Here is Mr. Heywood's memo, apparently from this year, regarding administration of the 9-weeks PASS tests (I added the highlights):

Cc superintendents

To: PASS Central Office Contacts

From: Jim Heywood

Subject: PASS Nine Weeks Tests –Copies Attached and Adminsitration

It has been an unbelievable effort to produce what amounts to SOL quality nine-weeks tests for grades 2-11 for English and mathematics, but Hampton and Dr. Dan Mulligan and the Department will make it, Isabel aside. Please carefully note the following information regarding the administration of the PASS tests.

Attached are final tests for the first nine-weeks for:

Grades 1-8 mathematics, Algebra I and II and Geometry (the use of grade 1 is optional—some divisions asked for it)

Grades 2-5 English

As of this date we are reviewing grades 6-8 English and have not received grades 9-11 English for review.

We will mail the other tests as soon as we receive them and review them.

YVONNE-The special tests for the Algebra I Part I and Part II and Saxon we are working on. The tests that affected the most people had the first priority. Saxon will be very difficult. We talked with the company rep and are working on a solution. The Algebra I two-part tests will be tackled when all the others are done.

"Final" tests means they have been developed by Hampton and Dr. Dan Mulligan and reviewed by DOE subject specialists to be sure they measure the SOL and skills as intended. Then they are revised, reprinted and attached.

Security:

I cannot stress enough that this is an enormous gift to you, your teachers and students at no charge to enable all of us to identify the needs of children and remediate them immediately. Yes, principals, central office and my office can see the results to guide program improvement efforts. My concern is the repeated requests on the part of many teachers in the SOLAR training to see the items in advance and wanting to have access to the test items so they can teach the items… as they did with Flanagan or Edutest. PLEASE. PLEASE---in addition to the security you will put in place, help the educators understand that if children are taught the items, they will no longer be useful in diagnosing childrens’ needs. In addition, although there may be some short term "looking good" on the nine weeks tests, it will hurt teachers and children alike in the long run by invalidating the items/test and they will not only lose the diagnostic capability of the tests but will receive false data on how effective their teaching has been and will be unable to make corrections. When the SOL tests come, children will not do well because they gave false positives on the nine weeks tests and learning deficits will go undetected, All this in an attempt to avoid possibly looking bad short term, instead of fixing the problems and looking good when it counts. WE HAVE NO MONEY TO MAKE NEW TESTS! The tests will be the same next year so please collect and destroy all tests and protect all answer keys for the reasons outlined above. Only your personnel attention to this can make it happen. My office will not play "big brother" in this regard.

Division and School Readiness for SOLAR:

Answer Sheets: Ernie Satterwhite has visited every division, made sure you ordered sufficient answer sheets and though the training has made it clear what needs to be done through the SOLAR "Implementation Checklist" provided to you at these sessions. If this is not true you will need to contact him 703-385-2008 x210.

IMPORTANT: If you have not already done so, you will need to electronically send SOLAR, per the checklist instructions, your student, teacher and school files using your student information data base. This ensures that every school, teacher and student has an ID number. Ernie has already explained this to you or your staff in trainings. My point is, until this is done, you cannot print answer sheets (which will take some time) that will be pre-coded, for the test administration. I understand you should be working with Vicki Miller at SOLAR 703-385-2008 x 225 or at vcmiller@cssg.com to send this information.

Scanner: You will also need high-speed printer and appropriate scantron device to prepare and score the answer sheets. If you have not confirmed with Ernie that you have the correct model, you may hold up your test administration and/or scoring. Please verify with him if you have doubts.

As I understand the process:

o When you send SOLAR your student-teacher files, they will load them into the test administration software.

o The software will be ready to imprint the answer sheets with the correct codes so they can be scored and diagnostic printouts prepared.

o You feed the blank answer sheets into the SOLAR loaded PC and it prints the answer sheets for each student in your division/school who will take the PASS test.

o The preprinted sheets are given to the students to complete the test (or it is taken on-line) and the completed sheets are collected and fed through the scantron and scored.

o The results are available on-line to administrators with the correct access codes. NONE of this happens unless the division correctly supplies the student-teacher data base to SOLAR BEFORE the test in enough time for them to load it and for you to print the answer sheets.

Special Education Students: Any special codes for such students should be verified and "cleaned-up" and up-dated in your data base before sending it to SOLAR.

PASSMARK Administration Instructions to the Principals and Teachers:

I thought about trying to write test-administration instructions but realized each of you have different procedures and some are using the on-line version so you will need to write test administration directions to your own staff. I would only ask that you include at least the following:

1. Have principal sign for the exact number of tests copies he/she receives and return exactly that number. Please destroy all copies of the test. Students will mark on them, invalidating them for next year. Keep the masters in a secure location with the test director. Please be sure no test copies are left in the building.

2. Indicate teachers may NOT copy the tests nor use any items for practice before or after the test. The items, as noted above, are NOT consumable.

3. Do not send the answer key out to anyone who does not need it, since the tests will be scored electronically. If keys are distributed be sure to collect and destroy them after the test.

4. No schools other than PASS schools may use the PASS tests!!!!! (They would be invalid anyway since they are keyed to the PASS Pacing guide.)

5. All students must take all test and all items. Teachers may not omit certain items because they have not covered them. Pacing monitoring is an important part of the process.

6. Please be clear to teachers of special education students regarding accommodations.

I hope this information has been helpful. I am excited about the potential of this process to help children. Please also ensure your principals have their plans, systems and staff ready to use this information and within one week provide targeted remediation. A plan should already be in place for how these services will be delivered.

Under AYP the level of success of every single student can either help or hurt the school. If we can get them the help the students with needs immediately, while the problems are small, we can make it. Thanks for your help.