As part of our new MS-CPAS work, you'll be receiving a newsletter like this once a month with information on assessment updates. Please make an effort to distribute the information to all parties if needed. Thank you again for all the hard work each of you does for CTE. We are really excited about what the future holds for the students in the state of Mississippi!
Effectively Using Reports... More than a Score
As many of you know, using the data that comes from statewide testing appropriately can assist in planning and organization for any program. Reports from fall testing will be available Dec. 1. Here are some of the more important reports you should access from our website after each testing cycle.
Label Reports - Districts should download, print, and affix labels for each student's transcript and folder. The available reports for labels are labels for each test score, the completer (average) score, and articulated score.
MS-CPAS Reports - Districts can access student and class reports starting from the fall 2011 testing cycle to now. New reports are available two weeks after the end of each testing cycle.
State Reports - The reports found in this area are useful for comparing local and state program performance over time in an aggregate and proficiency level breakdown.
Testing Tool Reports - There are two useful reports (Testing Ticket Label and Proctor Report) found in this area that help districts with test administration.
Reports are only useful when you can interpret them and use them as they are intended. For more detailed information about every report found on the RCU website, please download the
Interpretive Reporting Guide, which is updated annually.
Reports from fall testing will be issued in late December to early January.
Performance-Based Assessment Update
RCU staff members Ashley Brown and Dr. Roslyn Miller held a series of webinars to revise PBA for spring 2018. Teachers from architecture and drafting, digital media technology, polymer science, and simulation and animation design worked to align their second-year performance assessments to a set of quality criteria written by the center for collaborative education. These criteria are:
Alignment to academic standards
Alignment to 21st Century Skills
Open-endedness and relevance to the real world
Requiring application, transfer, and higher-order thinking
Fairness and cultural responsiveness
Outlining clear criteria for success
Resulting in original products, performances, or solutions
Task validation will begin in January with delivery in February and March. Be on the lookout for a revised PBA manual with official dates coming soon.
Have assessment needs not addressed in this issue? Create a helpdesk ticket, and we'll get right on it!
