Your monthly update on all things assessment

The Constancy of Change

For years this space has been reserved for my predecessor, Sean Owen. He usually began his monthly words of wisdom with a picturesque description that somehow captured the spirit of whatever season we found ourselves and married it to our work on the assessment team. I’ll do my best to mirror that by saying just as the seasons change, so, too, does our work on the assessment team.

Those changes are certainly occurring with more regularity now than at any time in recent memory. First, Sean has taken a new position at the Research and Curriculum Unit as the assistant director for research development and strategic Initiatives. In his stead, I have been appointed the new manager of the assessment team. You should not notice any significant changes in terms of service and professionalism from our team, but thankfully Sean is still available to us as the sage of assessment if we require his wisdom.

If you’ve listened carefully to us the last few years, you were likely aware that the MS-CPAS is also ever-evolving. It’s no secret that the Perkins V legislation altered what would be required for program quality in CTE. Those changes will also involve the MS-CPAS. I sometimes find myself reminding groups we speak to lately that the MS-CPAS isn’t just an assessment, but rather an assessment system, as the acronym stands for the Mississippi Career Planning and Assessment System.

You may or may not have heard that this system is changing and broadening the scope of the assessment team’s work. The 2021-2022 school year will likely be the last for many of your CTE programs taking the summative assessment we collectively referred to as the MS-CPAS. While we are not yet formally announcing what the new system will look like going forward, rest assured it will more closely align to those federal guidelines as outlined in Perkins V.

Happy New Year,

Ben Alexander

Research Associate III

If your CTE center has a new director or 

testing coordinator for the 2021-2022 school year, please 

let us know by submitting a Help Desk ticket with the

name and contact information of this new hire.

Important Dates

To view a full calendar, visit the MS-CPAS resources page and log in to the RCU website.

MS-CPAS

We will reopen the RCU portal on Feb. 7 to allow districts to make minor roster edits. Please do not uncheck any boxes in step one. All edits will need to be completed by Feb. 18. You will notice that your fall testers have been removed from rosters. Do not be alarmed by this. They do not need to be added back. They have been removed so that they will not show up on spring reports. If you need to add or remove a student from a national certification roster, submit a Help Desk ticket about this and get guidance from us before making any edits. If you have any questions about this, please contact us.

National Certifications

If you have national certification pathways, you can reference the survival guides for each certification to learn additional steps that may be required for each company. We suggest starting these steps this month so you will be ready to test your students when the spring certification window opens. You can find these survival guides on the RCU website by navigating to Assessment > Student Certification > Certification Tools. 

NCCER

New proctor training will occur on January 25 in Starkville, MS and on January 26 in Pearl, MS. With module testing occurring, centers may need to consider adding a proctor such as a student service coordinator or other CTE employee. Please use the following links to sign up for proctor training:

New Proctor Training in Starkville: https://rcu.gosignmeup.com/public/Course/browse?courseid=28002

New Proctor Training in Pearl: https://rcu.gosignmeup.com/public/Course/browse?courseid=28003

If you have not completed an NCCER import template, you will need to submit this by Feb. 18. You can find this template by navigating to Assessment > Reports > Testing Tools. Download your template, enter the students’ NCCER ID numbers and send the template to the RCU via Help Desk.

SolidWorks

SolidWorks will be releasing an updated website and new options for reporting this month. Be sure to access the online versions of assessment resources (i.e., SolidWorks Survival Guide and Certifications Manual) as these will be updated in the new year. Students will not be able to log in to test for SolidWorks CSWA using a personal email. All students must have a school email and be able to check an email from SolidWorks prior to testing.

As always, if you have a question or need assistance, reach out to us by sending a Help Desk ticket or by calling 662.325.2510. 

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