Manage Online Test Sessions

District and campus coordinators must:

❏ Ensure a Proper Testing Environment

Campus coordinators should work with principals to ensure the following testing conditions:

• No element of the testing room environment should hinder any student’s performance.

• A “Testing—Do Not Disturb” sign should be posted outside the testing room.

• An instructional environment should be maintained during testing windows. It is not necessary to conceal or remove instructional or reference materials in testing areas, classrooms, or hallways unless they could provide assistance or are a direct source of answers for the subject-area or language domain assessment being administered.

• Clocks in the testing room, whether analog or digital, do not need to be covered or removed.

• All desks or computer workstations used for testing must be cleared of books and other materials not required for the assessment.

• All desks or computer workstations used for testing must be sufficiently separated from each other so that students cannot see one another’s monitors. Refer to the sample seating charts on the Security Forms page of the Test Security section.

❏ Ensure Proper Testing Procedures

• District testing personnel are required to have procedures in place to prevent student use of cell phones and personal electronic devices during test administrations. Before allowing student use of approved technology during testing, including technology-based accommodations, district personnel must review the Technology Guidelines for the Texas Assessment Program page of these Coordinator Resources. Technology cannot be used during an assessment if its functionality creates a security concern that cannot be addressed.

• At least one trained test administrator per 30 students must always be present in each testing room during testing.

• Test administrators must complete seating charts for each test administration.

  • Seating charts must include the names of the students testing, the assigned seat for each student, the start and stop times for each test session, and the names of all test administrators and monitors involved in the session.

  • Additional seating charts must be completed for students who are moved to another location to continue testing.

• District testing personnel may establish specific days and start times for testing. TEA recommends that district personnel begin testing within one hour of the start of the school day.

• District testing personnel should schedule test sessions for three to four hours. Students who are still testing after four hours should be consolidated into a general testing area to continue testing. Students must complete the assessment within the same school day, and no test session may exceed seven hours. Exceptions exist for students who have a TEA-approved Extra Day designated support.

• A student who arrives after a test session has started may be tested if sufficient time remains in the day for the student to complete the assessment. District testing personnel should exercise judgment about starting a test session after lunch for students who are late, as they might not have sufficient time to complete the assessment before the end of the school day.

• If students are not present for the test session for which they were initially scheduled, they should be moved to another test session later in the testing window. Refer to the make-up testing policies available with the scheduling information for each program in the Program Overview section.

• Test administrators must actively monitor the testing room while students are working.

• Test administrators should verify that students have access only to the materials specifically allowed for the assessment.

• Test administrators may not view or discuss individual assessment questions or responses unless specifically directed to do so by the test procedures.

• Reinforcing, reviewing, or distributing testing strategies during testing is strictly prohibited.

• Students must remain seated during testing except when they are receiving or returning authorized test materials.

• Students are not allowed to talk to one another while testing is in progress.

• If students are not actively working on an assessment, they will see a warning message. An “Are you still there?” window will pop-up after five minutes of inactivity. The online assessments will automatically pause when the testing devices have been idle for 20 minutes. To complete the assessments, students will need to log back in using their original test tickets.

• Once a student has completed and submitted the assessment, the test administrator should allow the student to leave the area or provide the student an instructional activity while other students continue testing.

❏ Monitor Test Completion

The following three reports can assist with monitoring test completion in proctored or unproctored sessions by showing the status of online assessments and submissions entered in the Data Entry Interface (DEI). These reports do not include holistic rating uploads or score code submissions. Refer to the Monitoring Test Progress page of the TIDE User Guide for more information about these reports and instructions for generating them.

Plan and Manage Testing Report
This report details a student’s testing opportunities and the status of those opportunities. Users can customize reports to view information such as students who have completed specific assessments or students whose assessments are paused. This report can be generated from the Plan and Manage Testing page and is updated in near real time.

Open

Open

Proctored Sessions

In addition to the test progress reports, proctored sessions provide opportunities for test administrators to monitor a student’s progress.

• The proctor must have a device (e.g., computer, laptop, tablet) open and running the test session for the entirety of the test session.

• The proctor must approve student requests to enter the test session and begin testing to ensure that students are taking the correct assessment and that they are not accidentally logged in to the practice site or starting the wrong assessment.

• The proctor can view each student’s status and the number of questions the student has answered.
  
  

❏ Answer Questions and Resolve Problems

District and campus coordinators should be aware of problems that could arise during testing and be available to respond to concerns from test administrators. If the information needed to resolve an issue is not covered in these Coordinator Resources:

• contact Texas Testing Support for technical assistance and for questions about accessing TIDE, updating student information, and correcting score codes; or

• call the Student Assessment Division for questions about testing policies and rules, accommodations, or testing irregularities.

Online Accommodation Errors

For all online accommodation errors, a procedural testing irregularity form is required. If an accommodation error is discovered while the student is testing, the error may be able to be corrected, allowing the student to continue testing with the required accommodation. If an accommodation error is discovered after the student has finished testing, the error cannot be corrected. The district must decide if the absence of the accommodation warrants the invalidation of the test.

• Some accommodations can be turned on using the test attributes screen at the beginning of the test. For the following accommodations, the student must log out, log back in, and then apply the appropriate attribute:

  • customized zoom level

  • large mouse pointer

• Some accommodations can be turned on in TIDE by district testing staff. For the following accommodations, the student must log out, then log back in after the accommodation has been turned on in TIDE: 

  • text-to-speech (TTS)

  • auto TTS

  • speech-to-text

  • basic calculator

  • spelling assistance

  • permissive mode

• A number of accommodations can be turned on in TIDE by district testing staff only if the student has answered fewer than five questions. For the following accommodations, the accommodation must be marked in TIDE, the test must be reset by district testing personnel, and the student must log in to the new test:

  • content and language supports

  • refreshable braille

  • American Sign Language

For these three accommodations, if the student has answered five or more questions, the accommodation error CANNOT be fixed, and the test cannot be reset. District testing personnel must NOT reset the test themselves as this will cause duplicate testing records for the student. The district must decide if the absence of the accommodation warrants the invalidation of the test.

Changing Testing Locations

• It might become necessary to move students to another testing location, such as to consolidate those students who are still testing after four hours. Students should be instructed to pause their assessments before moving.

• To resume an assessment that has been paused, the student should log back in to the assessment using the original student test ticket.

• Test administrators and campus personnel must provide a proper testing environment in the new location and maintain appropriate testing procedures during the transition. Another seating chart should be filled out for the new location.

Schoolwide Emergencies

• If a schoolwide emergency disrupts testing, ensuring student safety is the top priority. Students should leave their assessments where they are and follow the school’s emergency procedures. Testing staff should not instruct students to pause their assessments. Test administrators must caution their testing groups to avoid discussing the assessment.

• Online assessments will automatically pause when the testing devices have been idle for 20 minutes. Once the emergency has been resolved, students should resume testing on the same day when possible.

• If testing cannot be resumed on the same day, students’ test tickets should be collected. Students can then resume testing the following day using their original test tickets. If the test session has ended, a new session must be created. Students will resume the assessment from where they left off. Test questions previously responded to will be locked.

• Campus coordinators should report schoolwide emergencies or other interruptions to the district coordinator.

Power Outages or Other System Interruptions

• If a campus loses power or internet connectivity during testing, district personnel should determine whether to release students or have them remain in the testing room until the outage has been resolved. If students are released from the testing room, their test tickets must be collected. Test administrators must caution their testing groups to avoid discussing the assessment.

• Online assessments will automatically pause when testing devices have been idle for 20 minutes. Once the interruption has been resolved, students should resume testing on the same day when possible.

• If testing cannot be resumed on the same day, students can resume testing the following day using their original test tickets. If the test session has ended, a new session must be created.

• Campus coordinators should report schoolwide emergencies or other interruptions to the district coordinator. If the interruption prevents students from resuming testing on the same day, the district coordinator should contact Texas Testing Support to request that the affected students’ previously responded to test questions be unlocked.

Students Who Choose Not to Respond 

• District personnel are required to provide testing opportunities to all students who are in attendance during the administration of an assessment.

• Students who choose not to participate or who refuse to respond to test questions will have their assessments submitted for scoring, as both federal and state law require that all eligible students participate in state testing. Although state law provides families with the right to temporarily remove their child from a class or school activity if they have an objection to participation, it specifically does not allow families to do so to avoid a statewide assessment.