What do I need to know before I start Track My Progress testing with my students?

We know how frustrating it can be to have all the students go to the computer lab only to find that some critical piece of the technology is not working. The following suggestions will help you avoid that unpleasant scenario.

Suggestions

To have a complete understanding of what your students will experience during their Track My Progress assessment you can take a demonstration test.
Watch the Track My Progress student orientation video with your students so they will know what to expect during their assessment. We recommend the orientation video for K-2 students before they take their first Track My Progress test. You can pause the video as you watch it with your students and discuss if they understand what is being presented.
Print Track My Progress sign in cards for your students. The sign in cards have the web address, the school account number and each student's username and password printed for the student in a format that matches the sign in screen.
Print the Track My Progress class roster for your students. The roster has each student's username and password so you can help them sign in if they have lost their sign in card.
Bookmark the Track My Progress web address with your school account number preconfigured so your students do not need to enter their account number to sign in. You can email Track My Progress support and ask for your school's custom web address or you can ask your Technical Administrator for assistance and reference this article.
If you are using laptop computers with younger students make sure each computer has a mouse. The trackpad on some laptops can be challenging for young students.
Make sure each student has headphones or ear-buds. Track My Progress tests have audio narration that students will not be able to hear well if their computer sounds is competing with other computers or general classroom noise.
Track My Progress runs in most web browsers, but you do need to make sure that your computers meet the system requirements for the test if your Technology Administrator has not already done so. You can find the technical requirements here.
We recommend students have scratch paper for the math test.

Good to Know

Tests are organized around four testing windows a year. A student can take a Math and a Reading test one time each during a testing window. Be careful not to start testing toward the very end of a testing window as you want all students to complete their testing during the same test window. You can learn more about test windows in this article.
Your students can test either on a computer or an iPad.
Each test takes about 25 minutes on average. But some students may finish in as little as 12 minutes or take as long as 35 minutes or more.
Track My Progress is a computer adaptive test. This means that the test will adapt to each student based on their pattern of correct and incorrect responses to better find their learning zone. Accordingly, students will see different test questions and may require more or less time to complete their test. You can learn more about the Track My Progress computer adaptive technology here.
Students may stop their test and resume it at any time before the end of the current test window. We will save the student's progress and the student can resume the test at a later time from the point she left off. The student will not need to start the test over. You will see in your Class Administrator interface the number of questions completed instead of seeing a test score.
When you see the checkered flag on the student's screen it indicates that she has finished the test.