Release of NCS Mentor for MCAS Professional Development Tool
| To: | Superintendents, and Directors of Charter Schools, Approved Private Special Education Schools, Institutional Schools, and Collaboratives |
| From: | David P. Driscoll, Commissioner of Education |
| Date: | November 19, 2004 |
I am pleased to announce the launch of NCS Mentor for MCAS, a computer-based professional development tool that allows educators to learn how to score student responses to MCAS open-response questions and composition writing prompts. Pearson Educational Measurement, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, designed the NCS Mentor for MCAS software to provide a bridge between statewide performance assessment and classroom instruction. It has been developed to help teachers internalize the Massachusetts Curriculum Framework learning standards and MCAS performance level expectations to integrate the MCAS scoring process into classroom instruction.
The new NCS Mentor program represents a significant advance over the previously released NCS Mentor for Massachusetts: Scoring MCAS Compositions CD. It contains new content, incorporating English language arts and mathematics open-response items, as well as compositions. Massachusetts educators will be able to access NCS Mentor for MCAS over the Internet at http://www.ncsmentor.com by selecting the "customer" page from the menu bar. By using the key word "MCAS" users can register and create a profile. When creating a profile, users will be able to select their own username and password, which they will use in the future to log on. I encourage you to explore ways to use this professional development tool within your district. If you have any questions about the NCS Mentor, please contact support services at 800-662-0727 (8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. EST) or by email at mentor@pearson.com.
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