Preparing for Online Testing

Online Testing has quickly become a necessity and requirement for school districts across the country. We asked two of our Directors of Technology to give an overview of how they have prepared for online testing requirements in their districts.

“To prepare for online testing for Keystone Exams and PSSA tests we are setting up temporary wired “labs” by putting extra Ethernet connections in key rooms. This ensures all students can test on a wired connection.   All of our technology staff attended the proctor training with our teachers so they are familiar with all the rules and regulations as well as expectations from PDE.  It is our understanding that PDE is auditing much more than they have in the past for testing. Due to this new format, we wanted to be sure that every I was dotted and T crossed.  Due to regulations from PDE about not having electronic devices in the testing areas will be going phone-less and device-less in general.  This includes not allowing teachers to be on devices to check email.” – Mike Lipnicky, South Side Area School District

“We set up a caching server for online testing a few years ago and have been engaged in Keystone CDT testing on a limited basis for quite some time. This past November, the high school LGI was used exclusively for two weeks to administer Keystone CDTs in English, Math and Science. We set up 60 computers using floor-mounted network drops to eliminate potential issues with wireless connectivity. We also made sure the systems were logged in before each testing window, so the students could spend their time testing rather than dealing with issues with forgotten passwords and the like.” – Director of Technology, Moon Area School District