Achievement District Test Coordinator Updates
December 1, 2022
New Resource - Assessment Parent Guide

ADE's Assessment team and the Alternate Assessment Advisory Committee have developed a new resource, an Assessment Parent Guide, for all parents and families. This new resource is published in both English and Spanish on the Assessment homepage and on the Parents and Students page of our website.

Schools can:
  • Post or link this resource on their Assessment homepage
  • Share this document (either electronically or printed) with their families during Individual Education Program (IEP) meetings
  • Include this document in presentations or Curriculum Nights or when Statewide Testing kicks off in the Spring
From a parent's perspective, this resource includes information that is necessary and helpful in understanding Statewide Assessments. 
Achievement Training Modules and Manuals

Training modules will be available in Pearson's Arizona Training Management System (ATMS) and are tentatively scheduled to go live the week of December 12th. An email will be sent to all Achievement District Test Coordinators when the trainings are live and ready to be accessed.

Details of who should complete each specific training module are included below. Achievement District Test Coordinators are required to complete all modules and to use the information provided to train testing staff according to their user roles. Achievement District Test Coordinators are responsible for tracking staff completion of trainings. Trainings must be completed prior to administering any tests.

Our goal is to provide the AASA and AzSCI Test Coordinator's Manuals electronically on the ADE website at the same time as the training modules go live the week of December 12th. The AASA and AzSCI Test Administration Directions are expected to be published in early January.

As a reminder, hard copies of the AASA Test Coordinator's Manual and AASA Test Administration Directions will be sent to districts in March 2023. Hard copies of the AzSCI Test Coordinator's Manual and AzSCI Test Administration Directions will not be sent to districts; however, electronic copies will be available.
Special Paper Version (SPV) Test Requests - AASA, AzSCI, and ACT Aspire

Reminder: Please submit any requests for Special Paper Version (SPV) tests for AASA, AzSCI, and ACT Aspire as early as possible and prior to the February 24, 2023 deadline using the secure online form: https://www.azed.gov/assessment/spv2023.

SPV tests include braille, large print, and regular print tests for computer-based testing schools and include braille and large print tests for paper-based testing schools.

We have been experiencing some difficulty with the "Upload" button in our webforms. As a result, please do not use the "Upload" button when submitting IEPs and 504 Plans within the SPV request form or the Additional Accommodations request form. Instead, please select the document to upload using the "Choose File" button, then click on 'Submit" once you have completed the form, without clicking the "Upload" button. This will ensure that your uploaded documents are delivered to us within the secure form.
Assessment Committees

We continue to need groups of educators and community members to review test items for ELA, Math, and Science.
  • If you know of any educators that might be interested, please have them join our educator committee database. We will be looking for those interested in the content area and for teachers of special education students, gifted students, and EL students.
  • If you have friends, neighbors, or relatives that are not working for K-12 schools and may be interested in the Community/Parent committees, please have them sign up!
ACT Updates

ACT Reminders
  • If you were unable to attend the ACT-hosted webinars on November 2 (Accommodations) and November 9 (Test Administration), the recordings are posted on the ACT-hosted website. All test coordinators with Grade 11/Cohort 2024 students are expected to view these webinars.
  • Site readiness tasks, including mock administration and ProctorCache installation, will be available beginning December 5, 2022. All sites administering the online ACT are strongly encouraged to complete a mock administration prior to testing.
  • Select testing window and shipping dates in PearsonAccessNext by December 9, 2022. This selection must be completed for each school, rather than at the district or charter level. Currently, there are more than 400 schools across the state for which this selection has not yet been completed. Please note that if this task is not completed by the deadline, schools will be defaulted to online testing in the first test window.
  • Verify shipping address in PearsonAccessNext by December 9, 2022. All districts will receive an ACT shipment, including manuals and non-test materials, even if the district will be administering online tests.
  • If you have questions about ACT accommodations or ACT's Test Accessibility and Accommodations (TAA) system, please attend an ACT Accommodations Office Hours session. The next ACT Accommodations Office Hours session is scheduled for December 14, 2022. For registration links, please visit the ACT-hosted website.
  • Submit accommodations requests to ACT as early as possible. The deadline for initial submissions is January 27, 2023. Currently, ACT has received 1,889 accommodations requests from Arizona schools for statewide testing. By comparison, for Spring 2022, ACT received approximately 8,500 total accommodations requests from Arizona schools, so we anticipate many more submissions over the next several weeks. Please do not wait until the deadline to submit!
  • ADE will upload students to PearsonAccessNext for ACT testing on January 23, 2023. The last day to revise enrollments in AzEDS prior to ADE's extraction of student data is January 17, 2023.
For questions about AASA, please contact us at AASA@azed.gov.
For questions about AzSCI, please contact us at AzSCI@azed.gov.
For questions about ACT and ACT Aspire, please contact us at Testing@azed.gov.