Oklahoma Administrative Code › Title 210 - State Department of Education › Chapter 10 - School Administration and Instructional Services › Subchapter 13 - Student Assessment and School Accountability › Section 210:10-13-4 - Test security and validity

Current through Vol. 41, No. 20, July 1, 2024
(a)
Test security.
School administrators and their designees shall
				maintain security on tests administered under the auspices of the Oklahoma
				School Testing Program through following the procedures listed below:
(1)
Test coordinators.
School
				superintendents shall designate both district and building test coordinators
				before October 1 of each school year. Names and telephone numbers of district
				test coordinators shall be recorded on the OSTP Questionnaire conducted in the
				fall semester of each school year. This questionnaire is the order form
				provided by the testing vendors for all tests in the OSTP including large print
				and Braille test forms.
(2)
Pretest information.
The State Department of Education shall
				provide student/parent pretest information materials to schools for designated
				grade levels before testing.
(3)
Embargo of test materials.
The State Department of Education shall
				require the contracting test publisher to place an embargo on the sale,
				sampling, and/or distribution of test materials utilized in the OSTP to any
				person or organization in Oklahoma (other than the official distribution of
				such materials purchased for the OSTP by the State Department of Education).
				This embargo is to be enforced from the first day of contract with the State
				Department of Education throughout use of this test for the OSTP and until the
				Department has given notice that the test series is no longer going to be used
				in the OSTP.
(A) Violation of this agreement
				by a contracting test publisher can result in automatic and immediate
				forfeiture of the contract and reimbursement to the State Department of
				Education (by the contracting company) of any funds expended in the conduct of
				the OSTP.
(B) No individual person
				or public or private entity shall obtain copies of any test materials utilized
				in the OSTP other than through the official distribution of test materials to
				public schools immediately prior to administration of the annual OSTP. Any
				person or organization attempting to order such materials from the contracting
				test publisher (or from other scoring companies handling OSTP or "off-grade"
				scoring and reporting) shall be reported by the contractor to the State
				Superintendent of Public Instruction.
(4)
Maintenance of the security of test
				materials prior to exam administration.
All student test materials
				(i.e., test booklets, prompts for writing assessment, and answer documents)
				shall be bound by the test publisher in packages of designated lot sizes. No
				test booklets shall be viewed by any person other than the student taking the
				test at the time of testing, except in the case of special education, Section
				504, or ELL accommodations which allow a test administrator to assist a student
				being tested. Test booklets shall be individually sealed, as practicable, to
				prohibit them from being opened.
(A) When
				seals are used on test booklets, the following procedures shall be followed:
(i) Test booklets shall remain intact until
				tests are distributed to students at the beginning of the test administration
				session;
(ii) Each test booklet
				seal shall be broken only by the student who is administered the test, except
				where special education or Section 504 accommodations allow the opening of the
				test; and
(ii) Unused test booklets
				shall remain sealed.
(B)
				When seals are not used on test booklets, the following procedures shall be
				followed:
(i) Test booklets shall remain
				closed until distributed to students at the beginning of the test
				administration session;
(ii) Each
				test booklet shall be opened only by the student who is administered the test,
				except where special education or Section 504 accommodations allow the opening
				of the book and turning of pages by someone other than the
				students.
(5)
Inventory and accounting of test materials.
All test materials
				shall be inventoried by the school district upon receipt from the test
				publisher/contractor. Any discrepancies representing shortages in the quantity
				of materials supplied and the quantity needed for tests administered shall be
				reported immediately to the contracting company by the district test
				coordinator. Immediately upon receipt and inventory of materials, all tests,
				and other materials shall be locked in a secure place by the district test
				coordinator or school administrator.
(A) The
				site level distribution of test documents and materials may occur beginning one
				week prior to testing. Exceptions to the test materials distribution time limit
				needed by the largest districts in the state shall be registered with and
				approved by the State Department of Education Office of Assessment at least
				four weeks prior to the first designated testing window of each year.
(B) During the days in which tests are being
				administered in each school district, all test administrators are responsible
				for locking all test materials in a secure place when the tests are not being
				utilized in the official test administration with students. This includes the
				time period between completion of the test administration and delivery of the
				answer documents and other test materials to the district test coordinator.
				Further, the building test coordinator is responsible for ensuring that
				materials are properly locked in a secure place at the times specified above.
(C) Test booklets are not to leave
				school buildings at any time (i.e., students' test booklets are not to be taken
				home by an employee or the community member/test monitor before, during, or
				after test administration has been completed). Exceptions to test booklets
				leaving a school site shall be made at the discretion of the State Department
				of Education Office of Assessment for the purpose of secure transport to a site
				of instruction for the purpose of test administration, upon a written request
				from a District Test Coordinator. These requests must be registered with and
				approved by the Office of Assessment at least four weeks prior to the first
				designated testing window of each year.
(D) An accounting is to be conducted on all
				test booklets. Unused test booklets are to remain in "shrink-wrap" (or
				otherwise packaged) when possible. All unused tests are to be returned to the
				test publisher. Failure to return test booklets to the appropriate companies
				will result in:
(i) A school or district
				being reported to the State Superintendent; and
(ii) Possible invalidation of the school's
				and/or district's scores by the State Department of Education Office of
				Assessment.
(E) The
				contracting test publisher shall print electronically read identification codes
				on all documents containing secured test items prior to distribution of these
				materials to the public schools. Within all test program components of the
				OSTP, the contracting test publisher shall record the specific series of
				numbers (represented by the "bar codes") assigned to each school district and
				building site within a district. Inventory lists of test document bar codes by
				school site shall be provided for each district test coordinator.
(F) The district test coordinator shall ship
				all answer documents and specified identification forms to the designated
				scoring/reporting company and all other test materials to the contracting test
				publisher in accordance with the schedule for return of materials provided in
				the Test Preparation Manual. If a district fails to return materials and answer
				documents in a timely fashion, the district may be penalized with additional
				costs and the test scores for the individual school(s) and/or district in
				question may be declared invalid. If a district fails to complete or
				incorrectly completes answer documents and/or demographic pages or other
				required testing-related materials, the district may be penalized with
				additional costs and may also receive a deficiency on the district
				accreditation report.
(G) The
				contracting test publisher shall submit an inventory of test materials to the
				State Department of Education each year. This inventory shall document the
				quantity of materials distributed to each school district and received from
				each school district--recorded by school site as indicated by the numbers
				represented by the "bar codes" printed on test materials. Quantities of writing
				assessment materials distributed to and retrieved from schools will be reported
				to the State Department of Education by the contracting test publisher.
(H) School superintendents from
				whom incomplete quantities of materials have been received shall be notified of
				this discrepancy and shall be provided a date by which the remaining materials
				must be returned to the test publisher. The test publisher shall notify the
				Department of Education of all school districts from which test materials have
				not been received after this date. Names of these school districts shall be
				reported to the State Superintendent and may also receive a deficiency on the
				district accreditation report.
(6)
Prohibition against reproduction of
				test materials.
Reproduction of any copyrighted test
				materials--including test documents, teachers' test administration manuals, and
				student pretest materials--is strictly prohibited. Photocopying or digital
				copying of these materials constitutes a violation of federal copyright laws.
				To ensure that all school employees and community members are aware of this
				regulation and the laws in support of same, the district or building test
				coordinator shall post a sign to this effect over each copy machine. The
				Federal Copyright Law--as it applies to the multiple-choice and/or Writing
				Assessment Component of the OSTP--prohibits the photocopying of any part of the
				student Test Booklet. This includes the lined writing pages, the writing
				prompt, and the student's written response. This portion of the set of test
				documents, as well as the writing prompt, is considered protected under the
				copyright guidelines. These items shall remain protected, and thus may not be
				copied, printed, or disseminated in any manner, until they are officially
				released by the OSDE.
(7)
Other test security violations.
All of the following actions are
				prohibited as violations of test security:
(A) Teaching test items to students (except
				in the case of an alternate special education assessment in which authentic
				performance tasks may be utilized), changing students' answers, or in any
				manner providing answers to test questions for students before, during, or
				after test administration has been completed.
(B) Using secured test items as instructional
				tools or for student "practice"--either verbatim as written or in reworded
				form. Note: Secured test items are those provided to measure student knowledge
				and/or skills on OSTP tests. Said items are to be differentiated from sample
				test items that are provided at the beginning of each subtest and used,
				according to official test administration procedures, solely for the purpose of
				understanding directions and marking answers.
(C) Reading secured test items orally to
				students at any time before, after, or during test administration unless it is
				an IEP, Section 504, or ELL accommodation, in which case an affidavit shall be
				signed, prior to reading items, by the test administrator/reader stating they
				shall not reveal any test items, writing prompts, or other secured information
				to any person.
(D) Allowing
				students to view and/or read the writing assessment prompts before test
				administration or discussing or exposing the theme or topic of the prompt.
(E) Providing answers to secured
				test items. This includes provision of cues, clues, hints, and/or actual
				answers in any form--written, printed, verbal (oral), or nonverbal. In regard
				to the writing assessment component of the OSTP, prohibited actions include the
				provision of "hints" or any form of clues in regard to the manner in which
				students respond to the prompt (e.g., "brainstorming" about the topic of the
				prompt; offering suggestions regarding how to respond; assisting the student or
				class in organizing the response; and all other such deviations from the
				printed instructions for administering the test).
(F) Changing students' responses to secured
				test items and/or influencing or encouraging students to change their answers
				to test items at any time.
(G)
				Deviating from any instruction provided in the official test administration
				manual or disclosure of any test information that materially inhibits the State
				Board of Education from exercising its duties set forth in 70 O.S.
				§1210.508 to develop, field-test, administer, and validate
				criterion-referenced tests and end-of-instruction assessments.
(8)
Test security
				forms.
Test Security Forms provided by the State Department of
				Education's test contractor(s) shall be distributed by the district test
				coordinator with test materials to the persons designated on each form.
(A) OSTP Test Security Forms shall be
				provided for the following:
(i) Form 1:
				Superintendent and District Test Coordinator
(ii) Form 2: Building Principal and Building
				Test Coordinator
(iii) Form 3: Test
				Administrators and Test Monitors.
(B) After completing the test administration,
				these forms shall be signed by the designated persons and returned to the
				district test coordinator. The district test coordinator shall return all
				signed forms to the respective scoring company. Failure to sign and return the
				appropriate forms may result in:
(i) A school
				or district being reported to the State Superintendent; and
(ii) Invalidation of a school's and/or
				district's test scores.
(C) The contracting test companies shall
				provide the State Department of Education the signed OSTP Test Security Forms
				or a report of names of educators who signed SDE/OSTP Test Security Forms and
				an accounting of the number of tests and manuals:
(i) Distributed to, and
(ii) Returned from each school district.