In order to prepare for the FY2019 BEST Plus 2.0 and CLASE-Writing recertification, program directors should read the important information in this memo and forward this email and attachments to test administrators on staff.
If your program uses the BEST Plus 2.0 and/or CLAS-E Writing, please complete this online Recertification Form to provide the Center for Educational Assessment (CEA) with the names and email addresses of all staff who need to be recertified in FY2019 to continue administering the BEST Plus 2.0 and/or scoring the CLAS-E Writing in FY2020. If you are unsure about someone's recertification status, include that person's information so that CEA staff can check.
Only the following groups are exempt from FY2019 recertification:
All Program Directors MUST complete the Recertification Form by January 25, 2019.
Between January 25 and 31, ACLS will email recertification instructions to all Program Directors and the CEA will email a copy of the instructions to all practitioners eligible for recertification whose information was submitted. Program Directors will also receive (from the CEA) a list with the recertification status of the practitioners whose names were provided on the Recertification Form.
The recertification window will be from February 1 to March 29, 2019 for both assessments. To help practitioners get ready for a successful recertification season, two webinars will be offered in January:
Ask the Expert! BEST Plus 2.0 Recertification Q&A Webinar — January 10, 2019 from 4:00pm to 5:00 pm
CLAS-E Writing Scoring Refresher Webinar — January 15, 2019 from 2:00pm to 3:00pm
Please encourage staff who need to recertify in FY2019 to register through the links above. Pre-registration is required. For those unable to join the webinars live, both will be recorded and posted online.
The webinars will be led by experienced trainers and will include an overview of recertification requirements, tips for scoring, and a Q&A portion. In the CLAS-E Writing webinar, the presenters will also explain the scores and rationales for items from the FY19 Refresher Packet, which is attached. Please share the Refresher Packet with CLAS-E Writing scorers in your program.
If you have any questions about recertification, please contact the Center for Educational Assessment.
The Center for Educational Assessment (CEA) at UMass-Amherst is pleased to announce that the MAPT-CCR Individual Score Reports are now available in LACES!
To access these reports, in the student area of LACES:
In addition, the CEA has created a small video about the reports (3 minutes).
The Class Reports will be available in mid-January, along with updated user guides for the reports.
Please direct any questions about the reports to aclstesthelp@educ.umass.edu. We hope you find them useful!
Data Recognition Corporation (DRC), the publisher of the TABE 11/12, has launched a monthly webinar series about the TABE 11/12 test. The first webinar in the series took place in December, 2018, and addressed new aspects of (what is new on) the TABE 11/12 and why changes were made. It also provided information such as: why the maximum allowable times were revised in June 2018, guidelines for administering two-part subtests (Reading and Math), and recommendations for programs interested in DRC's new web-based scoring option.
This last option is free of charge, however, programs must have a dual-read, continuous feed, TWAIN-compliant scanner.
Future webinars will be on the third Thursday of every month and recordings will be posted on this website.
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 135 Santilli Highway, Everett, MA 02149
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