# Appendix C:

Sample Description

Of

School Coordinator Responsibilities

## MyNAEP Guide for School Coordinators

The MyNAEP website provides

participating schools and

districts with a convenient way to

prepare for the upcoming

National Assessment of

Educational Progress (NAEP).

• My NAEP will serve as your

primary resource and action

center thr oughout the

assessment process.

• Previously, schools prepared for

NAEP by completing paperwork and

holding a preassessment visit with

NAEP representatives.

MyNAEP offers schools an electronic

way to complete the same tasks at

their own pace.

• The website’s menu is a virtual

checklist of all activities that

schools will need to complete

throughout the school year , so

it is important to check in

frequently to make sure your

school is on track with

preparations.

• Visit the MyNAEP website to

get started:

https://www.mynaep.com

. Each school that will participate in NAEP 2014 has a designated staff member to

serve as its NAEP school coordinator. You have been selected to serve as

coordinator and liaison for all NAEP assessment activities in your school. Thank

you in advance for helping to prepare for this important assessment!

In the fall, you will be responsible for the following:

Registering for and using the MyNAEP website. MyNAEP will provide you with all of

the information your school needs to participate in NAEP, including information about

what to expect at each stage. Multiple school st aff may register to access the site, but

only schools coordinators will have full access to all menus. Register at

www.mynaep.com by entering the registrati on ID assign ed by your NAEP State

Coordinator. (For more detailed instructions on how to do this, refer to page 3 of this

document.)

Completing and submitting school information . Go to the Provide School

Information page on MyNAEP to enter and submit you r school’s contact and

characteristic information, including your school’s name, address, and the number of

students enrolled in the selected grade. Providing up

- to

- date information about your

school ensures that materials can be prepared for the assessmen t.

Preparing and submitting a list of your school’s students in the selected grade

level (if requested).

NAEP requires a complete list of students in the selected grade so that a random

sample of students can be selected to participate in the assessment and demographic

information about these students can be collected. Visit the Submit Student List page

on My NAEP to determine if you will need to prepare and upload this list. Student

n ames will always be kept confidential and individual student responses or scores on

NAEP are never reported. 

# PLACEHOLDER FOR MYNAEP GRAPHICIn December, the NAEP representative responsible

for administering NAEP in your school will contact

you and discuss how to complete these tasks listed

under the Prepare for Assessment menu:

Updat ing student information and prepar ing for the

assessment of students with disabilities and

English language learners (SD/ELL). Visit the Update

Student List page to identify any withdrawn and

ineligible students that need to be removed from the

original sample. You will also need to review

de mographic information and provide updates, in case

any information is missing or inaccurate. To ensure that

NAEP reflects the educational progress of all students,

you will need to submit information on the Include

Students page about how SD/ELL students w ill

participate in the assessment and the accommodations

they will receive.

Informing parents/guardians of student

participation . By law, parents/guardians of students

selected to participate in NAEP must be notified in

writing of their child’s selection prior to the

administration of the assessment. An electronic copy of

the Parent/Guardian Notification Letter is available on

the Notify Parents page for downloading, printing, and

distributing.

Other Prepare for Assessment menu tasks will

become availa ble in January :

Submitting a current roster of students (if

requested)

. For NAEP to maintain statistical validity, all

eligible students must have a chance to be selected. If

requested, you will need to visit Submit Current

Roster of Students and upload an Excel file of

students currently enrolled in the selected grade.

Manag ing the completion of questionnaires by

school staff

. You will be responsible for distributing

and ensuring the completion of online questionnaires

designed to help provide c ontextual information for the assessment results

. These questionnaire s may be

accessed, distributed, and monitored for completion

through the Manage Questionnaires page on

MyNAEP.

Promoting the importance of NAEP with school

staff and students. Teachers are essential for

motivating students to do their best on NAEP. Students

selected to take NAEP will represent hundreds of

students across the state and the nation, so it is vital

that they participate and do their best. Online

resources, 5

- minute v ideos, and strategies for

promoting NAEP are all available on the Encourage

Participation page.

Finalizing assessment arrangements. Assessment

day details, including the location(s) and start time of

the assessment, how students and teachers will be

not ified, and SD/ELL student accommodation logistics,

will need to be entered via MyNAEP ’s Finalize

Assessment Arrangements page

.

On the assessment date, you will meet your NAEP

representative and their assessment team, and be

responsible for:

Ensuring that students attend the session. Prior to

the assessment start time, you will need to be available

to ensure that st udents attend the sessions.

Appointment cards can be created/printed from

MyNAEP ’s Support Assessment A ctivities page

. You

and/or teachers of the selected students are

encouraged to remain in the room during the

assessment. If attendance of sampled students is less

than 90 percent, a makeup session will be necessary,

and the NAEP representative will schedule another date

to administer the ass essment to the students who were

absent.

Provide School

Information Submit Student

List Prepare for

Assessment Support

Assessment

Activities Wrap UpAugust/SeptemberOctober/NovemberDecember/JanuaryBeforetheassessmentdateJune 1orlastdayofschoolHow to Register for and Access MyNAEP

Register for and access MyNAEP by following these simple steps:

1. Go to https://www.mynaep.com . On the right side of the screen, select Please register

.

2. Enter the MyNAEP registration ID included in the letter

sent by your NAEP State or TUDA Coordinator and

select Continue . If you cannot locate your registration

ID, please contact your coordinator or the NAEP Help

Desk at 800

- 283

- 6237 or naephelp@westat.com.

Multiple district and school staff can use the registration

ID to register for the website.

3. Complete the registration form and

create a password to access MyNAEP (for

detailed instructions, select Registration

Help ). MyNAEP is a secure websit e that

contains confidential information, so all users

will be prompted to update their password

every 120 days . A username will be

automatically generated and emailed to you.

Links are available on the login page in case

you ever forget your username or p assword.MyNAEP Resources

Although the website is designed for quick and easy use, MyNAEP offers a variety of support options. The Contact

menu in the website banner allows users to reach the NAEP Help Desk instantly by phone, email, or live chat. The

Res ources menu offers tutorials that demonstrate how to quickly enter information for each task and explain why

NAEP collects information from every school.

The NAEP Help Desk and State and TUDA Coordinators are available to help year

– round. Your school’s NAEP

representative will be available starting in early December. Y our NAEP representative will be responsible for

administering the assessment in your school and will also assist you with the tasks listed under the Prepare for

Assessment menu.

MyNAEP Activity Overview

Timeframe MyNAEP Menu Location Actions Steps to Complete and Helpful Resources

Now https://www.mynaep.com Register for MyNAEP to gain website access.

August

September

2013 Provide School Information Ensure NAEP has the most up

- to

- date information about your school

.

October

November

2013 Submit Student List * Prepare and upload an Excel list of all students in the selected grade, including

demographic information

. (If requested.)

December

2013

- January

2014 Prepare for Assessment [menu goes live in December]

• Update Student List Ensure NAEP has the most up

- to

- date student information for the selected grade.

• Include Students Submit information for sampled SD/ELL students, including classification and

accommodations each receives for state assessments.

• Notify Parents Inform parents/guardians of student participation.

January 2014 • Submit Current Roster of

Students* Submit an up

- to

- date student roster to identify eligible students not included in the

list that was submitted for sampling in the fall

. (If requested)

• Manage Questionnaires Manage names, email addresses, and questionnaire completion statuses of

teachers in the selected grade and NAEP assessment subject.

• Encourage Participation Discuss strategies with your school principal for motivating students to participate

in the assessment.

• Finalize Assessment

Arrangements Submit additional information to ensure assessment day runs smoothly, such as

the selected assessment location and s tart time of each session.

One week

before the

assessment

, assessment

day Support Assessment Activities Promote student and teacher participation in NAEP.

June 1 or last

day of school Wrap Up Shred all confidential hardcopy materials in the envelope provided in December

by your NAEP representative. Includes Frequently Asked

Questions , tutorials, and a

Glossary

. Contact information for State and

TUDA Coordinators, the Help Desk,

and your school’s NAEP

representative.

# Appendix D:

Usability Review Recommendations on e-PAV

## Usability Review Comments

1 st round of internal testing

– July 3, 2013

This document provides usability design recommendations for the development of the NAEP website

based on an analysis of findings during the usability evaluations made between June 28 and July 2, 2013.

Specific examples of usability issues are provided however, these recommendations apply across the

entire design program. The data presented below reflects a heuristic review conducted by a usability

expert.

1. Provided Global and Contextual Help

Issue: There is no global help and few opportunities for contextual help.

Example: There are a few places on the website where there is no directions on what to do if data is

missing or in error (e.g. on the confirm SD/ELL screen, one student didn’t have a FNAME or MNAME but

no way to add them).

Recommendation: The addition of global and contextual help features would greatly serve the

infrequent and first time user of the NAEP website. From a global help perspective, there could be a link

on every page with FAQ’s categorized by topic and section of the website. From a contextual help

perspective, new users would benefit from seeing a small graphic symbol (signifying help) next to

difficult passages, column headers, etc. that when clicked on, would provide information on the task at

hand.

2. Design for Error Prevention

Issue: Eliminate designs which lead to error prone conditions and when that isn’t possible, prove

meaningful, actionable error messages.

Example: There are several pages on the website where the buttons at the bottom of the page (e.g.

Back Save Continue Exit) are very close together and as a result, could result in accidental activation of a

non

‐ desired button by the user.

Recommendation: Consider spacing buttons no less than the width of the cursor (arrow).

3. Provide User Control and Freedom

Issue: Users should have the control to recover from unintended actions; better yet is a design which

precludes such events (as noted above in Error Prevention). With respect to ensuring user control and

freedom, consider the ramifications of using the Back button and its effect on data entered and page

sequencing.

Example: Users are frustrated when they enter data, use the Back button to check on a previous screen

and then return to the data entry screen to find that the data they entered is gone. Likewise, we

noticed on this website in an area were skip patterns where used, that hitting the back button and then

moving forward again brought up an incorrect screen (we assume because after using the Back button

when we returned to the original screen, the default path was not the path we originally chose).For example: on the Promote school encouragement page, on our first pass, we selected YES to

creating a Certificate and were presented with the certificate distribution option page. We then

when back and selected NO but was again presented with the certificate distribution option

page.

Recommendation: Evaluate the effect of using the Back button on each page and either locking it out or

providing a warning message when its use could/would result in unintended consequences.

4. Provide a Match Between System and Real World

Issue: What users see and do on the website should look and operate as other things do to the user.

Example (1): On several screens, the data entry field populates from right to left which is unexpected.

https://testing.mynaep.com/login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2f#register.

Recommendation (1): Consider populating the data from left to right. This is how American read (from

left to right) and a common expectation for data entry.

Example (2): It is difficult to tell the difference between finish and exit buttons. If existing the system

will result in loss data, popup a warning dialog box each time the user clicks on exit except when directly

after clicking the save button. If the finish button saves the data prior to exiting the screen, consider

changing the button text to Save and Exit, which will differentiate it from just Exit.

Recommendation (2): In general, ensure that the button names clearly describe the functionality.

Usability testing with end users is the best way to make that determination.

5. Design for Recognition Rather than Recall

Issue: High cognitive workload is a strain on users. To avoid this, website designs aspire to be “intuitive”

such that users instinctively know what to do by looking at the screen. In other words, users recognize

what to do (e.g. seeing an 8

‐ sided, red icon means to stop) rather than having to mentally process

information to figure out (or recall) what to do (e.g. seeing a box with a paper half way in the box

requires thought and context to understand what it is referring to).

Example: The SC does not have to complete her/his work in a specific order (e.g. the order displayed by

the vertical order of links). The SC can start the process of gathering the information to put into the

parent notification and then have to log out of the system due to time, and log in and out several more

times to complete it. However, upon returning to the website after a one week delay, the user might

start back up in the Update Student List and then when working down to notify parent (several days)

later, look at the purple (already visited) Notify Parent link and mistakenly assume she/he has already

completed that step, and the letters may never go out. This is just one hypothetical example of how not

having a progress indicator could result in a negative outcome.

Recommendation : Following a limited review of the MyNAEP website, I recommend a progress status

system be engineered into the My NAEP website.

6. Build an Aesthetic and Minimalist Design

Issue: High cognitive workload can result in errors, injury and low satisfaction ratings. Cognitive

workload can be reduced by eliminating irrelevant/competing data and minimizing data to essential

concise language.Example (1): On the screen which requests information on the last day of school

, the calendar pops up

with years prior to the current school year. These choices are irrelevant and compete with visual space

and unnecessarily consume cognitive bandwidth.

Recommendation (1): Consider removing all irrelevant data (prior years) so that the amount of design

can be minimized.

Example (2): There are several forms with columns which are unnecessarily wide with respect to the

amount of data in each row. Reduce the column widths such that the eyes don’t have to travel

unnecessarily across the page. Also, there are data fields which are misaligned with their column

headers.

Recommendation (2) : Aligning field titles and data provides a more aesthetic design and requires less

cognitive processing.

7. Use Consistency and Standards in Design

Issue: Users should get what they expect when clicking on a link, and designs which mean one thing on

one page should mean the same thing throughout the website, unless the user is notified otherwise.

Regarding the former, when the users click on a hyperlink to new content, the page they are brought to

should have the same title as the hyperlink.

Example: When users click on the ID withdrawn of ineligible student’s hyperlink, the title of the page

they are taken to changes to “confirm withdrawn or ineligible students”. Obviously, the act of

Identification and Confirmation can have two distinct meanings.

Recommendation: the page title the user is brought to should reflect the hyperlink that took them to it.