As of October 8, 2012, some new data fields will be added to the Smarter Balanced Technology Readiness Tool.  These additional fields will give you the ability to categorize organizations, show grade specific enrollment counts, and further classify the location and ownership of devices.  Also on this date the submission status for each school will be reset to “no”. 

Below is information provided by Pearson on how to submit this additional data:

Review and populate fields that will be added to the data file layouts and interface. The fields below will be added to the data file layouts and to the Technology Readiness Tool interface by October 8. Please include this information as you upload edited or new school survey files and device files. To edit your current data, you may export the existing data from the system, add the data in the new fields and re-upload the data. See the User’s Guide for more information about exporting and importing device and school survey data. Additional information about the following added fields will be communicated in the data file layouts.

School Survey File Layout

• ·         Classification of School
• ·         Grade Specific Enrollment Counts

Devices File Layout

• ·         Assessment Environment
• ·         Device Owner

Confirm, update, or add your enrollment data by grade. New fields have been created for “enrollment by grade.” To assist in reporting this information, Pearson will pre-populate these fields in the Technology Readiness Tool in mid-October with the most recent (2010-2011 school year) NCES data for organizations that have an exact match to the NCES codes and organization names. LEAs and test sites should confirm or, if more recent or accurate data is available, update the populated numbers. The enrollment data for organizations that did not have an exact match to the NCES data will not be populated. For these organizations, please add the enrollment data.

Complete your missing or blank data.  While NH had 54% of SAUs reporting 100% completed data, of those schools about half had many questions in the device or school surveys left blank. Blank or missing data will mean that the tool will not give you accurate determination of your Technology Readiness.  Please take the time to complete all the questions and enter that missing data for each of your schools.

Enter “Yes” to each school’s submission status.  The Data Entry Submission Status for all organizations has been reset to No to ensure confirmation of your complete data set for this upcoming December 15 snapshot.  Once you have edited your devices, added the additional information needed for devices already in the system, and updated your school survey data, please change the Data Entry Submission Status to Yes.

Please continue to enter and update your data, old or new, any time after October 8, but your revisions must be complete by December 14, if they are to be counted in the next report and recorded as part of the data snapshot taken on that date.  Smarter Balanced will publish a report based on the December 14 data, so it is important that your organization’s information is accurate. 

Enter your Data into the Tool, if you have not used it before. Schools and districts that have not used the tool previously, can still enter data and have it counted in the last report.  All Superintendents and principals were set up as users in the Tech Readiness tool at the end of March.  Please check with an administrator and make sure they have access.  If you need access, have your administrator set up a user profile for you.  If you need access to your entire SAU school list, please contact Stan Freeda (Stanley.freeda@doe.nh.gov, 603-271-5132) and ask to be promoted.