December 5, 2007

ISAT/IAA Assessment Ordering Window to Close

ISAT/IAA

The ISAT and IAA ordering window for the 2008 assessment cycle was scheduled to close on Friday of this week. However, Pearson Educational Measurement has made arrangements to keep the window for ordering ISAT materials open through this weekend. The new deadline is midnight Sunday, December 9, 2007; however, there will be no staff available at the Pearson Call Center over the weekend to answer questions. For the IAA, materials will be sent based on counts from SIS. Please be sure these data are up-to-date.

Students who would have taken IMAGE in 2008 in grades 3-8 will participate in ISAT reading and mathematics. Those in grades 4 and 7 will also participate in ISAT science. The ISAT writing test will NOT be administered to ELL students because their participation in the ACCESS writing assessment satisfies this requirement. (NOTE: Grade 11 ELLs who would have taken IMAGE in 2008 will participate in both days of the PSAE, including the ACT writing test on Day 1.)

From now through the end of the ordering window, ISAT materials for ELLs in grades 3-8 should be ordered online through the Questar Service Point system to avoid the unnecessary consumption of ISAT writing test materials. Districts that have already ordered ISAT materials for their ELLs through the Pearson Web site do NOT have to retract those orders, but should be aware that Pearson will include ISAT writing test materials with those orders. However, ELLs should NOT use these materials since they will take writing as part of ACCESS in January of 2008.

PSAE

PSAE materials for grade 11 students who would have taken IMAGE must be ordered via typical PSAE processes, by schools established to serve as PSAE test sites this year. ACT will not accept any grade 11 materials orders submitted through Questar.

ACT provides to principals the information needed to order Day 2 standard time and accommodations test materials on the PSAE TestSites Online Web site operated by Pearson as ACT subcontractor. Dates for ordering are November 1, 2007 through January 31, 2008. (Day 2 standard time counts are shared by Pearson with ACT to be used as Day 1 counts as well.) LEP students may receive state-allowed accommodations on the ACT Plus Writing (Day 1 of the PSAE). Because these accommodations are not approved by ACT, ACT results earned from these administrations are used for state accountability purposes only and are not reportable to colleges or universities. To order the materials an LEP student will need to test Day 1 with accommodations, the appointed PSAE Test Accommodations Coordinator at the school where the student is scheduled to test (either the home or serving school) will need to submit a state-allowed application for the student to ACT.