[CASL-L] Anyone administer TRAILS?

[Jennifer Rocca]

We have used TRAILS a number of times.

   - Personally, I make the entire grade a single session. I copy and paste
   the student access codes onto a spreadsheet with student names (organized
   by classroom) and cut out strips of paper to hand to the students. There
   might be a better way but this has been working for us.
   - I usually assume about 30 minutes for a TRAILS assessment - some kids
   will finish in 10 minutes and some will take 40 minutes. We usually plan an
   independent activity for students to move into when they finish the
   assessment.
   - No tech problems. We've administered on iPads, chromebooks, and
   desktops. It has always worked fine.
   -  I have used TRAILS often. I even used it this past year. That being
   said, I don't really like TRAILS all that much. The questions are sometimes
   unclear or not focused where I want them to be. I don't feel like the
   results are a great measure of what the students can actually,
   functionally *do*. It is undeniably convenient to have a standardized,
   benchmarked, multiple choice assessment. That's why we keep coming back to
   it. But if something better existed, I would use it in a heartbeat.
   - This year we are trying out some of the Stanford assessments. Single
   questions with short answers. They provide a rubric and sample benchmarked
   responses. https://sheg.stanford.edu/civic-online-reasoning



On Thu, Aug 23, 2018 at 11:53 AM Michele Eligio <
meligio at northbranfordschools.org> wrote:

> Hi Everyone,
>
> First well wishes for an awesome school year to all of you! As always I
> have some burning questions on yet another topic that I could use help with!
>
> Some Background:
> About two weeks ago, I had reached out to the English Department at our
> school to see if they were open to the idea of having students take the
> Kent State University TRAILS assessment to get a baseline on the
> Information Literacy proficiency level of our students with the intention
> of following up by reassessing the students in later years. They just got
> back to me and love the idea!
>
> So, if anyone has used TRAILS before, I could use your assistance in
> answering a few questions. First, when creating a session for a grade level
> is it alright to set up one session for the entire grade or is it more
> advisable to set up individual sessions for each classroom within the
> grade? Second, approximately how long does it take to administer one of the
> 9th grade 25 item assessments? Did anyone ever experience tech problems
> with test administration? (Our students have Chromebooks.) Finally, if
> there is any other assistance or insight that can be provided that you
> think would be helpful for me to know, please share.
>
> Thanks so much in advance for your feedback. I absolutely love CASL for
> the many things they provide - the connections, resources, and professional
> learning. This listserv is always such a tremendous resource and
> professional network for me!!!
>
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Michele Eligio
>
> North Branford High School Librarian
>
> 49 Caputo Road
>
> North Branford, CT  06471
>
> (203) 484-1465
>
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> to improving our quality of life. Libraries change lives for the better.”
> ~Sidney Sheldon*
>
>
>
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-- 

Jennifer Rocca
BHS Teacher Librarian
203-775-7725 x-7775
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