Adult and Community Learning Services (ACLS)

Scoring of Online CLAS E Writing Tests

To:	Adult Education Program Directors, CLAS E Writing Test Administrators and Scorers
From:	Wyvonne Stevens-Carter, Adult Education State Director
Date:	January 5, 2022

On December 15, 2021, Data Recognition Corporation (DRC), the publisher of the TABE tests, announced that DRC's internal scoring team will begin scoring the online TABE CLAS-E Writing tests. DRC's scoring team will score these online tests from December 15, 2021, through June 30, 2022.

During this time, Educator Scoring will not be available to DRC INSIGHT Portal users. Scores for TABE CLAS-E Writing tests will be available by 5:00 pm CST (M–F) the day after the test was submitted. This scoring effort is part of DRC's development for new TABE CLAS-E forms and ensures reliability in the data the test publisher collects.

What this means for Massachusetts adult education programs who use the online TABE CLAS E Writing test:

Programs will no longer be able to score the Expository Writing portion of the CLAS E test and the MA policies for scoring the CLAS E Writing Folios as outlined below are temporarily suspended.

Scorers must use the CLAS-E Expository Writing Rubric, Notes to the Scorer, Supplementary Scoring Guide, and benchmark writing samples each time they score. Two scorers must score each examinee's Expository Writing portion of the test. Scorers must not discuss their scores until they have finished scoring. If the scores of two readers differ by one point on any of the five expository test items, these two scores should be averaged for that item (i.e., not rounded up). Once all five items have been scored, add all items and round up if necessary for the final total score.

See the ACLS Assessment Policy Manual , pages 52–53 for more details.
Programs must enter the final DRC CLAS E Writing scaled test score into LACES for pre- and post- testing purposes.

Note: This DRC announcement does not impact MA adult education programs that use the paper version of the CLAS E Writing test. These programs must follow the same CLAS E Writing test administration and scoring procedures as per the ACLS Assessment Policy Manual .

ACLS and UMass Center for Educational Assessment (CEA) will continue to provide support for the administration of both paper-based and online NRS standardized assessment.

For questions related to assessment policies, contact Dana Varzan-Parker at dana.varzan-parker@mass.gov .

For questions related to CLAS E Writing test administration and scoring procedures, contact CEA at aclstesthelp@educ.umass.edu .

Last Updated: January 5, 2022