MCAS Long Compositions Downloads

Recently, I had inquries from several principals asking how to access their school's long compositions. I don't have access to these documents, but wanted to share the information that was given to me by the Measured Progress and the student assessment office at ESE.

The 2013 student compositions were made available for download at the MCAS Service Center web site last August (and then updated with the official results in September). Student compositions are accessible using the usernames and passwords that are mailed to school and district administrators at the start of each calendar year (schools should have received their letters about a week ago.) The username stays the same from year to year (an 8 digit number which represents a combination of the district and school codes) but the password will have changed since 2013.

To access the student compositions:

• Visit www.MCASservicecenter.com and choose MCAS and then MCAS Reporting
• Enter your 8-digit username and 2014 password.
• Click on Reporting. The compositions are located on a tab at the top of the page (MCAS Student Compositions). 
• Complete the Basic Filtering options and the student compositions should appear. They can be viewed, printed, or downloaded.

Be sure to keep your up-to-date password handy so that you can access the 2014 composition files in the fall of 2014!

If you have questions, you can contact the MCAS Service Center at 800-737-5103 between the hours of 7 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

MCAS and Accountability Teleconference Highlights

I know that many readers of this blog attended this week's teleconference related to the release of the preliminary 2012 MCAS results and related accountability reports but I thought I would provide some of the essential information for those that were not able to attend.

MCAS Results and Discrepancy Reporting
Earlier this week, the preliminary MCAS data files were posted in the ESE Security Portal for review and discrepancy reporting. Some preliminary EDW reports are expected to be available in the Education Data Warehouse by this Friday, August 10 (ELA long compositions can be downloaded from the MCAS Service Center.)

As a reminder, the preliminary data is embargoed - Commissioner Chester has given the following guidelines for the use of preliminary data:  “I want to encourage schools and districts to use the preliminary… student data for educational planning purposes. Preliminary student results can and should be shared with teachers, parents and instructional leaders who are making decisions about Individual Education Plans, summer programs or decisions about the scope of services needed for English Language Learners.” The folks from ESE expect that the 2012 MCAS and accountability results will be released publicly on or about September 19, 2012. 

Accountability Reporting

In June, districts received their schools' provisional PPI data and accountability and assistance levels, which are based on data from 2009, 2010, and 2011. During the week of August 13, districts will receive their preliminary school-and district-level PPI data and accountability and assistance levels based on four years of data (2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012) for review (also embargoed). The official results will be released in mid-September.

Education Data Warehouse Updates

There are lots of excellent new updates in the Education Data Warehouse just in time for the busy season! Here are some highlights:

• The EDW Home page is now standard for all EDW users without needing to be configured as previously discussed. It contains information about recent updates and improvements as well as what's coming down the pike. 
• All of the reports from version 2.6 have been migrated to the new EDW. Please note that although the link is still available from the landing page, EDW 2.6 is no longer being updated and will be retired in October.
• The Test Item Analysis reports now have the option to map the test items to EITHER the old or new curriculum frameworks for Math and ELA. 
• There is a "Super" student profile report which provides SIMS, attendance, course, MCAS, and CD status information for any selected student.
• There are several new classroom-level reports which utilize SCS data for a given instructional group (classroom, course section, etc.) These reports are only available to users who have been assigned the "DW-Evaluator" role. ESE has developed guidance around assigning this role to EDW users which they will post on the EDW home page shortly. (Watch for a more detailed blog post once this guidance document is available online.)

Upcoming MCAS and MEPA Data Releases

A previous blog post provided some of the preliminary release dates for MCAS results, but I wanted to provide links to two ESE memos containing additional details.

Preliminary 2012 MCAS Data:

• June 12th - ELA Composition images posted electronically for principals
• June 15th - Portfolio Feedback Forms for MCAS-Alt posted electronically for principals
• June 22nd - Excel data files and school roster reports with preliminary student results to Dropbox Central.
• June 29th - Preliminary school and district reports to Dropbox Central.
• June 29th - Selected EDW reports posted.

See the Commissioner's May 21st memo for more details.

Spring 2012 MEPA Data:

• June 7th - Parent/Guardian reports received by schools via UPS.
• June 7th - Various data reports posted to http://www.mcasservicecenter.com/.
• June 25th - Student data file with 2011 and 2012 MEPA and MCAS scores will be posted at the Department's Security Portal.

More details on the MEPA release can be found here.

Release Schedule for 2011 Preliminary MCAS Results

Commissioner Chester has announced a schedule for the June release of 2011 preliminary MCAS and MCAS-Alt results. This release will include full preliminary MCAS results for ELA, multiple-choice results for Math and STE (grades 5 and 8), and full MCAS-Alt results. As a reminder, this preliminary information is embargoed; while it may be used for instructional planning, it may not be discussed with the public or press.

Here's a summary of the schedule:

June 15 - ELA Composition images available at the MCAS Service Center Web site
June 16 - MCAS-Alt Portfolio feedback forms available in DropBox
June 17 - Preliminary roster reports posted in DropBox
June 20 - Preliminary school/district reports posted in DropBox
June 24 - Selected reports available in Education Data Warehouse
August TBD - Full preliminary results available

In addition, there will be two MCAS reporting teleconferences on June 16 at 2:30 pm and June 17 at 10:00 am (register via www.mcasservicecenter.com).

The folks at ESE are putting into place several strategies to minimize traffic jams with the EDW for this June release, including links to pre-run versions of popular reports. Stay tuned for more details.

Please visit the Commissioner's memo for the details of the MCAS release schedule as well as the MEPA results schedule.