Where Do Those ACCESS for ELLs Tests Go?

Have you ever wondered what happens to the ACCESS for ELLs boxes that you carefully pack up and ship back each year?  How do they score them?  Does some machine have to turn each page in those booklets?  If a picture is worth a thousand words, then you will love this!

Metritech, Inc. is the company that handles the production, delivery, scoring and reporting for the ACCESS for ELLs assessment.  It is located in Champaign, Illinois.  Recently, the staff at MetriTech produced a four minute video that shows what happens once the ACCESS for ELLs boxes arrive at their final destination. 

The first two steps are straightforward.  The boxes arrive at the MetriTech facility and are unpacked.  But after that, it gets very interesting.  The tests make their way to the encoding area where they are scanned in one at a time.  Then it is off to the cutting department – yes, cutting! Check out the video to see this step.  Then, it is time for more scanning and scoring.  Each writing sample is scored by at least three independent readers.  Some writing responses are also randomly selected for double scoring. When it is all said and done, the print room prints off your score reports to send back to you.  But before the first reports are shipped off, the WIDA Consortium sends some of the Consortium members to MetriTech for a Quality Control (QC) trip.  On this trip, the group has a chance to see  the processing first hand.  They are also responsible for checking the accuracy and correctness of the data and reports.  

I was fascinated by the sheer number of tests and pages that are being scored this season.  Here are just some of the statistics for the 2011-2012 testing season so far:

·         Up to 600 boxes arrived each day of the testing season

·         20,000 boxes have arrived to date

·         975,708 tests have been scored

·         380,000 pages are processed each day

·         2,250,000 prompts have been scored to date

·         2,000,000 report pages have been printed so far

Now you might be wondering how many districts those statistics represent.  During the 2011-2012 school year, 28,500 schools from 4,750 districts in 27 states took the ACCESS for ELLs test.  The MetriTech customer service department has received over 23,000 questions this school year!  Click here for a handy chart that tells you who to call depending on what type of question you have about the ACCESS for ELLs testing process.

Thank you, MetriTech for a look inside your facility and a chance to see the beefy UPS guy in action! 

Written by: Tammy King

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net