From jordan.hermens at ode.state.or.us Wed Oct 8 14:49:04 2014 From: jordan.hermens at ode.state.or.us (HERMENS Jordan) Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2014 21:49:04 +0000 Subject: [Assessment_Advisory_Committee] TDS downtime in December Message-ID: <48cd48f6578d410e80cdb6655f7fbaf8@BY2PR04MB845.namprd04.prod.outlook.com> Good afternoon, The OAKS Test Delivery System (which includes the training site and practice tests) is currently scheduled to be offline December 26 to December 28 in preparation for the launch of our operational OAKS Science, Social Sciences, and ELPA tests in January. AIR is strongly recommending taking this opportunity to conduct extensive load testing prior to the launch of the Smarter Balanced tests (scheduled for March). However, to support this critical QC step, we would need to take the Test Delivery System offline for more than the three days currently scheduled, and AIR is proposing to take the Test Delivery System offline from December 15 to December 26. TIDE and Online Reporting would not be affected. Before scheduling this extended downtime, ODE would appreciate your input to determine the impact of this proposed downtime on districts' ability to complete TA training. With DTC training happening later than in years past, ODE recognizes that districts will need to push back their TA training schedules accordingly. We'd like to take districts' training schedules into account so that we can ensure they have access to the training site and practice tests as part of their training regimen. * To what extent are many districts likely to be conducting TA training December 15 - 26? * To the extent that some TA training may be scheduled for December 15 - 26, can the impact on districts be sufficiently mitigated by communicating about the downtime now? So that we can confirm the downtime schedule with our vendor and communicate to the field in a timely fashion, we'd appreciate your feedback by noon on Friday (10/6). Thank you for your consideration, Jordan Hermens Oregon Department of Education 255 Capitol St NE | Salem, OR 97310 | *503-947-5905 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From stewartw at bctonline.com Wed Oct 8 15:09:32 2014 From: stewartw at bctonline.com (Bill Stewart) Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2014 15:09:32 -0700 Subject: [Assessment_Advisory_Committee] TDS downtime in December In-Reply-To: <48cd48f6578d410e80cdb6655f7fbaf8@BY2PR04MB845.namprd04.prod.outlook.com> References: <48cd48f6578d410e80cdb6655f7fbaf8@BY2PR04MB845.namprd04.prod.outlook.com> Message-ID: <616BB2E4-D074-4430-A140-C86E54CB9FEA@bctonline.com> Jordan, At least for my district, the proposed closure window amounts to 4 schools days, Dec 15,16,17,18. The remainder of the window is during our Winter Break. At a guess, I?d say that a fair number of districts may be nearly the same, with the possible addition of the 19th as a school day. From my perspective, the week before Winter Break would be a very low priority to use for training staff. In fact, even without the proposed closure, I would do everything possible to avoid using that week for training. No matter what you decide, EARLY and FREQUENT COMMUNICATION is essential about any closure or access change. IMO, districts who are planning to use that December time slot for training would be better served to do training right after Winter Break?when staff are rested and focused on the tests that need to administered. I hope this helps?. Bill Bill Stewart 503-805-8680 - c On Oct 8, 2014, at 2:49 PM, HERMENS Jordan wrote: > Good afternoon, > > The OAKS Test Delivery System (which includes the training site and practice tests) is currently scheduled to be offline December 26 to December 28 in preparation for the launch of our operational OAKS Science, Social Sciences, and ELPA tests in January. AIR is strongly recommending taking this opportunity to conduct extensive load testing prior to the launch of the Smarter Balanced tests (scheduled for March). However, to support this critical QC step, we would need to take the Test Delivery System offline for more than the three days currently scheduled, and AIR is proposing to take the Test Delivery System offline from December 15 to December 26. TIDE and Online Reporting would not be affected. > > Before scheduling this extended downtime, ODE would appreciate your input to determine the impact of this proposed downtime on districts? ability to complete TA training. With DTC training happening later than in years past, ODE recognizes that districts will need to push back their TA training schedules accordingly. We?d like to take districts? training schedules into account so that we can ensure they have access to the training site and practice tests as part of their training regimen. > To what extent are many districts likely to be conducting TA training December 15 ? 26? > To the extent that some TA training may be scheduled for December 15 ? 26, can the impact on districts be sufficiently mitigated by communicating about the downtime now? > > So that we can confirm the downtime schedule with our vendor and communicate to the field in a timely fashion, we?d appreciate your feedback by noon on Friday (10/6). Thank you for your consideration, > > > > Jordan Hermens > Oregon Department of Education > 255 Capitol St NE | Salem, OR 97310 | ?503-947-5905 > > > > _____________________________________________________ > Assessment_Advisory_Committee mailing list > Assessment_Advisory_Committee at listsmart.osl.state.or.us > http://listsmart.osl.state.or.us/mailman/listinfo/assessment_advisory_committee > Hosted by the Oregon State Library. The Library is not responsible for content. > Questions related to message content should be directed to list owner(s) or the sender of the message, by phone or email. > Technical questions? Call 503-378-8800. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From staplesd at newberg.k12.or.us Thu Oct 9 08:01:56 2014 From: staplesd at newberg.k12.or.us (Don Staples) Date: Thu, 9 Oct 2014 08:01:56 -0700 Subject: [Assessment_Advisory_Committee] TDS downtime in December In-Reply-To: <616BB2E4-D074-4430-A140-C86E54CB9FEA@bctonline.com> References: <48cd48f6578d410e80cdb6655f7fbaf8@BY2PR04MB845.namprd04.prod.outlook.com> <616BB2E4-D074-4430-A140-C86E54CB9FEA@bctonline.com> Message-ID: Working around the proposed downtime in December should not be a problem for my district. I would think that is true for most of us given it is the final week before winter break. Don Staples Newberg On Wed, Oct 8, 2014 at 3:09 PM, Bill Stewart wrote: > Jordan, > > At least for my district, the proposed closure window amounts to 4 schools > days, Dec 15,16,17,18. The remainder of the window is during our Winter > Break. At a guess, I?d say that a fair number of districts may be nearly > the same, with the possible addition of the 19th as a school day. > > From my perspective, the week before Winter Break would be a very low > priority to use for training staff. In fact, even without the proposed > closure, I would do everything possible to avoid using that week for > training. > > No matter what you decide, EARLY and FREQUENT COMMUNICATION is essential > about any closure or access change. > > IMO, districts who are planning to use that December time slot for > training would be better served to do training right after Winter > Break?when staff are rested and focused on the tests that need to > administered. > > I hope this helps?. > > Bill > > Bill Stewart > 503-805-8680 - c > > > > > On Oct 8, 2014, at 2:49 PM, HERMENS Jordan > wrote: > > Good afternoon, > > The OAKS Test Delivery System (which includes the training site and > practice tests) is currently scheduled to be offline December 26 to > December 28 in preparation for the launch of our operational OAKS Science, > Social Sciences, and ELPA tests in January. AIR is strongly recommending > taking this opportunity to conduct extensive load testing prior to the > launch of the Smarter Balanced tests (scheduled for March). However, to > support this critical QC step, we would need to take the Test Delivery > System offline for more than the three days currently scheduled, and AIR > is proposing to take the Test Delivery System offline from *December 15 > to December 26*. TIDE and Online Reporting would not be affected. > > Before scheduling this extended downtime, ODE would appreciate your input > to determine the impact of this proposed downtime on districts? ability to > complete TA training. With DTC training happening later than in years > past, ODE recognizes that districts will need to push back their TA > training schedules accordingly. We?d like to take districts? training > schedules into account so that we can ensure they have access to the > training site and practice tests as part of their training regimen. > > - To what extent are many districts likely to be conducting TA > training December 15 ? 26? > - To the extent that some TA training may be scheduled for December 15 > ? 26, can the impact on districts be sufficiently mitigated by > communicating about the downtime now? > > > So that we can confirm the downtime schedule with our vendor and > communicate to the field in a timely fashion, we?d appreciate your feedback > by *noon on Friday (10/6).* Thank you for your consideration, > > > > *Jordan Hermens* > Oregon Department of Education > 255 Capitol St NE | Salem, OR 97310 | ?503-947-5905 > > > > _____________________________________________________ > Assessment_Advisory_Committee mailing list > Assessment_Advisory_Committee at listsmart.osl.state.or.us > > http://listsmart.osl.state.or.us/mailman/listinfo/assessment_advisory_committee > Hosted by the Oregon State Library. The Library is not responsible for > content. > Questions related to message content should be directed to list owner(s) > or the sender of the message, by phone or email. > Technical questions? Call 503-378-8800. > > > > _____________________________________________________ > Assessment_Advisory_Committee mailing list > Assessment_Advisory_Committee at listsmart.osl.state.or.us > > http://listsmart.osl.state.or.us/mailman/listinfo/assessment_advisory_committee > Hosted by the Oregon State Library. The Library is not responsible for > content. > Questions related to message content should be directed to list owner(s) > or the sender of the message, by phone or email. > Technical questions? Call 503-378-8800. > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From CARLSON_CATHERINE at salkeiz.k12.or.us Thu Oct 9 08:20:57 2014 From: CARLSON_CATHERINE at salkeiz.k12.or.us (Catherine Carlson) Date: Thu, 9 Oct 2014 15:20:57 +0000 Subject: [Assessment_Advisory_Committee] TDS downtime in December In-Reply-To: References: <48cd48f6578d410e80cdb6655f7fbaf8@BY2PR04MB845.namprd04.prod.outlook.com> <616BB2E4-D074-4430-A140-C86E54CB9FEA@bctonline.com> Message-ID: We don?t have a problem with that schedule?I would not be conducting any training during that week. Catherine Carlson Salem-Keizer From: Assessment_Advisory_Committee [mailto:assessment_advisory_committee-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us] On Behalf Of Don Staples Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2014 8:02 AM To: Bill Stewart Cc: assessment_advisory_committee at listsmart.osl.state.or.us; connie.lobato at imesd.k12.or.us; Amy Rockwell (amy.rockwell at wesd.org) (amy.rockwell at wesd.org); kristine.keizer at douglasesd.k12.or.us; HERMENS Jordan Subject: Re: [Assessment_Advisory_Committee] TDS downtime in December Working around the proposed downtime in December should not be a problem for my district. I would think that is true for most of us given it is the final week before winter break. Don Staples Newberg On Wed, Oct 8, 2014 at 3:09 PM, Bill Stewart > wrote: Jordan, At least for my district, the proposed closure window amounts to 4 schools days, Dec 15,16,17,18. The remainder of the window is during our Winter Break. At a guess, I?d say that a fair number of districts may be nearly the same, with the possible addition of the 19th as a school day. From my perspective, the week before Winter Break would be a very low priority to use for training staff. In fact, even without the proposed closure, I would do everything possible to avoid using that week for training. No matter what you decide, EARLY and FREQUENT COMMUNICATION is essential about any closure or access change. IMO, districts who are planning to use that December time slot for training would be better served to do training right after Winter Break?when staff are rested and focused on the tests that need to administered. I hope this helps?. Bill Bill Stewart 503-805-8680 - c On Oct 8, 2014, at 2:49 PM, HERMENS Jordan > wrote: Good afternoon, The OAKS Test Delivery System (which includes the training site and practice tests) is currently scheduled to be offline December 26 to December 28 in preparation for the launch of our operational OAKS Science, Social Sciences, and ELPA tests in January. AIR is strongly recommending taking this opportunity to conduct extensive load testing prior to the launch of the Smarter Balanced tests (scheduled for March). However, to support this critical QC step, we would need to take the Test Delivery System offline for more than the three days currently scheduled, and AIR is proposing to take the Test Delivery System offline from December 15 to December 26. TIDE and Online Reporting would not be affected. Before scheduling this extended downtime, ODE would appreciate your input to determine the impact of this proposed downtime on districts? ability to complete TA training. With DTC training happening later than in years past, ODE recognizes that districts will need to push back their TA training schedules accordingly. We?d like to take districts? training schedules into account so that we can ensure they have access to the training site and practice tests as part of their training regimen. ? To what extent are many districts likely to be conducting TA training December 15 ? 26? ? To the extent that some TA training may be scheduled for December 15 ? 26, can the impact on districts be sufficiently mitigated by communicating about the downtime now? So that we can confirm the downtime schedule with our vendor and communicate to the field in a timely fashion, we?d appreciate your feedback by noon on Friday (10/6). Thank you for your consideration, Jordan Hermens Oregon Department of Education 255 Capitol St NE | Salem, OR 97310 | ?503-947-5905 _____________________________________________________ Assessment_Advisory_Committee mailing list Assessment_Advisory_Committee at listsmart.osl.state.or.us http://listsmart.osl.state.or.us/mailman/listinfo/assessment_advisory_committee Hosted by the Oregon State Library. The Library is not responsible for content. Questions related to message content should be directed to list owner(s) or the sender of the message, by phone or email. Technical questions? Call 503-378-8800. _____________________________________________________ Assessment_Advisory_Committee mailing list Assessment_Advisory_Committee at listsmart.osl.state.or.us http://listsmart.osl.state.or.us/mailman/listinfo/assessment_advisory_committee Hosted by the Oregon State Library. The Library is not responsible for content. Questions related to message content should be directed to list owner(s) or the sender of the message, by phone or email. Technical questions? Call 503-378-8800. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: