Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System

Student Assessment Update: August 4, 2015

Extended Discrepancy Reporting Window

The Department is extending the MCAS discrepancy reporting window to August 7–19. This extension will enable schools and districts to view preliminary reports in Edwin Analytics during the discrepancy reporting period. It is essential that principals and school leaders review their preliminary results during this period, or delegate this task to a designee, as discrepancies reported after 5:00 p.m. on August 19 will not be corrected in time for the official September release of results. The online MCAS discrepancy reporting tool will be available at the MCAS Service Center website, along with detailed instructions for reporting MCAS data discrepancies. These instructions can also be found in the MCAS 2015 Data Dropbox at the Department's Security Portal. See the updated 2015 assessment and accountability data review and release schedule for more details.

MCAS Reporting and Accountability Teleconferences

The Department will hold two MCAS Reporting and Accountability teleconferences:

August 7 at 2:00 p.m.
August 10 at 10:00 a.m.

During the teleconferences, Department staff will share important information regarding the spring 2015 MCAS test results, and participants will have an opportunity to ask questions. Registration can be submitted online until 5:00 p.m., August 5, and also by calling the MCAS Service Center at 800-737-5103 (please register at least 24 hours before each teleconference).

Preliminary 2015 MCAS and MCAS-Alt Results

Full preliminary MCAS and MCAS-Alt results are scheduled to be available in the MCAS 2015 Data Dropbox at the Department's Security Portal by 5:00 p.m. on August 7, 2015. Interactive reports in Edwin Analytics are scheduled to be available at the Department's Security Portal by 5:00 p.m. on August 12, 2015. Principals and school leaders should use these preliminary results to verify the accuracy of student information and student test status data, and to identify potential discrepancies to report to the Department. However, since this is preliminary data, you may not release any aggregate data to the public until the official release of school and district results in September.

Subscriber Information Principals, MCAS test coordinators, PARCC test coordinators, special education directors, and ELL directors receive this update based on contact information submitted to the Department. To change your email address or to add another staff member, please follow the instructions below:

Public school districts, public schools, charter public schools, collaboratives, approved private special education schools: submit the new email address to your District-Level Directory Administrator.
Test sites, adult education programs, out-of-state schools, SEIS-DYS programs: submit an email address (along with your District and School Code) to diradmin@doe.mass.edu.

In addition to this Update, PARCC districts may find the biweekly PARCC bulletins to be useful. We welcome your feedback at mcas@doe.mass.edu and parcc@doe.mass.edu.

Last Updated: August 5, 2015