Caution
This article applies only to organizations that have chosen the default embedded Benchmarks as their placement/assessment method in Imagine Language & Literacy. If you aren't sure which assessment provider your school is using, read Checking which assessment option your organization is using.
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.
- 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.
Yes, both Placement and Benchmark tests can be reassigned on a student-by-student basis.
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. (For Benchmarks, the same testing window must still be open.) 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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
You can also look for scores and a grade-level placement such as 1 Grade Below, On Grade Level, etc., in the Detailed Student Placement section at the bottom of the class/group level of the report.
When there are changes to the data, the report updates at least hourly. The date and timestamp is at the top of the report.
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/not completing enough assessments to accurately determine 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 finish 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.
To avoid or mitigate this, consider one of the following:
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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.
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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.
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..
Scores are assigned a display column (BOY, MOY, or EOY) in the Growth report based on the date that your student finished the test.
- Test completed in BOY window (August 1–October 31) or in November = score appears in BOY column
- Test completed in MOY window (December 1–February 28) or in March = score appears in MOY column
- Test completed in EOY window (April 1–June 30) or in July = score appears in EOY column
In the class/group-level Growth report, use the Test Windows filter to check for the student's score in the applicable test window.
Scroll to the bottom of the report and look in the Detailed Student Placement section.
Placement/Benchmarks are lengthy assessments that measure growth over time throughout the school year. In contrast, the Pre- and Post-tests (a.k.a. predictive and evaluative checkpoints) are brief assessments within the students' learning sequence that usually evaluate an isolated skill. Pre-tests are given to determine if students can skip an upcoming activity and Post-tests evaluate whether students have mastered the content or need additional support. If you are unsure whether or not your student is in the middle of a Placement or Benchmark, consult the Growth report.