[CASL-L] Anyone administer TRAILS?

[Ellen Nosal]

Happy Still-Summer!
I used data collected from TRAILS for my SLOs for two years. I agree that the questions are not all well-designed, and I am sorry to say that the grade levels did not always align with my students' skill sets, but I think it is the best thing out there.  Teachers generally are happy to offer their students for the pre and post assessments, and the data does inform lessons for growth.
Wishing everyone a happy school year.  They tell me now that I am retired, that life is one long, endless summer.  I'll let you know about that! 
Ellen Nosal, MLSLibrary Media Specialist, Retired
  

    On Thursday, August 23, 2018 1:13 PM, Jennifer Rocca <Roccaj at brookfieldps.org> wrote:
 

 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!!! 

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 | Sincerely,Michele EligioNorth Branford High School Librarian49 Caputo RoadNorth Branford, CT  06471(203) 484-1465“Libraries store the energy that fuels the imagination. They open up windows to the world and inspire us to explore and achieve, and contribute to improving our quality of life. Libraries change lives for the better.” ~Sidney Sheldon

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Jennifer Rocca
BHS Teacher Librarian
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