HC6 PLTW Kite Administration EOC Manual
HC6 PLTW Kite Administration EOC Manual
HC6 PLTW Kite Administration EOC Manual
Administration Manual
2018-19
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Table of Contents
Assessment Administration Manual Overview ........................................................... 2
A Note about Graphics ......................................................................................... 2
Changes to the Manual ........................................................................................ 3
Getting Help.......................................................................................................... 3
PLTW EoC Assessment Testing Policy....................................................................... 4
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 4
Schedule of Activities ........................................................................................... 5
2018-19 EoC Assessment Calendar .................................................................... 5
Manual Highlights ................................................................................................. 5
Tips for Successful EoC Assessment Administration ........................................... 6
EoC Assessment Preparation ...................................................................................... 7
Authorized Student Materials for EoC Assessments ............................................ 7
Student Preparation ............................................................................................ 8
Suggested Test Preparation Strategies ................................................................ 8
Unfair Test Preparation Strategies ....................................................................... 9
Student Testing Accommodations ........................................................................ 9
Test Administration Practices ............................................................................. 10
Proper Administration Practices ......................................................................... 10
Unfair Practices to Avoid .................................................................................... 10
Practice Activity .......................................................................................................... 12
Technical Check ................................................................................................. 12
Practice Activity Script ........................................................................................ 13
Assessment Administration Protocol ..................................................................... 14
Checklist ............................................................................................................ 14
Before EoC Assessment Day ............................................................................. 14
On EoC Assessment Day ................................................................................... 14
At Test Time ....................................................................................................... 16
Begin EoC Assessment Administration .............................................................. 17
After EoC Assessment Administration ................................................................ 18
EoC Administration Script ................................................................................... 19
Test Administration Interruptions ........................................................................ 21
EoC Assessment Irregularity Reporting .............................................................. 22
After Testing ................................................................................................................ 23
EoC Assessment Score Reporting ..................................................................... 23
Locating EoC Assessment Scores ..................................................................... 24
Score Invalidation ............................................................................................... 24
Consequences of Unfair Testing Practices ......................................................... 25
Local Decisions Regarding Unfair Testing Practices .......................................... 25
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Note: The Page column indicates the page number of the current manual where the
change appears.
Getting Help
If you need additional help, call or email the PLTW Solution Center.
Phone: 877.335.7589
Email: solutioncenter@pltw.org
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Introduction
PLTW designs EoC Assessments using the current year’s curriculum, to be single-
administration exams, taken once per course registration. Students can take the 2018-
19 EoC Assessment from Dec. 3, 2018 to June 30, 2019.
Within the PLTW Computer Science, PLTW Engineering, and PLTW Biomedical
programs, the following courses offer an EoC Assessment:
PLTW Computer Science
o Computer Science A
o Computer Science Essentials
o Computer Science Principles
o Cybersecurity
o Introduction to Computer Science – EoC Assessment is only available in
former format for 2018-19
PLTW Engineering
o Aerospace Engineering
o Civil Engineering and Architecture
o Computer Integrated Manufacturing
o Digital Electronics
o Environmental Sustainability
o Introduction to Engineering Design
o Principles of Engineering
PLTW Biomedical Science
o Human Body Systems
o Medical Interventions
o Principles of Biomedical Science
Teachers and proctors can use the EoC Assessments as indicators of student
achievement. PLTW uses the aggregated information to make data-driven curricular
and professional development adjustments.
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Schedule of Activities
Students can take the 2018-19 EoC Assessment from Dec. 3, 2018 to June 30, 2019.
To ensure your students’ data is accurate for the 2018-19 school year, it is important
that you roster your class with an end date of June 28, 2019, or earlier.
The following list provides important dates related to EoC Assessment for the 2018-19
school year.
Manual Highlights
Throughout the manual, you can click cross-references (indicated by a dotted underline)
to go to other sections for more information. The following list identifies important
features of the manual:
• Tips for successful preparation and testing
• Functionality of the PLTW Kite Student Portal
• Testing accommodations
• Using Daily Access Codes
• Scripts to read to students during session administration (teal background) and
helpful tips throughout the document (blue background)
If you encounter issues or have questions after reviewing this manual, including when to
test, whom to test, testing procedures, testing accommodations, or the PLTW EoC
Assessment in general, please contact the PLTW Solution Center immediately with as
many details as possible. You can reach the PLTW Solution Center at 877.335.7589 or
solutioncenter@pltw.org.
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Student Preparation
Each EoC Assessment offers approximately 50 items in various types, such as multiple-
choice, multiple-select, drag and drop, matching, ordering, drop down, and simulation.
Students have approximately 80 minutes to complete the online assessment. Please
note, these times are estimates and we have removed the time limits as part of the
design of the test. Teachers and proctors should allow for additional time as needed by
the students.
To prepare students for taking the EoC Assessment, you should discuss the strategies
in this section. Sound preparation strategies will foster the most effective and fair
assessment for all students. Unfair preparation strategies can jeopardize the validity of
the scores.
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• Teachers, proctors, and students shall not question examinees about specific test
content during or after a test administration.
• Teachers and proctors shall not overtly nor subtly provide answers to examinees
before, during, or after the test administration.
• Teachers and proctors shall not change or otherwise interfere with student
responses to test items.
• Collaboration (giving or receiving information) shall not occur between examinees
during a test administration nor after a test administration with students who have
not taken the test.
• Students shall not overtly nor subtly share answers with other students during the
exam.
• Students shall not discuss test items after the exam with other students or teachers
and proctors.
• Students shall not look at another student’s answers or information during a testing
administration.
• Teachers, proctors, and students shall not permit nor engage in any other activity
that would harm the interpretation of the test scores, as determined by PLTW.
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Practice Activity
PLTW requires that students are provided the opportunity to become familiar with the
testing platform before taking the EoC Assessment. Familiarity with the appearance and
functionality of the system helps students reduce test anxiety, because they will already
have an idea of how to navigate the system on test day. This allows students to
demonstrate their knowledge at the time of testing without having to worry about what
buttons to click.
Locate the Practice Activity through the PLTW Kite Educator Portal by clicking Test
Coordination in the Manage Tests section and selecting Practice as the Testing
Program.
Note: It is best to test your school’s system at the same time that students are
becoming familiar with the testing platform. See Practice Activity Script on
page 13.
Technical Check
Taking practice tests provides an opportunity for schools to test their infrastructure
before students take the EoC Assessment. It is best to confirm that the PLTW Kite
Student Portal is properly installed on all student testing devices and to test your
school’s network at the same time that students are becoming familiar with the testing
platform, as described in the previous section.
While students are in the Practice Test, check for the following:
• Students are able to log in.
• Images in test questions are displaying.
• Everything is working as expected.
If you encounter issues, PLTW recommends that you contact your school/district IT
department to ensure all settings are optimized for PLTW EoC Assessments before test
day. Specific recommendations include, but are not limited to:
• Clearing cookies and cached files.
• Using a different browser.
• Whitelisting *.kiteaai.org.
• Allowing access through the firewall for kite.studentportal.exe and kite.exe.
Note: During actual EoC testing, do not allow students to answer test questions that
have missing images.
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In this practice test you will see the different item types that may appear in the EoC
Assessment. These items are simply samples from different courses and are not
designed to be a practice test for this course. Besides multiple choice and multiple
select items, you may also see items that require drag and drop, drop down menus,
and fill in the blank. Also, you may be required to run a simulation first in order to
answer some items.
1. Double-click the PLTW Kite Student Portal icon on the computer desktop.
2. Enter the username demo.1 and password DEN65; click Login.
3. The Course Assessments Screen will appear. Locate PLTW_Practice Test
and click Take Test.
4. Read the General Directions and click BEGIN at the bottom of the page.
5. Take the test, using the BACK and NEXT buttons to move through the
questions.
6. Notice the navigation bar at the top of the page and the Toolbox bar to the
left of the screen. The upper bar shows which question of the test you are
on currently, and the status of each question. Also, you can click a
question number to jump to that question.
7. Answer all of the questions and test all the tools.
8. You may flag a question and come back to it. To flag a question, click the
flag icon in the upper right of the main window. Flagged questions will
appear blue.
9. To become more comfortable with the system, answer all the questions
and test the all the tools on the toolbox bar.
10.
11. When you reach the last question in the section, click Review/End. Click
END if you are finished with the practice test. Click GO BACK if you want
to go back to the test.
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Checklist
Teachers and proctors should use the following as reminders, to guide the tasks they
need to do surrounding EoC Assessment administration.
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Testing in Progress
DO NOT DISTURB
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At Test Time
• Provide students scratch paper and, if applicable, a new copy of the PLTW formula
sheet.
• Clear the memory in students’ programmable calculators.
• Write the Daily Access Code on a chalkboard or where all students can see it for current
testing section only. You may also consider providing each student with the Daily
Access Code and their username and password. To access student usernames and
passwords in PDF format for an EoC Assessment, perform the following steps. Please
note, these steps are the same for the Informative Assessment:
1. Click the Reports menu.
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3. Click New File under Action on the Student Login Usernames/Passwords line.
5. Print or save.
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You are about to take the Project Lead The Way End-of-Course Assessment for (insert course
title). This test measures your understanding of the concepts you learned in this PLTW course.
During the test, you may use a calculator, (if applicable, insert “the PLTW formula sheet”), the
scratch paper provided, and a pen or pencil. The scratch paper (if applicable, insert “and the
formula sheet”) will be collected at the end of the testing administration. If you did not bring a
calculator, you may use the calculator provided in the testing platform.
To access the test platform, please double-click on the PLTW Kite Student Portal icon on the
computer desktop. At the Login prompt, type your username and password. Click Login.
Select the assessment from the column on the left. Click Take Test on the appropriate test.
Enter (the Daily Access Code) in the Access Code field and click LET’S GO. You should now
see the General Directions page. DO NOT proceed to the test until I tell you to do so.
(Make sure all students are logged in to the site, the general directions page is displayed, and
the correct test is list at the top of the general directions page.)
As you proceed through the test, you can move forward and backward within a section as well
as choose to view the passage and question together or individually. The individual view of
either may provide a larger image. Within a test section, you may mark items for review, which
means you can flag an item and return to it later within that section. If you select an answer for
an item and flag it for review but do not return to it, the response you marked will be scored.
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After you have completed the section, click Review/End to review your assessment
completion status. If you have unanswered or flagged questions, click GO BACK to complete
the test and then return to the Review screen.
Click END when you are done with the test section. Click Yes on the confirmation window.
Click Sign Out. You will no longer be able to go back and answer questions in the section
once you confirm you are ending the test.
If you encounter a question that appears to have an image missing, do NOT answer the
question, quietly raise your hand to let me know.
I am not able to answer any questions about the items on the test. Please answer each item
to the best of your ability.
This test will have (approximately 25 items in this section. Choose the response that best
answers the question.
Please look only at your own test. Do not look at the responses of any students who are
seated near you. So that your score is an accurate reflection of your knowledge, it is important
that you try your best. Do you have any questions?
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If you have an urgent issue that is unresolved, please contact the PLTW Solution Center (877-
335-PLTW). Please also complete the Irregularity Report form to alert PLTW to any testing
irregularity. See EoC Assessment Irregularity Reporting on page 23.
Power or Internet Outage: Items answered before the outage will be saved. If the power or
internet is restored within 90 minutes, students should log back in to continue the test. If the
delay is longer than 90 minutes, please contact the Solution Center to request reactivation of
the test.
Low Bandwidth/Computer Issues: The PLTW EoC tests have been designed to work with a
variety of systems, but PLTW is not responsible for testing irregularities that occur due to low
bandwidth issues at the local network level. No retest or re-entry will be allowed for issues that
occur at the school level. For more information, please refer
the Installation guide available for download at
https://www.pltw.org/pltw-software. Do NOT allow students
to answer test questions
• If your local network has bandwidth issues, the test may not that have an image
display correctly. If item questions are not loading correctly (for missing.
example, images do not display), PLTW advises you to ask
your school IT department to look into possible bandwidth, proxy, or other issues before you
allow students to answer the questions that did not display correctly. For more information on
troubleshooting technical issues, see
•
Technical Check on page 12.
Note: If students complete and submit their answers to the test, you cannot grant re-entry into
the exam nor a retest.
Emergency Situations: If other situations (such as fire alarm, weather emergency, student
illness) arise that force a student to stop in the middle of a section, the student should close
out of the system by either pressing Control+Alt+Delete to end the task on Windows or by
pressing the power button to end the application on a Mac. There is a 90-minute grace period
to resume the test. Any delay longer than 90 minutes will require the test to be reactivated by
the Solution Center. If the test is resumed the same day, students will use the same Daily
Access Code to continue testing. Delays that require moving the test to a different day will
require a new Daily Access Code.
If the emergency requires a break from testing (such as needing to leave for the restroom), the
student should not make any phone calls, refer to any notes, nor consult with teachers and
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proctors or students during this break. Do not allow the student to communicate through text
messages, email, and social networking sites or have access to electronic equipment or
photographic equipment. Students should not leave the testing area without the teacher’s
permission.
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After Testing
This section describes what teachers and proctors and administrators can expect, in
terms of EoC scores and instances of score invalidation, after EoC Assessment testing
is complete. The section reiterates your responsibility to report any deviation from
PLTW testing policy as soon as you become aware.
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Score Invalidation
In the instance of a confirmed irregular testing event or unfair testing practice by a
student, teacher, or administrator, it is PLTW policy to invalidate the test scores for the
test taker(s) involved.
• Educators who are found to have used unfair test preparation or test
administration practices will cause invalidation of their students’ test scores.
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• Students who are found to use inappropriate or unfair test preparation methods
or test-taking procedures will have their individual test scores invalidated.
Failure of students, teachers, proctors, or other school personnel to report known
aberrations will be viewed as tolerance of unfair testing practices. For more information,
see EoC Assessment Irregularity Reporting on page 23.
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