With many districts having to test students remotely, the Evaluate team wanted to share our best practices for testing virtually. While we know testing at home is not ideal, students can still take the assessments providing teachers and administrators with useful data to inform instruction. Please see below for our recommendations:
Lock Assessments
Districts should make sure assessments are locked by default and only unlocked when a teacher is ready for their students to take the test. The Evaluate team can make sure your tests arrive LOCKED each month, and either a teacher or school administrator can unlock tests. Teachers can only unlock tests for students in their testing class; Administrators can unlock tests for individual teachers, classes, or an entire school. More information on locking and unlocking assessments can be found here. If your district or school needs to set the default, please reach out to evaluate@catapultlearning.com.
Complete Assessment in One Sitting
Students should take the assessment in one sitting, if at all possible. Evaluate tests are not timed, so a student can use as much time as necessary to complete the assessment but should try to complete the test in one sitting. Students should complete the assessment on their own.
Understand the Goal of Evaluate
Students and families should understand that the purpose of Evaluate is to help teachers understand the concepts that students know and what they are struggling with ELA and math. Evaluate is not graded and is not part of a student’s score in any class. Students should do their best, but it is to help guide instruction.
Evaluate Support
The Evaluate team is here to support school staff, including administrators and teachers. We will not give out usernames or passwords to students or parents, we will refer them back to the school. Because we are unable to confirm the student’s identity, we do not want to circumvent any process the school has in place.