Overview




	TESTING Plano ISD believes that assessment provides the information necessary to improve student performance through instructional decision-making, setting priorities, allocating resources, and for accountability to students, parents, the community, and the mandated state and federal education authorities.

	TYPES OF TESTS ADMINISTERED IN PISD Plano ISD is committed to the use of a variety of assessment techniques to capture both the breadth and depth of student learning over time. The school district employs two major forms of assessments which schools are using concurrently. They are objective tests and performance assessments. The following tests are administered by the Plano ISD:

	CogAT – The Cognitive Abilities Test – The CogAT is a group administered, norm-referenced test of developed academic reasoning skills. The CogAT is taken by students in grades 3,5,7 and 9, and by students testing for the PACE program.

	ITBS – The Iowa Tests of Basic Skills and ITED – The Iowa Tests of Educational Development – These tests are national norm-referenced achievement tests used in the program identification process by both the Gifted and Talented and the English for Speakers of Other Languages program. The ITBS is administered to students in grades 1-8. The ITED is administered to students in Grades 9-12.

	LDAA – Locally Developed Alternative Assessment – Locally Developed Alternative Assessments are administered to students who receive special education services and whose instructional program does not include the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills curriculum or who require assessment conditions that cannot be met by state developed assessments.

	MAP – Measures of Academic Progress – The Measures of Academic Progress are electronically administered and scored achievement tests designed to measure growth in student learning for individual students, classrooms, schools, and districts. Tests for mathematics, reading, and language usage are given in the elementary and middle schools. At grade 3, the tests are optional by campus; the tests are given to all students in grades 5 and 7. All grade 6 students take the reading and science tests. These tests yield a national percentile score as well as a growth scale score.

	Naglieri – The Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test provides a culture-fair and language free means of determining students’ nonverbal reasoning and problem-solving ability. This test is used as part of the PACE gifted and talented identification process.

	OLPT – Oral Language Proficiency Test And IPT– Oral Language Proficiency Test is a test used for measuring abilities and achievement in oral language. The test used by Plano ISD is the IDEA-IPT; it is individually administered and contains stimulus pictures which elicit oral language production. It assesses four basic areas of English oral language proficiency: vocabulary, comprehension, syntax, and verbal expression. It provides six levels of proficiency ranging from “no English language ability” to “fluency.”

	PLAN – Preliminary ACT Test – Grade 10 - The Grade 10 midpoint high school review test of the American College Testing (ACT) Company assesses student achievement in English, mathematics, reading, and science reasoning. The results are used for student planning, instructional support, and program evaluation. This test also prepares students for the ACT college entrance test.

	PSAT – Preliminary SAT I - The Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test is a co-sponsored program by the College Board and National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC). It is a standardized test that provides firsthand practice for the SAT I: Reasoning Test and SAT II: Writing Test. It also serves as a qualifying method for National Merit Scholarship Corporation’s (NMSC) scholarship programs. The PSAT/NMSQT measures: verbal reasoning skills, critical reading skills, math problem-solving skills, writing skills.

	RPTE – Reading Proficiency Test in English – The Reading Proficiency Test in English is designed to measure annual growth in the English reading proficiency of second language learners. These test results are used along with the English and Spanish TAKS to provide a comprehensive assessment system for limited English proficient (LEP) students. LEP students in grades 3-12 are required to take the RPTE until they achieve a rating of “advanced.”

	SAT I and SAT II Writing – The SAT I is the basic college entrance test of The College Board. The initials are now the name, not the acronym for a name. These tests assess basic reasoning and concepts in the areas of secondary mathematics and reading. The SAT II are achievement tests in various secondary academic subjects including writing.

	SDAA – State Developed Alternative Assessment – The State Developed Alternative Assessment assesses students in grades 3 – 8 (9-10) who receive special education services and who are receiving instruction in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) but for whom TAKS is an inappropriate measure of their academic progress. This test assesses the areas of reading, writing, and mathematics. Students will be assessed at their appropriate instructional levels, as determined by the admission, review, and dismissal/individual educational program (ARD/IEP) committees, rather than at their assigned grade levels. The SDAA is administered on the same schedule as TAKS and is designed to measure annual growth based on appropriate expectations for each student as decided by the student’s ARD/IEP committee. The assessment will be piloted at grades 9 and 10 during the 2003-2004 school year.

	TAKS – Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills – The Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills measures the statewide curriculum in reading at Grades 3-9; in writing at Grades 4 and 7; in English Language Arts at Grades 10 and 11; in mathematics at Grades 3-11; in science at Grades 5, 10, and 11; and in social studies at Grades 8, 10, and 11. The TAKS is also available for administration in Spanish at Grades 3 through 6. Satisfactory performance on the TAKS at Grade 11 is prerequisite to a high school diploma from a public school in Texas.

	TPRI K, 1, and 2 – The Texas Primary Reading Inventory for Kindergarten, and Grades 1 and 2 is the early reading assessment developed at the Health Science Center at the University of Houston and used by most of the school districts in Texas to monitor the development of reading in early primary students and meet state requirements for the assessment of reading in these grades. Results are reported to the Texas Education Agency as part of the Accelerated Reading Initiative.

	Tejas Lee – is the Spanish version of the Early Reading Inventory and is used for the same purposes