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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">Dear Assessment Advisory Committee members,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">ODE is requesting your feedback on whether to change its policy regarding allowing districts to use text-to-speech on tablets and Chromebooks.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:black">Issue</span></b><span style="color:black">: For technical reasons, the pause feature is not available for text-to-speech (TTS) on tablets and Chromebooks. Students can stop TTS reading in the middle of an item
or passage, but there is no way to have TTS resume reading where it was stopped. If the student activates TTS again for the same item or passages it will start again at the beginning. The pause feature, which allows TTS to resume reading where it was paused,
is available on desktops and laptops. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:black">Current Policy</span></b><span style="color:black">: ODE has disallowed the use of TTS on tablets and Chromebooks on the basis that the inability to pause TTS and then resume again at the place it was paused
would disadvantage students testing on tablets and Chromebooks when they encountered a long passage or item<b>. It’s important to note that while this restriction is noted in all documentation and user guides, AIR is not able to actually block TTS on tablets
or Chromebooks.</b> AIR and ODE received a lot of calls from districts that were testing students on tablets and Chromebooks and wanted to be able to use TTS. They questioned why it was not available and stated that it was a great inconvenience to not be able
to use it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:black">Proposed Workaround: </span></b><span style="color:black">AIR has proposed some workarounds as an alternative to the pause feature if ODE decides to support TTS on tablets and Chromebooks in 2015-2016:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2"><![if !supportLists]><span style="font-family:Symbol;color:black"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span style="color:black">Students can select the text they want read aloud and TTS will read only the selected text. Therefore, if a student pauses a passage in the middle and wants the TTS to resume where the passage was paused,
the student can highlight the remainder of the passage.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2"><![if !supportLists]><span style="font-family:Symbol;color:black"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span style="color:black">We can include in the documentation the recommendation that if a student will use TTS a desktop or laptop computer should be used for the ELA performance task test, which is the test that has the longest
passages.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">To inform ODE’s decision-making on whether to allow TTS use on tablets and Chromebooks with the proposed workarounds, please respond with your feedback by
<b>Wednesday, September 30</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">Thank you as always for your input!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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