Your monthly update on all things assessment

Change is Coming

Once again, we all find ourselves pressing full steam ahead toward the conclusion of another testing season and school year here at the RCU. Our team put the finishing touches on the MS-CPAS assessments in March.

Since April is the most active month for CTE testing throughout the state, we realize this is a stressful time not only for us, but also for our teachers and administrators across the state. As always, if you experience problems during testing, contact us at [email protected].

As I shared in the March newsletter, this likely will be our final administration of the MS-CPAS assessments; however, this is not the end of the MS-CPAS.

Many of you likely have either forgotten or were never aware that the MS-CPAS is an acronym for the Mississippi Career Planning and Assessment System. The system itself functioned as a traditional end-of-year test that measures your students’ knowledge of career technical skills. These skills are acquired through your dedicated teaching efforts in the classroom.

The problem with continuing to utilize MS-CPAS assessments is that under federal Perkins V legislation – the source of CTE funding, policies and standards – “technical skills attainment” is no longer a measure of program quality. In future school years, MS-CPAS will be an online program evaluation system that will allow school districts to upload information that is required by both federal and state laws and policies.

I know for some of you this seems surprising, but our team has been working for two years to research such a system and refine it with the help of many districts who are currently piloting this system.

The system is called Pulse, and you will be given the opportunity to learn more about it and be trained on how the system works at the Mississippi Association for Career and Technical Education (MS ACTE) Summer Conference. The conference will take place July 25-27 at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum and Convention Center in Biloxi.

Thanks,

Ben Alexander

Assessment Manager 

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

The MS-CPAS testing window opens April 1 and closes April 28. As you prepare for the testing season, remember that the RCU website has many helpful tools to assist you. On the MS-CPAS page, the Supplementary Materials Manual provides a collection of resources that need to be printed for students to use while testing. Be sure to check the Supplementary Materials Manual table of contents for a list of programs that require these resources. The MS-CPAS page also contains the 2021-2022 Information for Test Administrators and Proctors, which includes a condensed set of instructions and a script that can be printed for test administrators and proctors to use while testing.

The test status page is live for April MS-CPAS testing. This page allows you to see which students have completed their tests and which students are still in progress. If a student has finished the test but still shows a status of in progress, it is usually because they have not properly closed out the test. In this case, have the student log back in and continue through the final survey block of the test to properly submit. The test status page will update at noon and midnight each day. Please keep these times in mind as you are looking for updates on each student’s status.

As a reminder, MS-CPAS reports will not be available until May 13. 

National Certifications

National Certification testing opened March 21 and will close May 13 at 5 p.m. All certification vouchers have been purchased and are in your accounts or have been sent via email. Please reach out if you have any issues with certification vouchers or testing.

ASE

ASE retest must occur 30 days after the original test is taken. Please plan accordingly for this so that retests will occur within the certification testing window.

NCCER

More NCCER proctor training will occur at MS ACTE. Be on the lookout to sign up for these trainings later in the semester.

Access to assign module testing is now only allowed by the testing coordinator. Please remind your NCCER instructors of this change. Module testing can occur throughout the rest of the year, and the instructor is still allowed to give the module tests. The instructor is not allowed to be involved in end-of-year testing. NCCER end-of-year tests have been loaded for all centers that have uploaded their students into their end-of-year groups. If you have not loaded your students into the end-of-year groups, please do so ASAP and send a Help Desk ticket to let us know that this step has been completed. 

NCCER retests have a mandatory two-day waiting period. The RCU must be contacted through Help Desk with the student’s name, score, course and NCCER ID number to request a retake.

To help with read-aloud accommodations for both module testing and end-of-year testing, NCCER has provided options that can be accessed here.

If your district has another tool used for read-aloud accommodations, it is permissible as well.

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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