Stay in the Know: READ YOUR WEEKLY BRIEFINGS

Please see the weekly briefing below regarding the FSA (Florida Standards Assessments).

Briefing ID #: 15862 ALL SCHOOL PRINCIPALS: ITS - Information regarding the Online Portal and Resources for the Florida Standards Assessments Category: For Your Information

Audience:	All Principals/APs
Post Date:	Jul 03, 2014
Due Date:	n/a
Meeting Date:	n/a
Master Calendar:	n/a
Attachment(s):	15862_-_ATTACHMENT_-_CBT_Transition_Chart.pdf

To notify principals and assistant principals with information regarding the Florida Standards Assessments (FSA) online portal as well as the release of some FSA resources.

• The Florida Department of Education has released information on the new FSA online portal available at  http://www.fsassessments.org/.   Districts, schools, students, parents, and the general public can access this site for information on the new assessments. 
• In addition, this portal will serve as the primary location for schools and district administrators to access resources for test administration and to conduct activities related to computer-based testing (CBT), test management and reporting.
  • TIDE is American Institutes for Research (AIR’s) online test management system and Online Reporting System (ORS) is AIR’s test results delivery system.  Both sites will require a username and password.  More information regarding these systems will be provided in early fall. 
• The memorandum by the Commissioner of Education may be found at this LINK outlining the following resources now available on the portal:
  • Training Tests are intended to provide students, parents, and educators with an opportunity to become familiar with the item types and functionality of the new CBT platform produced by AIR.
    • Sample items for different grade levels and subject areas are available for the following: 
      • Grades 4-11 FSA English Language Arts (ELA) Writing Component  
      • Grades 3-11 FSA ELA (Reading, Language, and Listening)
      • Grades 3-8 FSA Mathematics
      • FSA End-of-Course (EOC) Mathematics
    • Please note the following important information regarding the training tests:
      • The new platform allows users to select new features such as color contrast/print size, zoom, and audio that were previously only available as an accommodation for students with disabilities on the FCAT and EOC assessments.
      • CBT accommodations, such as text to speech for students with disabilities, are not available on these training tests at this time. Information on the CBT accommodations will be provided when it becomes available.
      • Assessments for students in Grades 3 and 4 will be paper-based in 2014, 2015, however sample tests are provided for these grades as well which illustrate the types of items that will be available once each assessment moves to online delivery (please refer to the attached CBT transition chart). 
      • The ratio/percentage of items of each item type in the training tests is NOT representative of the ratio/percentage of items of each that will appear in the operational tests.
  • DRAFT Test Design Summary/Blueprints provide more detailed information about the assessments, including the percentage of items in each content category, cognitive complexity and appropriate number of test items.
  • DRAFT Test Item Specifications guide the development of statewide assessment items and define the content and format of the test items for each grade level and subject.