct districtand school; you can search by SSID, last name, first name, and grade. This search will populate a list of students and from here you can enter the student’s information page. You’ll want to click on [View] and this will show you all the student’s demographic information. Make sure that your student has the alt flag set to be eligible for the CTAA test.
The form selection is all the way at the bottom and it’s titled Verbal/Non-Verbal Accommodation. This is only for Grades 3 and 4 ELA tests. You will want to determine if your student qualifies for the non-verbal or verbal form of this test and make a selection. From here, you’ll click [Save Changes] and it will let you know that the student’s information has been updated. You must make this form selection for all Grade 3 and 4 students for the ELA test in order for them to be assigned an ELA form in the system.
Now I will show you how to access the Directions for Test Administration (DTA). These can be found under the General Resources tab and then Testing Materials. From here you will see a list of the CTAA Directions for Test Administration and it provides a link for zip files for each grade. You can click on the link to download them and a zip file will automatically download to your computer and you can open it and it will have PDFs of all of the Directions for Test Administration for the Grade 3 CTAA tests. From here you can save them, print them out, and review them before test administration for the CTAA.
Now we will go over how to start a test session for test administration. For the purposes of this demonstration we will be logging into the TA Practice and Training Site, but when you want to administer the CTAA test you will want to click on the Test Administration card to administer an operational exam. To log into the TA interface you will want to click on the TA Practice and Training Test Site and if you are already logged in, it will take you to the test selection page. The CTAA tests are separate and you can expand the windows by clicking on the “plus signs”, or collapse them by clicking on the “minus signs”. Here I will select all of the ELA tests for this test session, and click [Start Session].
From here it will generate a Session ID and this is the Session ID that you will want to provide to your students or use in the student interface when you are logging the student into the interface to take the test. Now I am going to pull up the student page and for the CTAA the teachers will be working with the students to log into this page. You’ll want to put in the First Name of the student, the SSID, and the Session ID that you generated in the TA session. With the student you will want to verify that all of the student’s information is correct. If it is you will click [Yes], if it’s not please contact your school or district coordinator.
From here the student will have the opportunity to select any test that they are eligible for and that were included in the test session that you started in the TA interface. Form here you will want to select the test to start and it will wait for TA approval. You will then have to go back to the TA interface and you will see that an approval is waiting for you. From here you will click on the approvals button and if you wish to look at the student’s test settings you can click on the “eye” button and then you can approve the student for testing or deny them if you feel that they’re not ready to test right now. Once you’ve approved the student it will automatically populate in the table here and show you the student’s progress throughout the whole test session.
Now we can return to the student and you will see that once the student has been approved you will have to confirm that this is the test that the student should be taking and that all of the test settings are correct. Click [Yes, Start My Test] and then you will be taken to the Instructions and Help Page that you can review before the test with the student and then click begin test now to start the student’s test. Please note that we did use the practice and training test for this demonstration and for the operational test you will have to download the secure browser and administer the student test through that browser. Thank you.