Assessment/Accountability No Child Left Behind
Highly Qualified Teachers and Paraprofessionals

Update Regarding the Formal Assessments for Instructional Paraprofessionals

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education recently released the Massachusetts Policies for Paraprofessionals in Title I Programs, which can be found online at: http://www.doe.mass.edu/nclb/hq/paraprof_policy.pdf. Among other things, this document provides information on the two assessements, ParaPro developed by ETS and the WorkKeys Proficiency Certificate for Teacher Assistants by ACT, the Department has selected as the formal state-endorsed assessments for instructional paraprofessionals in Title I programs. Both of these assessments are appropriate for both prospective and incumbent paraprofessionals. I am writing to provide additional information regarding these two assessments including the established passing scores and test administration information.

ParaPro Assessment

The ParaPro measures skills and knowledge in reading, writing and mathematics, as well as the ability to apply those skills and knowledge to assist in classroom instruction. A scaled score of 464 must be achieved in order to meet the requirements of NCLB. ETS will report a single score for the ParaPro and will not give a score for each sub-category. Therefore, banking of subscores will not be possible. There will be, however, some information to the candidate on the score report as to his/her performance on each subcategory.

Massachusetts school districts and charter schools may enroll as an internet-based ParaPro testing site thereby allowing paraprofessionals to take the assessment in a computer lab designated by the district/school. Information on how to provide this service to paraprofessionals is attached.

General questions regarding the ParaPro can be sent to parapro@ets.org.

WorkKeys Assessment

In response to No Child Left Behind, ACT has developed the WorkKeys Proficiency Certificate for Teacher Assistants. The Certificate consists of Reading for Information, Applied Mathematics, and Business Writing assessments and the Instructional Support Inventory (ISI). In order to meet the requirements of NCLB, paraprofessionals must achieve at the following skill levels on all three sections of the ACT Work Keys Certificate of Proficiency for Teaching Assistants:

Reading for Information: Skill Level 5
Applied Mathematics: Skill Level 4
Business Writing: Skill Level 3
Writing (only used in lieu of Business Writing if districts request paper/pencil testing): Skill Level 4

The five participating community colleges in Massachusetts (Holyoke, Middlesex, Bunker Hill, Bristol, and Springfield Technical) will administer the three assessment tests included in the WorkKeys Certificate. The assessments can also be administered at a location identified by school districts and are available either on computer or in paper/pencil versions. The ISI component, an observation-based tool that is used to assess teaching skills, will be administered by the teaching assistant's supervisor using the guidelines provided by ACT.

General information about ACT and WorkKeys can be found at http://www.act.org. For additional information about test dates, locations and testing procedures, please contact one of the testing sites below:

ATTACHMENT:

Instructions for Initializing a Massachusetts School District/ Charter School as a ParaPro Testing Site

School districts and charter schools that are interested in becoming testing sites for ParaPro may begin the initialization process by navigating to https://ibt.ets.org/optin. This is the only time you will use this website. When prompted, enter "parapro" for the user name and "parapro$optin" for the password (without the quotes).

Once you have logged in, perform the following actions:

• Select your state from those available in the drop down list.
• A drop down list of available districts will appear. Select your school district/charter school. If your district/charter school is not listed, this means that you have already registered and the password and username have been sent to the Superintendent/Charter School Leader. If this information has been misplaced, you can obtain it again by contacting ETS at teachandlearn@ets.org.
• Click "OK" on the pop-up box confirming your selection (or click Cancel to make another selection).
• Verify that the e-mail address listed is correct. If this information is correct, click the Enroll button. A username and password will be sent to you via e-mail.
• If the email address is not correct, click the Incorrect Data button for more information.

How to Access the ParaPro Assessment Administration Web site:

• Once you receive your username and password you may access the secure ParaPro Assessment Administration Web site.
• Navigate to the secure Web site at http://ibt.ets.org/parapro. You will be taken to the ParaPro Welcome Page. Click I Agree or I Do Not Agree on the disclaimer page. Links to Administration and Candidate Testing will appear when you click I Agree.
• Click on Administration to be taken to the School District Administrator Log-in page.
• Use the username and password you received by e-mail to login.
• The first time you login, you will see a Services Agreement. At the bottom, click I Accept if you accept the terms of the Services Agreement and wish to participate in the Internet-based delivery of the ParaPro Assessment.
• Update all required contact information on the next screen and click Submit.
• Click Main Menu link at the top of the page.
• The initialization process is now complete and you may use the ParaPro Assessment Administration system.
• To return to the ParaPro Assessment Administration Web site in the future, navigate to http://ibt.ets.org/parapro and use the username and password provided to you in the e-mail. You will be taken directly to the Main Menu.

How to Prepare Individual Workstations for Candidate Testing:

To prepare each workstation you must download and run the INSTALLATION PROGRAM from the ETS ParaPro Assessment Administration Web site. This installation program will install the Sun's Java Runtime Environment 1.4 (JRE), which includes Java Web Start (JWS) as well as the ETS iBT driver.

To access the installation program:

• Navigate to http://ibt.ets.org/parapro. You will be taken to the ParaPro Welcome Page. Click I Agree or I Do Not Agree on the disclaimer page. Links to Administration and Candidate Testing will appear when you click I Agree.
• Click Candidate Testing and follow the instructions on that page.
• Refer to www.ets.org/parapro for technical tips.

If you experiencing technical problems, refer to the Technical Tips on www.ets.org/parapro. Additional technical help is available in the Administration Guide, which can be downloaded from the Administration website.