Question & Answer Reference for Grades K-2 CogAT (Levels 5/6, 7, 8)

for Test Coordinators & Proctors

Updated: October 28, 2016

STOP: FOR URGENT QUESTIONS DURING THE TEST CALL RIVERSIDE:

1-877-246-8337

THEN PRESS 1

Contents CogAT Preparation Cheat Sheet.................................................................................................................... 4

Secure Browser ............................................................................................................................................. 5

Is the Secure Browser for CogAT already on students’ computers? .................................................... 5

How can I be sure my students are testing with the newest secure browser? .................................... 5

Logging in Students ....................................................................................................................................... 5

What’s the easiest way to log in students? .......................................................................................... 5

Will the district provide hard copies of the proctor’s user guide for this test administration? ........... 5

Will the district provide hard copies of Student Test Tickets - that is, paper copies of student

information needed (Student ID, etc.) for each student to log into the CogAT? ................................. 5

How much time should test coordinators allow for a classroom of 15 kindergarten students to log in

if student login information is printed and ready to go? ...................................................................... 6

Can we log-in students before they come into the computer lab to save time? ................................. 6

What if I get an error logging in students even though all the login information and session code

seem to be entered in correctly? .......................................................................................................... 6

What happens if one of my students shuts down his/her computer before he clicked “Done” at the

end of the test? ..................................................................................................................................... 6

What happens if one of my students shuts down his/her computer before he clicked “Done” at the

end of the test? ..................................................................................................................................... 6

Setting up the Computer Lab ........................................................................................................................ 6

How can we make sure our computers won’t malfunction during the test? ....................................... 6

Do we need visual barriers between computers? ................................................................................ 7

Should I use touch screen computers if available? ............................................................................... 7

Where should I place students’ login information? .............................................................................. 7

What if I don’t have enough headphones?........................................................................................... 7

Can I put out scratch paper (and pencils) for my students to use when taking the Online CogAT? .... 7

Testing Time & Planning ............................................................................................................................... 7

How many days should I plan to test my students? ............................................................................. 7

What is the recommended proctor to test-taker ratio? ....................................................................... 8

For the Online CogAT, does Riverside have any formal recommendations on lengths of breaks

between subtests? ................................................................................................................................ 8

What advice should I give my students before they test? .................................................................... 9

I have a student who doesn’t speak English or Spanish (so the self-paced audio instructions won’t

help them) but he/she is still supposed to take the test? Are there any modifications for him/her? 9

All 2nd graders are supposed to take the CogAT but are there any circumstances that would exempt

a student from taking it?....................................................................................................................... 9

I am trying to determine which subtests/batteries students need to make up. Is there a report I can

run that will tell me students’ status on completing subtests? .......................................................... 10

If my student’s status is “green” does that mean he/she is complete and will get a score? ............. 11

Creating Test Sessions ................................................................................................................................. 11

How should I name my test session? .................................................................................................. 11

How many test sessions can I be expected to activate during a proctor session? ............................. 11

For students testing with the ELL modification; what do I have them do while the rest of the class is

testing VERBAL/ Sentence Completion? ............................................................................................ 12

How do I create Test Sessions for students needing to make up several different parts of the test?

............................................................................................................................................................ 12

Is there a limit on how many Test Sessions I can proctor at one time? ............................................. 13

"Getting Started" Exercises ......................................................................................................................... 13

What is the “Getting Started” Exercise? Should I do it? .................................................................... 13

Could we show the Getting Started Subtest to the whole group using one student? ....................... 13

Proctor-led vs. Self-Paced ........................................................................................................................... 13

Should proctors administer a “proctor led session” or an “audio test session?" (a.k.a. “self-paced

session”)? ............................................................................................................................................ 13

During Testing ............................................................................................................................................. 14

Why does my test taker’s computer seem to be going crazy? The mouse is moving by itself and

doesn’t appear to be responding when I control it? .......................................................................... 14

What if a students’ touchpad stops working? .................................................................................... 14

What if a student’s view of the test gets too magnified? ................................................................... 14

On my proctor screen I am not seeing the most updated information on my students. What should

I do?..................................................................................................................................................... 14

On my proctor screen, I can see which question number a student is working on during test. What

does “T: 5 of 6” mean?........................................................................................................................ 14

All my students have completed testing but the “continue testing all” button is not working. What

should I do? ......................................................................................................................................... 14

Pausing vs. Saving the Test ......................................................................................................................... 15

What is the difference between “Saving and Closing” students’ test sessions and “Pausing and

Resuming” them? I see that pausing a session is recommended for test irregularities (i.e. disruptive

student). Which should be used if the students need to break for lunch or recess? ........................ 15

When the proctor saves and closes students' test sessions, will the students be able to go back and

revisit questions within the subtest they were working on?.............................................................. 15

Canceling a Test .......................................................................................................................................... 15

When would you recommend that a student’s test session be cancelled? ....................................... 15

Last Minute "Walk-in" Students.................................................................................................................. 15

If a student is not on my CogAT student roster and he/she wants to take the CogAT at the last

minute (a.k.a “walk-in-students”) may I give him/her the test? ........................................................ 15

Paper & Pencil ............................................................................................................................................. 16

If for, whatever reason, a student’s parents demand the student take the paper & pencil test, what

do we do? Can we use materials we have from last year? ................................................................ 16

Finished Testing .......................................................................................................................................... 16

How can I close the Student Secure Brower after the student is done with the test? ...................... 16

CogAT Preparation Cheat Sheet

Before Testing

November 1: Inform testing office of students that you want to have the ELL accommodation (Alt-verbal)

Schedule at least 2 blocks (1.5 hours each) or 3 blocks (1 hour each) for each group of students

Try to find cardboard dividers or an alternative solution to prevent students from looking at each other

screen

Check functionality of headphones and that all computers to be used by students have the “NBL Riverside

Browser” on the desktop (contact the Customer Support Center if you don’t see this)

The Day Before Testing

Restart the computers students will use to make sure they have been fully updated

Confirm headphone count for students taking the Audio-English/Spanish version

If testing in a classroom with laptops, find a way to plug laptops into a power source

Set up an overhead projector (with speakers) to demonstrate the, optional getting started subtest to the

group for first time test-takers.

Print test tickets provided by the assessment office

o On the test ticket, you may want to write which version of the test the student should take since

this information won’t be on there. This will determine how many session codes you’ll have to

open for a group of students. If possible, try to keep each testing group limited to 1-2 session

codes; the more session codes, the more potential confusion. Here are the different versions of

the test:

Audio-English

Audio-Spanish

Proctor-Led

Alt-Verbal (ELL accommodation) NOTE: requires starting with subtest: “ALT

VERBAL/Picture Analogies”

The Day of Testing

Tape students’ test tickets on computers where you want them to sit. You’ll want to sit students together

who share the same testing group. For example, sit students taking the Alt-Verbal version together. This

is important because different testing groups will have different session codes for logging into the test.

Install dividers between computers if necessary

Plug in and check volume of headphones at computers of students using Audio-English/Spanish version

15 minutes before students enter the room, create the test sessions and log each student into the

machine they will use. Remember if you can’t log-in a student, try an Alt-Verbal session code.

Make sure students are sitting at the computer at which they are logged in!

Before students leave, use the student look-up tool to make sure they have completed the sections you

intended (check for green indicator)

Secure Browser

Is the Secure Browser for CogAT already on students’ computers? Yes, the browser is currently on all student computers and ready to use. Look for the following icon on the desktop of a student’s computer:

How can I be sure my students are testing with the newest secure browser? Be sure you see the “NBL” prefix (see above picture) – this is the newer version of the secure browser. The previous version of the secure browser, which gave us many issues, does not have this prefix. If you don’t see it on the computers your students will be testing on, contact the IT department immediately. Although rare, there was an instance where the secure browser was intended to be pushed to all computers but didn’t make it to a school’s computer lab. If this happens to your building, to problem should be corrected overnight.

Logging in Students

What’s the easiest way to log in students?

The When logging in your students, only use the right side of the student's log in screen.

That is, just enter the student's ID and the Test Session Code. Don't bother entering the student's full

name, birth month and birth day.

Will the district provide hard copies of the proctor’s user guide for this test administration? We did this for the 2015-16 Academic Year and these manuals have not changed for the current year so we will not be printing them again. However, we plan to print and distribute sets of quick, step-by-step guides to aid proctors on test day. The Riverside Helpline number (877-246-8337, press 1) is also printed on the Quick Guide. We recommend that teachers keep this Comprehensive Question/Answer PDF available on their machine and understand how to quickly look for answers using (Ctl+F) to find keywords.

Will the district provide hard copies of Student Test Tickets - that is, paper copies of student

information needed (Student ID, etc.) for each student to log into the CogAT?

No, but electronic versions will be emailed to test coordinators which can be easily printed out; these will be e-mailed at least a day before testing. Alternatively, you can create your own custom test tickets if you have an excel file with all the necessary student-level data (short video on how to do this can be found here).

How much time should test coordinators allow for a classroom of 15 kindergarten students to

log in if student login information is printed and ready to go? For kindergarten students, some districts have the proctors log in for the students, others have their students log-in themselves but it really depends on how comfortable they are with using computers. Allowing 10-15 minutes should give plenty of time. If you log in for the students, the student’s name will appear at the top of the screen after a successful login so students know which computer to sit after entering the lab.

Can we log-in students before they come into the computer lab to save time? Yes. 10 minutes before the students enter the lab, start the test sessions and then log students into their machine. It will save you a nice chunk of time. When you successfully log in the students, their name will appear at the top of the screen with the drawing pad below. JUST MAKE SURE THE STUDENTS SIT AT THE RIGHT COMPUTER! Walk around the lab and check this before starting the test from your proctor computer.

What if I get an error logging in students even though all the login information and session code

seem to be entered in correctly? The student may be an ELL student with a modification who is supposed to take the Alt Verbal test, therefore the session code may be different. Another common reason is that you forgot to actually open/start the test session you created. Just go to your proctor computer and click the session you created so it opens in its own tab (this starts it). If this isn’t the case, call the Riverside Helpline number (877-246-8337, press 1)

What happens if one of my students shuts down his/her computer before he clicked “Done” at

the end of the test? Close out the current test session and reopen another one for the same subtest the student was working on. Have the student log into that one and reach a status of “complete” for the subtest.

What happens if one of my students shuts down his/her computer before he clicked “Done” at

the end of the test? Close out the current test session and reopen another one for the same subtest the student was working on. Have the student log into that one.

Setting up the Computer Lab

How can we make sure our computers won’t malfunction during the test?

Restart all computers at least a day before testing!

A healthy computer should be restarted at least twice a month. The IT Department finds approximately 60% of computers in the district are not restarted at least once a month causing them to "misbehave". Computers that haven't been restarted in months may not even have the Riverside Secure Browser on them! Please frequently restart any computer to be used by a student taking the online CogAT. Problems with the Riverside secure browser (lagging mouse) appear to be caused by computers that haven't been restarted frequently enough or by computers that were only recently restarted after not having been restarted for months; computers like this will spend lots of time processing updates that should have been done months ago which slows them down for hours following the restart. We have had less complaints about this recently but please notify us if you are continuing to experience this problem.

Do we need visual barriers between computers? We strongly recommend them since it appears that many of the questions appear to be the same on every student’s test. During early administration of the CogAT with kindergartners in previous years, there were issues with some students looking at each other’s computer during the getting started sections.

Should I use touch screen computers if available?

Many schools have reported that the touch screens work fine for them but it’s up to you and your students’ level of comfort.

Where should I place students’ login information? Place it at their computers (tape it to the top of their screen) and keep them there for the duration of the test. Following the completion of the test, collect them and put them in a safe place to be used for the next testing session.

What if I don’t have enough headphones? Contact the Testing & Assessment Office and we’ll make sure you get the number of working headphones you need.

Can I put out scratch paper (and pencils) for my students to use when taking the Online CogAT? For the CogAT levels (5/6-8) – that is, Grades K-2 - scratch paper is not allowed. For the CogAT levels (9-17/18) – that is, for grades 3 and up - scratch paper is allowed but only for the Quantitative Battery.

Testing Time & Planning

How many days should I plan to test my students? The test vendor recommends testing no more than 1 battery (3 subtests) per day. Furthermore, they recommend scheduling both morning and afternoon testing periods and including short breaks between subtests given in the same period. Here is the vendor’s suggesting testing time for the Kindergarten (Level 5/6), Grade 1 (Level 7) and Grade 3 (Level 8) tests:

What is the recommended proctor to test-taker ratio? It should be no more than 15 students for 1 proctor. We have found that for kindergartners – especially for the first couple subtests – you should have at least 1 proctor for 5 students.

For the Online CogAT, does Riverside have any formal recommendations on lengths of breaks

between subtests?

There is no formal recommendation for breaks. Most districts give younger students more frequent breaks, such as 10 minutes between each subtest but older students may only need a break between batteries (1 battery = 3 subtests).

What advice should I give my students before they test? Remind them to try and answer every question. If students skip over too many answers before they end their test, it’s possible they will not get a score for a whole battery as well as the composite. In general students should not leave blank more than 5 questions per segment.

I have a student who doesn’t speak English or Spanish (so the self-paced audio instructions won’t

help them) but he/she is still supposed to take the test? Are there any modifications for

him/her?

Although the Self-Proctoring (Audio) option accommodates ELL Spanish Speakers for all subtests, for ELL students of other languages, there is an option to omit the sentence completion subtest ONLY FOR GRADES K-2. It is called Alternative Verbal Scale – a.k.a. “Alt Verbal”. Students testing with this modification receive a modified alternative score for the verbal battery. The Assessment Office collaborates with the ELL department to provide lists of students they recommend for this accommodation. Please consult your building’s ELL Specialist after you receive this list to determine if amends to it need to be made. Afterward, send the final list of those students’ names to Karen Forsloff (Karen.Forsloff@kent.k12.wa.us) in the Testing & Assessment Office by the deadline specified on her original email. For more information see pages 9-10 in the Directions for Online Administration. Also know that these students will be testing in a different test session (with a different test code) in the Verbal Battery; see “Creating Test Sessions” area for more detail on this. Below is a visual diagram to help you better understand the district’s recommendation for the three different available test sessions:

All 2nd graders are supposed to take the CogAT but are there any circumstances that would

exempt a student from taking it? Yes, the following circumstances would exempt a student from taking the CogAT:

Students who have an IEP that exempts them

Students whose special circumstance dictate that participation in the CogAT would not be meaningful, which means students who:

o are self-contained and taking the WA-AIM (Portfolio) o are newcomers with no English skills o have parents that refuse the test o refuse to test for other reasons

I am trying to determine which subtests/batteries students need to make up. Is there a report I

can run that will tell me students’ status on completing subtests? Yes. From the manage testing area, click the Student Lookup button:

Instead of entering an individual student’s Student ID, First Name, Last Name, etc., just select your current location and hit the Search button to display all of the students at your school (This Example is for Cedar Valley):

Unfortunately, there is no way to export this list of students to Excel but you can go to the bottom of the page and ask the program to display 100 records per page:

If my student’s status is “green” does that mean he/she is complete and will get a score? It means he/she has completed the test. However, it does not mean he/she will get a score. It turns out that in

order for a student’s progress to be “green” (which means the student “completed” the test) he/she just needs to

click “end test” after they reach the last test question. Students can, however, not answer questions within each

segment – that is, the student skips over questions by clicking “Next”. If students don’t answer a minimum of

between 6-9 questions per segment (this minimum amount may change depending on the test

version/grade/segment), the student will not be given a score for the entire battery even though they may have

answered every question on the other 2 subtests within that battery. To prevent this from happening, please

encourage your students to put in their best answer and not leave any question unanswered.

Creating Test Sessions

How should I name my test session?

We recommend the following naming convention but as long as you have your school ID and your ID it

should be enough information for us to quickly problem solve in the event of an irregularity during

testing – such as a student taking a test under another student’s ID.

How many test sessions can I be expected to activate during a proctor session? If you have a class of all English speakers who are all starting from the same place in the test, you’ll most likely have only 1 test session. However, if you have students with the ELL modification you’ll need a separate test session for them (only for the Verbal Battery). Also, if you have students who are testing using the Audio-Spanish option, you’ll have to create a separate test session for them, too. Each test session has a different test code so make sure when a student logs in that he/she use the test code that corresponds with the test session they should be taking. We recommend sitting students together who are sharing the same test code; for example, sit all

students together who are taking the 1st grade Spanish Audio Test. This makes it easier to ensure that all of them to enter the same test session code. Below is the Battery/Subtest menu which includes the 2 “ALT VERBAL” options for ELL students with modifications. When you start the test, be sure you choose the correct “Picture Analogies” (highlighted) depending on whether the student is participating in the “Alt Verbal” version of the test or not:

For students testing with the ELL modification; what do I have them do while the rest of the class

is testing VERBAL/ Sentence Completion? They will automatically be moved on to the next available session. For example, when all your English speakers have moved on to “Picture Classification”, your ALT verbal test takers will be starting Number Analogies since they skipped “Sentence Completion”, Number Analogies is the third subtest they are slated to take. As long as these students are coded by the Testing & Assessment Department as “ALT VERBAL” students, this section will not be counted in their overall CogAT score. It has been reported that these students cannot even log into the Verbal/Sentence Completion subtest even if the proctor wanted them to experience it.

How do I create Test Sessions for students needing to make up several different parts of the

test?

Make-up test sessions may require you to create many different test sessions depending on the number of students making up the test and the different areas they need to make up. For example, if you have 3 make up testers: one that needs to complete a subtest in the Verbal battery, another in the Quantitative battery, and another in the Nonverbal battery, the test administrator would need to create and open three different test sessions. This is further complicated if you have students taking different test administration options (English-Audio, Spanish-Audio, and Proctor-Led). The tricky part is making sure the students enter the correct session code to take the appropriate subtest/test administration option. It’s probably best practice for you to log in each test taker in yourself to ensure they are entering the appropriate subtest. It’s also a good idea to limit your make-up sessions to individual grade levels.

Is there a limit on how many Test Sessions I can proctor at one time?

Yes; it’s 5. You can only open 5 tabs in the Riverside Proctor tool. That means you can only have 5 test sessions open at one time. Yet, another good reason to limit testing to one grade level.

"Getting Started" Exercises

What is the “Getting Started” Exercise? Should I do it? Yes – especially for students taking the test for the first time. Getting Started just walks the student through how to take an online assessment in Data Manager. It is not a required session and has no link to data. It’s designed as a practice session for the student to log in and learn how to advance through the questions. For new proctors it’s also a good chance to practice their proctor duties of approving students for testing, advancing students through the test, and then ending testing. After the “Getting Started” Session, students will be required to log into the system again to start the actual test.

Could we show the Getting Started Subtest to the whole group using one student? Yes. This is a great way to cover how to do the test, especially with a group of younger test takers. Since Getting Started isn’t required, there is no effect on scoring if students do not complete the Getting Started Tutorial.

You may demonstrate the Getting Started tutorial with the entire class using one of your student’s

logins and his/her computer connected to an overhead projector with the student’s computer audio on

loudspeakers. Ask questions and perform demonstrations to the kindergartners to confirm their

understanding of the following:

Repeat Directions Button

Volume Control

Back Button

Go Button – (especially when this button is green, which means it’s ready to be clicked).

When you do the Getting Started, try getting a few problems intentionally wrong to demonstrate functionality.

Proctor-led vs. Self-Paced

Should proctors administer a “proctor led session” or an “audio test session?" (a.k.a. “self-paced

session”)? The KSD HiCap Department requests that for grades 2 and up that testing be “self-paced” or “Audio” – not “proctor led.” However, after experience, we have found kindergarteners and 1st graders may benefit from assistance of a familiar teacher in understanding how to navigate the test; thus you should select the “proctor-led” option when creating younger students’ test sessions. This is a change from last year (2015-16) where we recommended an audio-led option for all grades.

During Testing

Why does my test taker’s computer seem to be going crazy? The mouse is moving by itself and

doesn’t appear to be responding when I control it? We have learned that the cause of this is the use of the original Riverside secure browser. Make sure you are using the latest secure browser “NBL Riverside Secure Browser” (see the first section of this FAQs document where we answer questions on logging students into the test). Starting in 2016-17, you should not experience this problem unless you are using a very old computer that has not had the chance to be updated.

What if a students’ touchpad stops working?

With some students’ computers, double tapping to top left corner of the touchpad disables the touchpad. Sometimes students do this by accident. If a student touchpad stops working, just double tap the top left corner again and it should turn it back on.

What if a student’s view of the test gets too magnified?

Sometimes students will have a couple fingers on the touchpad and unintentionally perform a pinch/expand movement; this can cause the screen to get overly magnified. Hold the control button down and hit the negative “-“ key and this should shrink the view back to normal.

On my proctor screen I am not seeing the most updated information on my students. What

should I do?

Sometimes, the CogAT proctoring tool fails to refresh quickly enough and you have to manually refresh

the browser. It is totally fine to refresh your browser while you proctor the CogAT. By doing so, the browser should accurately reflect the current status of all students you are testing without kicking them out of their testing sessions.

On my proctor screen, I can see which question number a student is working on during test.

What does “T: 5 of 6” mean?

“T” is a designation for Training – meaning that the student is going through training question 5 of 6. In this example, there are 6 training questions before the student actually begins the subtest.

All my students have completed testing but the “continue testing all” button is not working.

What should I do?

Unfortunately, this seems to happen about 10-20% of the time and there appears to be no way to avoid it. If the “continue testing all” button does not push the students into the next subtest, you’ll have to take note of the subtest they are working on and manually create a new testing session for the next subtest they need to take. This is especially annoying because students have to log out of their secure browser (Ctl + Shift + Q), then log in again with their student ID and the NEW test session code that you

just generated for their next subtest. When you create the new test session, be sure to make sure you create it for the appropriate testing group (English Audio, Spanish Audio, Alt Verbal, proctor led, etc.).

Pausing vs. Saving the Test

What is the difference between “Saving and Closing” students’ test sessions and “Pausing and

Resuming” them? I see that pausing a session is recommended for test irregularities (i.e.

disruptive student). Which should be used if the students need to break for lunch or recess? Saving and Closing the test logs the student out of the session completely. Pausing doesn’t log the student out of the assessment but instead sends the student to the drawing screen where they wait for the proctor to resume the test. Pausing is generally used if you want to give your kids a short break (e.g. 1-hour) in between sessions. It’s not recommended to pause a student’s test for more than 2-hours since his/her computer may automatically power off, disrupting the test session.

When the proctor saves and closes students' test sessions, will the students be able to go back

and revisit questions within the subtest they were working on? If the session is saved, the student will be able to go back but if the proctor ends the session and moves the student to the next subtest the student won’t be able to go back and review their answers.

Canceling a Test

When would you recommend that a student’s test session be cancelled? This should rarely be done. Cancelling a session when a student is logged in will log out the student from the session and not save the student scores. Only do this if you find a student taking the wrong test after he/she already started. Riverside has told us that a student who has had their subtest test session canceled may go back in and take the same subtest again but they will start from the beginning with no answers saved from their prior attempt.

Last Minute "Walk-in" Students

If a student is not on my CogAT student roster and he/she wants to take the CogAT at the last

minute (a.k.a “walk-in-students”) may I give him/her the test? KSD does not allow proctors to add “last minute/walk-in” students. In the case of nominated grades, only students whose parents submitted a form in accordance with the HiCap Department’s deadline are eligible to take the test and will appear in the testing database.

In the case of 2nd grade CogAT - where all students have the opportunity to take the test – if a student is not on the list of students to test, please notify Karen Forsloff in the Testing & Assessment Office and provide the student’s full name, birth date, and primary homeroom teacher’s name.

Paper & Pencil

If for, whatever reason, a student’s parents demand the student take the paper & pencil test,

what do we do? Can we use materials we have from last year? Please contact the assessment office (X-7080) ASAP if this occurs and we will try to accommodate this situation.

Finished Testing

How can I close the Student Secure Brower after the student is done with the test? If the secure browser doesn’t automatically close after the proctor selects “End Testing All” for all test sessions,

you can go to the student’s computer and hit Ctl+Shift+Q and the browser should close.