W.T. Sampson School will conduct an infrastructure trial, Feb. 5-9, to prepare students for the College and Career Ready Standards (CCRS) summative assessments that will be administered at all Department of Defense Education Authority (DoDEA) schools during the fourth quarter of this school year.

Dr. Judith Minor, Associate Director for Performance and Accountability and DoDEA Americas Director for Student Excellence, recently visited W.T. Sampson School to meet with students, staff, parents, base leadership and personnel from different organizations. She visited the construction site of the new school and also held a parent forum, during which she answered many questions about the current state of student excellence and what parents could expect during the upcoming assessments.

Dr. Minor and Mr. Emilio Garza, W.T. Sampson School principal, briefed the parents on last year's Terranova scores (the standardized assessment test taken in Spring 2017) and were very happy to report that at every single grade level, about 75% of W.T. Sampson students were above grade level in their performance. W.T. Sampson School students' scores were as high as or higher than every other DoDEA Americas school. The school administrators, faculty, students and parents have all been working very hard to improve the curriculum of the school and the critical thinking abilities of the students. The test results revealed that hard work does pay off.

Minor assured parents that this first year of the new CCRS summative assessments may cause a slight decline in overall scores due to the students being unfamiliar with the new tests, but that it would be a benchmark for future years' assessments and not a sign that the students were suddenly falling lower in their knowledge base and that the infrastructure trial students will be taking this upcoming week is a way to assist them in being more prepared for the spring assessments.

The CCRS summative assessments are a new test the students will be taking instead of the Terranova assessment tests that have been used in recent years. The computer-based CCRS summative assessments in mathematics will be administered to students in grades 3-6 and those enrolled in Algebra I, Geometry and Algebra II courses. CCRS summative assessments in English language arts/literacy will be administered for students in grades 6-8 and 10. Grades 7 and 8 students will not be assessed in mathematics unless they are enrolled in Algebra I, Geometry or Algebra II.

The purpose of the infrastructure trial is to perform a simulation exercise that will allow schools to assess the performance capabilities, level of readiness of the network infrastructure, and technology assets for a successful administration of the spring 2018 CCRS summative assessments.

Schools will participate in the infrastructure trial in order to provide students and staff the opportunity to become familiar with the online tools on the Person Access platform and prepare them for managing logistical actions that are needed for the actual CCRS summative assessments. During the infrastructure trial, schools will administer the English language arts/literacy assessment and/or the mathematics assessment.

The infrastructure trial will take approximately one hour (90 minutes for secondary school) of each child's time.

"It is very important to note that the data generated from the infrastructure trial will not be used for reporting student performance; therefore, you will not receive a student score report based on this trial," said Garza in a letter sent home to all parents and guardians. "Participation will not affect your child's academic grades or scores."

Practice tests are available for students and teachers to become familiar with the kinds of items and format used for the CCRS summative assessments. Accommodated versions of the practice tests are also available. The link to the practice test site is https://parcc.pearson.com/practice-tests/. Tutorials that demonstrate the navigation and tools available for the assessments can be found at https://parcc.pearson.com/tutorial/.

The actual spring 2018 CCRS summative assessments will be administered during the period of April 10 to May 3, 2018. The school administrators would like to remind all parents that the students' attendance will be very important during this test administration.

For additional information, please contact Mr. Emilio Garza at 3500 or emilio.garza@am.dodea.edu. If you would like more information about the CCRS summative assessments, please visit: http://dodea.edu.assessments.

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