FAQs: Assessments in Imagine Language & Literacy

 Caution

This article does not apply to students taking the Galileo ELA Benchmark or the NWEA™ MAP® Growth Assessment. It only applies to organizations who have chosen the default embedded Benchmarks as their placement/assessment method in Imagine Language & Literacy. 

Below are some common "Can I..." and "How do I..." questions that will help you administer Placement and Benchmark tests and interpret your students' test results. We strongly recommend that you read Understanding Placement and Benchmark tests and Understanding the Reading Level Assessment (RLA) before exploring the additional information below.

1. Can I disable the Placement or Benchmark tests? What about the Reading Level Assessment?
  • The Placement test cannot be disabled. Neither can the BOY Benchmark.
  • Administrators can disable the MOY and EOY Benchmarks at their discretion, but we don't recommend it because multiple Benchmark scores are needed in order to track student growth.
  • All three Reading Level Assessments are actually disabled by default but can be enabled/disabled again by Administrators.
Disabling is done on a school-by-school basis.
2. Can I reset/reassign a student's test?
Yes, both Placement and Benchmark tests can be reassigned on a student-by-student basis, although the use cases for each vary slightly.

Benchmark tests
can be reassigned automatically or manually:
  • Expired tests: Tests not completed within 28 calendar days are automatically restarted when students log in again on the 29th day or after within the same testing window. Expired tests are reset because too much time has passed for the score to be valid. 
  • Completed tests: In the student-level Growth report, All Benchmarks tab, you can manually restart a test if you believe the score is invalid and would like for students to start it again. You may find this option helpful if students rushed through the test, weren't feeling well when they took it, or you believe they got help with the answers.
Placement tests can only be reassigned manually.
  • Placement tests never expire, so the automatic restart scenario for Benchmarks does not apply to Placements. However, under certain conditions, you can manually restart a completed Placement test if you feel the score does not reflect the student's true abilities.
When a student's test is restarted, students are delivered a completely new test and any old scoring or progress is deleted.

 Note

Educators cannot reassign the Reading Level Assessment (RLA). If you need an RLA to be reset, contact Product Support.

3. How do I see which students are in progress/currently taking a test?

In the student program:

You can tell which students are in the middle of a test is by walking around the room when students are using IL&L. Students who are taking the test have a Testing in Progress notification in the bottom left corner of their screen.
testing in progress.png

In the educator portal:


Set the Growth report's filters so that:
A. You are viewing the report at the school or class/group level 
B. You've chosen only 1 assessment in the Test Windows drop-down menu at the top of the report
filters.png

You'll first be able to see the number or percentage of students with a testing status of In Progress in the top left corner (Overall Placement section) of the Growth report. (The percentage displays in the school level of the report, while the count displays at the class/group level.) 

To get a list of the names of the students, click the Download Student Lists button to download a CSV export of student completion status
download student lists 3.png

Another way to find students in progress is in the Placement column in the Detailed Student Placement section at the bottom of the class/group level of the report.  
in progress growth report.png

4. How can I tell when students are done with a test?
Students will have a status of Completed in the Overall Placement section of the Growth report and its corresponding downloadable list (see question above).

You can also look for a grade-level placement such as 1 Grade Below, On Grade Level, etc., in the Placement column in the Detailed Student Placement section at the bottom of the class/group level of the report.   
placement column.png

5. How do I know if a student's score is a Benchmark score or a Placement score?
At the bottom of the class-level Growth report, look in the Score Type column. You can even sort the data in this column by clicking the arrow in the column header.
Score Type column.png
6. How often does the Growth report update and how do I know when the last update occurred?

When there are changes to the data, the report updates at least hourly. The date and timestamp is at the top of the report. 
growth report last updated ILL 2.png

7. Does the program enforce any minimum length of time between tests?
No, although there are steps you can manually take if you wish to space the tests out.

Spacing between Benchmarks:


The easiest way to ensure significant spacing between Benchmarks is to make sure students log in to IL&L on a regular basis. Assuming that all 3 Benchmarks are enabled and that students start the program at the beginning of the school year, students will get the first Benchmark at the beginning of the year, the second Benchmark the first time they log in in December, and the third the first time they log in in April. If students log in sporadically and therefore take a long time to complete a Benchmark (since the tests often take longer than a single session to complete), that's when you're likely to experience students having only short gaps between Benchmarks, or even not taking or not completing all the Benchmarks necessary to accurately assess their growth. 

Spacing between the Placement test and the students' first Benchmark:


Students will not receive a Benchmark during the same testing window in which they take the Placement test
. However, when students take the Placement between Benchmark windows (specifically, in July, November or March), it's possible students will receive their first Benchmark test very shortly after their Placement.
  • For example, if a student takes the Placement in late November, they will still be prompted to take the MOY Benchmark the first time they log in to the program in December. This is because the MOY Benchmark testing window opens on December 1st.
  • Furthermore, IL&L calculates Benchmark eligibility based on when a student starts a Placement, not on when they finish it. This means that a student who starts the Placement on November 30th and finishes it on December 5th will still get their first Benchmark the next time they log in in December, because they started the Placement before the MOY window opened.
To avoid or mitigate this, consider 1 of the following:
  • If just a few students are affected: Have brand-new IL&L users who would be logging in for the first time in July, November, or March wait until the start of the next Benchmark window to make their initial login. This is what we recommend for classroom teachers when a new student joins their class mid-year.

  • If a lot of students are affected: If you have a large number of brand-new users starting the program at your school in one of the aforementioned months, you can temporarily disable the start of the upcoming MOY or EOY Benchmark for the entire school. You'd then reenable the assessment after you feel sufficient time has passed for students to show growth between tests.

     Tip

    If you are a teacher, plan this in conjunction with your administrators as they are the only ones with permission to disable/reenable Benchmarks. Changing Benchmark enablement status is done on a school-by-school basis and can not be done for individual students.

Spacing between Benchmarks/Placements and the Reading Level Assessment (RLA):

Students who are eligible for both an embedded assessment (Placement or Benchmark) and the RLA will take the embedded assessment first, followed immediately by the RLA, unless you take action to separate the tests.

If the potential for testing fatigue is a concern, you can wait to enable the RLA so that a period of time (a week or two, for example) passes between the two assessments. To do so, ask your administrator to wait until most students at your school have completed the Benchmark before enabling the RLA
8. Can I print student test results to send home?
Yes, you can print individual student reports in bulk on a class-by-class basis.
9. Why does it seem like my students are getting assessments that are too hard for them?
Both the Placement and the Benchmark tests are adaptive, so they will calibrate based on each student's ability. At first the student may get questions they feel are too easy, and towards the end of the test, they may get questions they find difficult, as the test is adapting to how each question is answered. This is to be expected as the tests narrows in on the student's Zone of Proximal Development. 
10. How is student placement affected by middle and end of year tests?

The MOY and EOY scores do not immediately change a student's position in their learning path. Instead, they can eventually contribute to a change in activities given to the students when students encounter predictive checkpoints later in their sequence. This means it may be possible for students to perform above level on MOY literacy tests but still be working on below grade-level content.

MOY and EOY scores only influence a student to be moved forward, not backward, in certain strands of the content..