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CORRECTION TO TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS FOR THE 
ACHIEVEMENT TESTS

We want to clarify the information about technical requirements for testing, which was sent to Achievement District Test Coordinators yesterday. Please share this information with your technical coordinators.

If using Chromebooks or other tablets that include a keyboard and touchpad, an external keyboard and mouse is NOT REQUIRED. This has been confirmed with our test vendor. An external keyboard would be needed for any device with only an on-screen keyboard (touch screen) as the on-screen keyboard would take screen real estate away from the test and may make typing responses more difficult.

If you have any questions, please contact us at AASA@azed.gov.
Achievement District Test Coordinator Updates
December 8, 2021
Achievement District Test Coordinators,

Please see this week's updates and reminders regarding 2021-2022 Achievement testing below. This week, reminders are included for AASA and for ACT. Technical requirement links have also been included for all Achievement assessments.

If you have any questions about the statewide achievement tests, please contact us at AASA@azed.gov or AzSCI@azed.gov.
Technical Requirements for the Achievement Tests

We are receiving many questions about technical requirements for online administration of each assessment. The following links to the technical requirements were included in the November issue of The Examiner and are included below for your reference. Please share these links and information with your technical coordinators.

In Spring 2022, all of the online Achievement tests will be administered in the TestNav platform. Please see links below for TestNav technical requirements for each assessment.
In addition, please see the Headphone and Microphone Requirements for the AASA Grade 3 Oral Reading Fluency test session.

Frequently Asked Questions:
  • Are iPads allowed for ACT Aspire?
    • Yes, the only Achievement assessment that iPads are not allowed for is ACT.
  • When using iPads or Chromebooks, is an external keyboard and mouse required?
    • For AASA, AzSCI, ACT Aspire, and ACT, when using Chromebooks, an external keyboard and mouse are required.
    • For AASA, AzSCI, and ACT Aspire, when using iPads, an external keyboard and mouse are recommended. (iPads are not allowed for ACT testing.)
Training Modules

The Achievement District Test Coordinator (DTC) training modules are now available in Pearson's Training Management System: https://azachieve.tms.pearson.com/. From this link, enter your email address, then complete the registration page. Select the button for "District Test Coordinator" to access the training modules.

The following training modules are required to be completed by DTCs but may also be completed by other staff in your district or charter. In addition, DTCs are required to provide the Achievement Test Administration Responsibilities training module to all testing staff. DTCs are responsible for tracking completion of the Achievement Test Administration Responsibilities training module by all testing staff. 

  • AASA Test Administration - required for all Achievement DTCs with Grades 3-8
  • AzSCI Test Administration - required for all Achievement DTCs with Grades 5, 8, and/or 11 (Cohort 2023)
  • Accommodations - required for all Achievement DTCs with Grades 3-8 and/or 11
  • Achievement Test Administration Responsibilities - required for all Achievement DTCs with Grades 3-8 and/or 11 and for all employees who will administer, proctor, or be in contact with Achievement test materials
Please visit the FAQ page, located on the login page and under the "Help" button, for additional information.

Please note: ADE is in the final stages of creating a presentation about on-demand writing, as mentioned in a couple of the training modules. Once completed, this presentation will be posted on the AASA webpage with the other AASA Writing Resources.
Motivational Posters/Signage and Testing

We have discouraged signs and motivational posters, etc. for statewide testing in the classroom since we began the AzMERIT assessment several years ago, and this continues now with the current Achievement assessments. Educators and parent/community members have consistently shared their testing experiences, and test anxiety is mentioned over and over again as an issue for parents, students, and educators. Beginning with AzMERIT and continuing today, the focus is on assessment being an integral part of the instructional process and not a stand-alone event. Therefore, as we prepare for Spring testing, we want to remind schools that while you may use motivational activities and signs outside of the testing classroom, inside the room where students are testing is to remain free of any signs directly related to testing. 

This information has been included in our trainings for the past few years. However, we receive many questions about this each year, so we are including some additional guidance below for you to share with Test Administrators and other testing staff.

1. Affirmations that have been displayed throughout the semester may be displayed as long as they do not refer to actual testing. Examples include "You are Smart", "Be Kind", "We Use Kind Words", etc. 
2. Signage that is created specifically for the assessment are not permitted in the testing room.
3. The following signage should not be displayed or should be covered during testing:
  • "We are going to beat AASA", "We will rock AASA", "You got this", etc.
  • Content-specific posters such as number lines, math facts, word walls, "Good Readers...", "Good Writers...", etc. should be taken down or covered.
AASA Writing Stand-Alone Field Test (SAFT)

Reminder: All students in Grades 3-8 will participate in the AASA Writing SAFT.

Student enrollments have been uploaded and are now visible in the AASA PearsonAccessNext (PAN) platform. (Reminder: the PAN website for AASA SAFT is a different link than the PAN website used for ACT). New students can now be added in PAN. 
  • Paper-based testing schools must add any new students before December 10 to receive Pre-ID labels for paper tests.
Districts will receive paper copies of the Test Coordinator's Manual and Test Administration Directions in January for the AASA Writing SAFT. Please verify your district's shipping address in PAN no later than December 13 to ensure manuals and any paper tests will be shipped to the correct address.

Work Requests

When a student transfers into your district or within schools in your district, the District Test Coordinator will need to submit a Work Request within PAN to have the student transferred from the releasing school to the new school. District Test Coordinators also need to check in PAN frequently to see if a Work Request is awaiting approval for any student transferring out of the district. Please see Page 42 of the PAN User's Guide for the detailed steps of this process.

Please see the AASA Writing SAFT DTC Checklist for important upcoming dates and the PAN User's Guide for detailed steps for tasks that are to be completed in PAN.
Share with Parents

A link to the ACT Practice Tests has been added to the Parents and Students page of our website. Please be sure to share this important resource with both parents and students in preparation for ACT testing.

ACT Reminders: 
  • Accommodations Requests: Please continue submitting any requests for ACT accommodations in ACT's Test Accessibility and Accommodations (TAA) system. The deadline for submissions is January 7, 2022.
    • It is important that DTCs and schools are aware of the allowable accommodations for ACT. Text-to-Speech and Speech-to-Text are allowable accommodations even on the reading portions of the test. These must be submitted to ACT for approval.
  • ACT's PearsonAccessNext (PAN) site is located at testadmin.act.org. 
  • ADE will upload cohort 2023 (generally Grade 11) students to ACT's PAN platform. Students will be visible to District Test Coordinators by January 3.
    • Updates to student data in PAN must take place by January 14 to receive Pre-ID labels for student paper test booklets.
  • ACT's training site is now live and sites may begin mock administration for online testing.
Please bookmark the ACT-hosted website for Arizona and the ACT Schedule of Events for more information on current and upcoming ACT tasks.
If you have any questions, please contact us at AASA@azed.gov or AzSCI@azed.gov.

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