All editions of the following State examinations must be requested through the Department’s online examination request system: Grades 3-8 English Language Arts Tests Grades 3-8 Mathematics Tests Grade 4 Elementary-Level Science Test Grade 5 Elementary-Level Social Studies Test Grade 8 Intermediate-Level Science Test Grade 8 Intermediate-Level Social Studies Test Language Assessment Battery–Revised (LAB–R) Directions for using this system are included in this memorandum and in the enclosed Instructions for Submitting Elementary/Intermediate Examination Requests Online.

This memorandum provides information concerning procedures for requesting, shipping and storing materials for the tests listed above. This memorandum and all information in subsequent mailings pertaining to these tests will be available on the Department’s web site: http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/osa. If you have questions concerning the requesting of test materials, or about any of the other information in this memorandum,
call 518-474-8220 for assistance.
requesting information
All regular, translated, large-type, and braille editions of the elementary- and intermediate-level tests and all regular and large-type editions of the LAB–R must be requested through the Department’s online examination request system. Telephone requests will not be accepted. The Department will accept and enter online on the school's behalf only those requests submitted by fax for the braille editions of LAB–R.
You must have a user name and password in order to enter your school’s examination requests online. If you were the principal of the same school during the 2008-09 school year, the expectation is that you have previously been issued a valid user name and password. Use those to log onto the online examination request system. If you do not have a valid user name and password, determine which of the following situations applies to you in order to obtain them.

• Public School Principals. If you are a public school principal in New York City, your user name and password can be obtained from the Assessment Implementation Director at your Integrated Service Center. If you are the principal of a non-New York City public school or BOCES program, contact your school superintendent to obtain your user name and password.
• Nonpublic School Principals. Nonpublic school principals who requested examinations during
  the 2008-09 school year who need to have their password reset should contact the Department’s Delegated Account System (SEDDAS) Help Desk at 518-473-8832 or seddas_help@mail.nysed.gov. If you were not the principal for your school during the 2008-09 school year, you must notify the Department’s Office of Information and Reporting Services via fax, 518‑402‑5361 or 474-4351, that you are the new principal. This notice must be written on the school letterhead stationery and must include your full name, your e-mail address, your school’s BEDS Code, your previous position, and, for purposes of future password confirmations, your city of birth.

Specific directions for using the online request system are enclosed with this memorandum. Within two business days after your request has been processed, you will be sent a confirmation notice via e-mail indicating the number of examinations to be shipped to the school. It is of the utmost importance that you carefully check the confirmation notice for accuracy to ensure that the correct quantities of examination materials will be shipped to your school.

general information

All tests must be requested through the Department's online examination request system. Online requests for all elementary- and intermediate-level tests must be submitted no later than October 7, 2009. Requests for two or more schools in a district must not be combined into one request. Within two business days after your request has been processed, you will be sent a confirmation notice via e-mail indicating the number of examinations requested and the address to which they will be shipped. Please carefully check all e-mailed confirmation notices as soon as they are received to ensure that the correct quantities of materials will be shipped and to determine whether additional materials are needed.
With the exception of the Grade 5 Elementary-Level Social Studies Test, administrators who find they need additional test materials for any elementary- or intermediate-level tests may return to the online examination request system to revise or add any supplemental quantities needed up until the window for revising requests online for that test has ended. Telephone requests will not be accepted. The Department will accept and enter on the school's behalf only requests that are submitted by fax for examination editions or quantities that cannot, because of Department policies, be submitted online by the school.
An updated confirmation notice will be e-mailed to the school. It should be checked immediately to ensure that the materials to be shipped include the additional request. Please make every effort to make any modifications to initial requests for any tests as soon as possible.

students to be tested

Except as noted below, all public school students in Grades 3 through 8 and all ungraded students who are age equivalent to students in Grades 3 through 8 must take all State assessments administered for their grade level. This includes students who have been retained. The chronological ages of students who are ungraded should be used to determine who must be tested and which grade level tests they must take. When determining which students will be participating in these tests, be sure to consider also those students who attend programs outside of the school. BOCES and nonpublic schools within New York State providing special education programs for students placed there by public school districts should submit requests to cover the students enrolled in their programs. Public schools should not request test materials for students enrolled in such special education placements but should confer with the special education programs to ensure that they will be requesting the tests that will be needed. The requests for two or more schools in a district must notbe combined into one request.

• LAB-R. Pursuant to Part 154 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education, public and charter schools must administer LAB-R to newly enrolled students who by reason of foreign birth or ancestry speak a language other than English, and who understand and speak little or no English, to determine whether the students are English Language Learners. LAB-R was developed by the New York City Department of Education and has been adopted by the Department for distribution to and use by all schools statewide. Nonpublic schools are encouraged to administer this test for the same purpose. The LAB-R materials to be administered during the 2009-10 school year are the same as those provided to schools for the 2008-09 school year.
  
  LAB–R should be administered within two weeks of the initial enrollment of the student to be tested, whether at the beginning of the school year or at any other time. Screening with LAB–R is not necessary if the student’s English Language Learner status is available from his or her previous school and is based on an appropriate standardized test, such as NYSESLAT, administered during a previous school year. For your information, a chart entitled
  New York State – LEP [Limited English Proficient] Identification Process is enclosed with this memorandum. If you need assistance with the identification of English Language Learners, please contact your local Bilingual/ESL Technical Assistance Center (BETAC). Contact information for the BETACs is available on the Department’s web site: http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/biling/betac.html.
• The Grade 8 Intermediate-Level Science Test should be administered to students in the grade
  in which they will have received instruction in all the material in the Intermediate-Level Science Core Curriculum (5–8). While this is typically Grade 8, the test may also be administered
  to students in Grade 7 who will have completed all the material in the Intermediate-Level Science Core Curriculum (5–8) and are being considered for placement in an accelerated high school-level science course when they are in Grade 8. The school may not use this assessment
  to retest any Grade 8 students who participated in this assessment during the previous school year as Grade 7 students. Schools are expected to administer this assessment to those Grade 8 students who did not take this assessment during the previous school year as Grade 7 students, unless such students will be taking a Regents Examination in science at the end of the school year. School principals have the discretion to either require or waive the Grade 8 Intermediate-Level Science Test for those accelerated Grade 8 students who did not take this examination during the previous school year but who will be taking a Regents Examination in science at the end of the school year in which they complete Grade 8. For those accelerated students for whom the school waives the Grade 8 Intermediate-Level Science Test, the student’s achievement in science will be measured by the student’s performance on the Regents Examination in science.
• English Language Learners. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) requires that the language arts proficiency of all English Language Learners (as defined in Part 154 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education) be tested annually. All English Language Learners, regardless of grade, must take the NYSESLAT. Instructions for requesting the NYSESLAT will be mailed to schools in the winter of the 2009–10 school year.

      Schools are permitted to exempt from the Grades 3-8 English Language Arts Tests only those English Language Learners (including those from Puerto Rico) who, on April 1, 2010, will have been attending school in the United States for the first time for less than one year. Recently arrived English Language Learners may be eligible for one, and only one exemption from the administration of the Grades 3-8 English Language Arts Tests. Subject to this limitation, schools may administer the New York State English as a Second Language Achievement Test (NYSESLAT) in lieu of the Grades 3-8 English Language Arts Tests, for participation purposes only, to recently arrived English Language Learners who meet the criterion above. All other English Language Learners must participate in the Grades 3-8 English Language Arts Tests, as well as in the NYSESLAT.
      All English Language Learners are required to participate in the State’s mathematics, science, and social studies tests. English Language Learners may take the mathematics, science, and social studies tests in English or an alternative language, whichever is better for the student. Each of these tests is provided in Chinese (Traditional), Haitian Creole, and Spanish. The Mathematics Tests are also provided in Korean and Russian. These tests may also be translated orally into other languages for those English Language Learners whose first language is one for which a written translation is not available from the Department. Schools are permitted to offer English Language Learners specific testing accommodations when taking these tests. These accommodations are detailed in the respective test manuals.
Former English Language Learners. Schools may provide the testing accommodations listed above, including translated editions, only to former English Language Learners who were identified as English language proficient based on their scores on one of the two most recent administrations of NYSESLAT, either Spring 2008 or Spring 2009. These accommodations may not be provided to former English Language Learners who were identified as English language proficient prior to the 2008 NYSESLAT administration.

• Students with Disabilities. The Committee on Special Education (CSE) must decide for each student, on a case-by-case basis, whether the student will participate in the general State assessment or in the New York State Alternate Assessment (NYSAA) for students with severe disabilities. The CSE’s decision must be documented on the student’s Individualized Education Program (IEP). The criteria that the CSE must use to determine eligibility for the NYSAA is available on the Department’s web site: http://www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/alterassessment/home.html.

additional requesting and packing information

• Regular Test Booklets: Test booklets are shipped in packages of 25, with the exception of
  LAB-R, which is shipped in bundles of 20.
• Braille and Large-Type Test Materials: Indicate on the online request system the exact number of students who will need braille and large-type test materials.

Braille editions of LAB-R cannot be requested via the online request system and must be requested in a separate letter signed by the principal and faxed to the Department
at 518-474-2021.

• Alternative Language Test Booklets: For all languages, request the exact number of test booklets needed. Spanish editions are usually shipped in packages of 25.
• Performance Test Station Diagrams for Science Tests: Ten sets (enough to test 30 students at one time) of the station diagrams for the performance test components of the Grade 4 Elementary-Level Science Test and the Grade 8 Intermediate-Level Science Test will be sent automatically to each school requesting these tests. Braille, large-type, and alternative language editions of the station diagrams will be provided based on the number of those booklets requested.
• School Administrator’s Manuals and Teacher’s Directions: Quantities will be shipped to schools based on the number of test booklets requested. These will be shipped with the test booklets. Electronic copies will also be available prior to the test’s administration date on the Department’s web site: http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/osa/elintgen.html.
• Scoring Keys and Rating Guides: Quantities will be shipped to schools based on the number of test booklets requested.
• Answer Sheets: Except for the LAB-R, the Department no longer provides answer sheets. Schools must make arrangements with a RIC or large-city scanning center for these.

shipping of test materials

Materials for LAB-R should arrive at the school within 30 days after the request has been made. The shipment containing all other test materials will be delivered to the school one to three school days prior to the first administration date for that examination. All test shipments will be delivered by UPS and may be delivered at any time between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Schools can track the shipment of test materials on the Internet from one to three days before the scheduled delivery date.

• Go to: http://www.ups.com/tracking/tracking.html.
• Click “Track by Reference Number.”
• In the Reference Number field, type the BEDS code of the school where you indicated you wanted your tests to be shipped.
• If you are unable to track your shipment, or notice some other irregularity, contact the Office of State Assessment via fax at 518-474-2021.

storage of test materials

The English Language Arts and Mathematics Tests must be stored in the safe or vault of the building where the tests will be shipped. While it is not required that the LAB-R, the Grade 4 Elementary-Level Science Test, the Grade 8 Intermediate-Level Science Test, and the Grades 5 and 8 Social Studies Tests be stored in a safe or vault, they mustbe stored in a secure location. All secure test materials must be placed in the storage location as soon as they are received. Access to the test materials must be restricted to ensure that test security is maintained.
If the building where the tests will be administered does not have a safe or vault large enough to hold the English Language Arts or Mathematics Tests, arrangements must be made to store these at a location with an appropriate safe or vault. Tests stored at such a location must not be transferred to the school where the tests will be administered until the day scheduled for the administration of each test.
When requesting tests via the online request system, if you indicate that your tests will be stored at an alternate storage location other than that indicated in the shipping information on the School Information page, you will be required to complete the Examination Storage Plan form, found on the online request system, and fax it to the Office of State Assessment at 518-474-2021.

Tests and secure materials may not be removed from the secure storage location until the day scheduled for the administration of the test (or, in the case of LAB-R, until the day for the administration of that section of the test), except during the inventory of test materials when the test shipment is received. The sealed packages of secure test materials must not be opened during the inventory. All secure test materials must remain sealed until the test administration date (with the exception of the materials needed to conduct the orientation for administrators of the science performance tests). The sealed packages of the science station diagrams may be opened when the stations for the performance test are being set up. All scoring key packages must remain sealed until the tests have been administered in the school.

 

Enclosures

• Revised 2009-10 Elementary- and Intermediate-Level Testing Schedule
• Grades 3-8 Mathematics Testing Program Guidance, September-April
• Instructions for Submitting Elementary/Intermediate Examination Requests Online (DET 902)
• Worksheet for Developing Online Requests for Elementary and Intermediate Examinations (DET 901)
• New York State — LEP Identification Process (DET 1350)