ISASP: Updated Practice Tests

Southeast Polk will again be administering the ISASP (Statewide Assessment of Student Progress) this April.  The administration dates are listed below:

SEP Test Administration Window:  

9-11: April 13

6-8: April 20

3-5: April 27

Grade 3 will take the writing test paper/pencil.  All other subtests and grade levels will take the test online. 


UPDATED PRACTICE TESTS

Updated practice tests for the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress (ISASP) are now available on the ISASP Portal. http://iowa.pearsonaccessnext.com/test-prep/

New features include: 

• More practice items that show a wider range of the types of questions students can expect to see on the operational ISASP. 

• Machine-scorable Math constructed response questions. (These items do not require human scoring and will provide a score on the score reports that students receive after submitting their practice test responses).

• Updated Text-to-Speech (TTS) functionality, including the ability to stop and restart TTS at or close to a specific point in the text. (This functionality will also be available for the Spring 2020 ISASP administration). 

• An accompanying table for each test that shows the alignment of all practice test items to the Iowa Core Standards. 

The ISASP Practice Tests afford students the opportunity to experience the kinds of questions students will see on the operational ISASP. The tests also allow students to gain familiarity with the online testing environment, including accessibility and accommodations features, prior to testing day. Additionally, parents and teachers may find the Alignment Tables of interest, as they provide concrete examples of questions and their alignment to the Iowa Core Standards. This information may be useful for helping to interpret results after Spring 2020 operational testing is complete, particularly the ISASP Individual Student Report.

More Open Education Resources--OER

Over the next few weeks, the curriculum blog will showcase some Open Education Resources to support teaching and learning. We will take a look at Digital Promise, Core Knowledge curriculum, EL Education, and UnboundED.  (Also, remember our pilot with Newsela!).

This week's blog looks at Digital Promise and showcases 2 tools--one to support the different needs of learners, and one to support the personalized learning needs of teachers.

There are multiple pathways your collaborative team may want to consider when reviewing Open Education Resources:



Digital Promise

Digital Promise is a site for educators to enhance and grow their professional skills. They have a number of projects that support critical thinking as well as professional development modules for teachers to personalize their learning.  The tool showcased below is the Learner Variability Navigator.  This resource helps teachers plan for differentiation to meet the needs of a variety of learners.  For example....

A 4th-6th grade literacy teacher might be looking for some new instructional strategies.

They can then select the factors that are impacting some of the student learning needs...

In this scenario, the factors selected included background knowledge, vocabulary. motivation, and limited experiences due to socioeconomic status.  The tool suggested the instructional strategies below:

You click on any or all of the strategies to learn more and see examples of strategies that will work for students with the factors you indicated.  Below are some additional details for the strategy of advance graphic organizers. 

Another resource from Digital Promise (under 'Our Projects') is Microcredentialing.   These professional learning opportunities are "competency-based, research-backed, personalized, and available on-demand." Digital certifications are available to support portfolios and professional growth plans.  Some of the courses are for a small fee, and many of them are free.

You may sign in through your Google account.  The different learning topics are found under the 'Stack' heading.

In this example, a search is conducted for courses that support 'Best Practices in a Blended Learning Environment'.

The courses below are available, and all of them are at no cost.

You may then select a course, and apply if you want to participate.

This particular course includes an overview with a writing prompt, a section to submit artifacts (both teacher and student), and a feedback section.

Digital Promise has many features...these are just a few.  We invite you to explore and leave comments on the blog for colleagues on ideas and resources you think might be useful.  Next week we will look at additional sites with content and subject resources.