Resource

A student may pause his or her own test form or a Test Administrator may pause the test for the student(s). A test form can be paused and unpaused at any time during the test window. Pause timers determine the length of time during which the student's test may be unpaused and the student may review any of the previously answered items. For all tests, except Writing,  the pause timer is 20 minutes. For writing tests, there is no pause timer imposed. The student can still unpause the test form once this timer period has passed, however s/he would not be able to review the previously answered test questions, even if they were marked for review. There is an Administrative Procedure that can be applied to allow the student to review previously answered items. This is known as a Grace Period Extension or GPE. For more information on Pause Limits, Pausing a test form, or Grace Period Extensions, please see the Test Administration Manual, the TIDE Manual, or the Training on Managing Users on the Resource page. 

Practice Tests are not intended as an assessment of standards knowledge. They are also not indicative of difficulty levels or test lengths. In fact, the items may not be on grade level. Practice Tests are purely for the purpose of allowing students and teachers to become comfortable with using the ClearSight system. The Practice Tests are meant to provide access to the test experience, available tools, variety of item types (multiple choice, drag and drop, equation entry, etc…) and functionality of the ClearSight system. Students should be encouraged to engage fully with the items but should not feel that it is a requirement to answer the questions correctly. 

If a student is not taking a test on the downloaded, secure browser, he or she can use any modern browser to take the test. The student can use this link http://clearsight.tds.cambiumast.com/student to access the test log in. Please note that the student will need to have his or her official first name, Student id (or SSID), and the Session id ready to enter at the log in page. 

If your district uses Interim ELA tests, there are 2 segments to the test. Segment 1 includes reading, language, and editing passages and questions. Segment 2 contains a writing prompt where the student reads a passage and then responds to a question in essay format.

There is a clear delineation between the 2 segments for the students. The students will see a screen that looks something like this:

 

1. The number of items shown in the middle of the graphic may vary by student and/or by grade as these are adaptive tests.
2. If you do not want students to take the writing portion right away, teachers should tell students NOT to click the NEXT SEGMENT button.
3. Teachers can instruct the students to pause their test at this point and they can log back in later to complete the test. They should use the pause button in the upper right of their screen.
4. If teachers are using a monitored session, teachers will need to open a new session with the test in it so students can log back in.
5. If teachers are using a non-monitored assignments, students can use the same URL link or session id as before and no approval will be required when the student signs back in later.

More information can be found in this Quick Guide.

For Interim ELA Assessments, both Segments 1 and 2 must be completed. Students should submits their test at the end of Segment 2. When Segment 2 is submitted, test administrators and teachers to whom the student is rostered will see the student’s score. Segment 2 is the writing portion of the test. This is only the case for Interim ELA Assessments. View this Quick Guide for more information.

If your district uses Interim Reading Assessments, there is no writing portion included and only one segment in the test. Writing can be assessed using a Checkpoint Writing test.

Checkpoint writing assessments are separate from other ELA topics and are scored independently. 

Interim Assessments:

1. Adaptive assessments that measure the breadth of the grade-level standards.
2. Reporting results represent the student’s performance at that time for that content area’s grade-level standards.
3. A proficiency level is provided that can be used to indicate how well a student has mastered the standards for that grade and content area.
4. It is recommended that each Interim assessment be administered twice per year per student with significant instructional time between administrations so change in standards mastery can be viewed through the Longitudinal reports.

Checkpoint Assessments:

1. Fixed-form assessments that measure an area or a reporting category within a grade-level-standard set. (Example: Numbers & Operations in math and Informational Text in ELA)
2. Reporting results represent student’s performance in that area of the standards at that time.
3. An overall item score (such as 8/10) and a percentage are provided as well as information about how student(s) performed on each item. Standards for each item are viewable, to help inform the educator of areas of strengths and areas that may require more attention.
4. There are typically 3 forms for each Checkpoint, so students can be assessed on the same content with unique forms over time. To avoid item repetition, do not administer the same form to a student more than once. Longitudinal reports are available once a student has taken more than one form in a reporting category.

 

Interim assessments are intended to provide educators with information on how a student is tracking towards overall grade level mastery in a particular content area. We recommend that Interim tests be administered 2 times a year and a with a significant amount of instructional time between the administrations. For example, an Interim test could be administered in the fall and then again in the early spring. This would allow an educator to view learning made towards grade level standards and also provide time for re-teaching or remediation before the summative assessment. 

Checkpoint assessments focus on a specific topic like Numbers & Operations in Mathematics and Informational Text in English Language Arts (ELA). These assessments are intended to provide information on content unit mastery rather than grade level mastery. There are typically 3 Checkpoint forms for each topic. An educator could use a Checkpoint form, such as Form 1, as a pre-teaching assessment, to determine what students already know about a topic and how to focus instructional time. The educator could then use another form, such as Form 2 or 3, for that content unit to assess mastery at the end of the unit. If the unit is taught early in the school year and the educator would like to see how much information has been maintained, the educator could administer a different form later in the school year to track retention or loss. 

The Description of ELA Checkpoint Tests and the Description of Math Checkpoint Tests  explain the number of forms and that are available at each grade. In general, the Checkpoint Assessments have 3 forms for each topic/reporting category. Checkpoint forms contain between 6 and 22 items per form.

The Interim Assessments for grades 3–HS are adaptive tests that contain between 35 to 45 items for each administration and should be administered twice, per student.

Checkpoint Assessments are untimed and are intended to be completed in one class period. Refer to these documents for more information about Checkpoint forms:

Description of ELA Checkpoint Tests 

Description of Math Checkpoint Tests

Interim assessments are untimed and are intended to be completed in one class period.