Next Generation Social and Emotional Learning Assessment System

ACT® Tessera®

Administration Manual

| www.act.org/act-tessera

Dear Tessera Administrator, Welcome to ACT® Tessera® and the 2019-2020 academic year. Thank you for your participation in administering ACT Tessera at your school. To learn more about ACT Tessera, and social and emotional learning (SEL), please visit ACT Tessera on the ACT website.

ACT Tessera testing is not required to fall within a traditional testing window and can happen at any point during the school year. To administer ACT Tessera in your school, you will need to walk through the steps outlined on the following pages and work closely with your testing team to prepare your school for a successful ACT Tessera administration.

To stay updated and ensure you are receiving important communications from ACT, please add tessera@act.org, academy@act-et.org, * @ operations.act.org and * @ act.org to your email Safe Senders list.

Should any questions or issues arise, please feel free to contact ACT Customer Care at 855.730.0400 from 8:30am-5:00pm Central time, Monday through Friday or via our website at www.act.org/contact-acttessera.

Thank you for all you are doing to support your students’ social and emotional development and best wishes for a successful 2019-2020 academic year.

Sincerely,

Cory GalanoSenior Product Manager – Learning ProductsACT Tessera

Next Generation Social and Emotional Learning Assessment System

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ACT Customer CareIf you experience any issues that you cannot solve based on the information in this guide or in our online resources, please contact ACT Customer Care staff at 855.730.0400 or via our website at www.act.org/contact-acttessera.

ACT Ordering Portal and User ManagementLogin page: https://order.act.org.

ACT Academy Tessera AdministrationLogin page: https://academy.act.org.

CONTACT INFORMATION AND SUPPORT

Contents

Administrator Checklist 2

Administration Information 3

Getting Ready:

Administration Staff 3

Getting Ready:

Accessibility 4

Getting Ready:

Room Setup 5

Tessera Administration:

Teachers 5

Post-Assessment Activities 7

ACT Terms 9

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Administrator Checklist

This section contains the basic steps you’ll need to follow for a successful administration of Tessera at your organization, district, or school. Additional information for these steps follows this checklist.

3 Getting Ready

3 Administration Staff

3 Purchase Your Tessera Units

3 Invite Your Teachers

3 Standardize Your Testing Conditions

3 Accessibility

3 Room Setup

3 Administration

3 Teachers

3 Register on ACT Academy

3 Create Your SEL Class

3 Add Students to the SEL Class Roster

3 Create Your Tessera Assignment

3 Post-Assessment Activities

3 Access Your Reports

3 Understand Your Reports

3 Access the Playbook

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Administration Information

GETTING READY: ADMINISTRATION STAFFPurchase Your Tessera Units

Purchasing units of assessments as a school or district administrator is accomplished via the ACT Ordering Portal at https://order.act.org. As an administrator, you will be able to purchase additional units and manage your Tessera testing team. The Ordering Portal does NOT allow you to deliver the Tessera assessment in a classroom; that function happens only within ACT Academy.

Invite Your TeachersOnce you have completed your Tessera assessment order it is time to give your administrators and teachers access so that they can schedule the assessment in the classroom. This also occurs within the Ordering Portal, where you will navigate to the User Management screen. From there, via email, you can invite teachers to use the Tessera units that you have purchased.

Note: Only teachers that you invite will be able to administer Tessera in their classrooms, so this step must be completed.

All users in your school must accept the email invitation from ACT Academy to complete their user role setup. For more information about how to manage your ACT Tessera users, please watch “How to Manage Your Tessera Units as an Organization, District, or School Administrator” on the Tessera Resources site.

Standardize Your Testing ConditionsSince Tessera is an online assessment, delivered through ACT Academy, you will benefit from identifying a technology coordinator who can help you prepare your system and devices for administering ACT Tessera in your school.

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GETTING READY: ACCESSIBILITYACT Tessera strives to provide equal access to students, recognizing that some students need technological and other forms of support to be able to access the test. Accessibility is a universal concept that is not restricted to any one group of students.

ACT Tessera Accessibility and SupportsComputer-based supports are available within ACT Academy, and staff-based or general test condition supports are provided locally at your school’s discretion. Students should use supports they typically use during instruction or on classroom-based assessments.

A student’s use of supports on ACT Tessera is authorized by the student’s local educational agency. Authorization from ACT is not required. There will be no indication on a student’s report if they have used supports.

Available computer-based supports

y Closed captions for embedded videos

Staff-based supports

You can arrange the following supports as needed:

y Respond on separate paper (requires response transcription)

y Dictate responses

y Keyboard or augmentative or alternative communication devices (AAC) + local print (requires response transcription)

y Magnifying glass

y Cover overlay

General test condition supports

You can arrange these as needed according to the needs of your students and the resources available at your school:

y Supervised breaks

y Special seating, grouping, or physical or motor equipment

y Location for movement

y Individual administration

y Administration in home or other setting

y Special audio and/or visual environment

.

If you have any additional questions regarding accessibility

and supports for students, please contact ACT Customer

Care at 855.730.0400.

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GETTING READY: ROOM SETUPTesting LocationMost schools will administer the assessment to their students in the school’s computer lab, or in a classroom during regular class periods. ACT recommends that a testing room offer ample seating, good lighting, comfortable temperatures, a quiet atmosphere, and freedom from distraction.

Computer SetupIf computers can be moved, arrange them in such a way that students will not be able to see another student’s work. If they cannot be moved, take steps to seat students in such a way that they cannot see another student’s work. If available, place privacy guards on the sides of computer monitors to provide additional privacy.

TESSERA ADMINISTRATION: TEACHERSThe ability to administer Tessera in your classroom is enabled by the invitation sent to you from the Tessera administrator within the Ordering Portal. Once your administrator has invited you to administer Tessera, there are a few important steps you must complete.

Register on ACT AcademyAccept the invitation sent to you via email to register as a teacher on ACT Academy at https://academy.act.org. This is also where you will upload your class list and schedule the assessment. If you haven’t received this email yet, please check your email spam folder and then check back with your Tessera administrator.

Select the Teacher role before entering your email and desired password, making sure the email matches the email from the administrator invitation.

Select your school organization so that classroom assessment data is included in any school or district reports.

Learn more about ACT Academy by watching the welcome video and visiting the ACT Academy Help site at www.opened.com/help.

Create Your SEL ClassNext, create the unique class structure required to deliver Tessera to your students. At this point, you will have created your ACT Academy account and will be ready to customize the class. Customization includes selecting the grade level of the students taking the assessment in the classroom and choosing the subject. The Tessera assessment is available for students from grade 6 to grade 12. The class subject required to access Tessera is “Social and Emotional Learning - ACT Tessera.” You may also choose to customize the class name, although a default class name is given once the subject is selected.

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Add Students to the SEL Class RosterOnce the Social and Emotional Learning class is created in ACT Academy, students may be added to the class via the roster functionality in ACT Academy. After ensuring you are in the Social and Emotional Learning - ACT Tessera class, select the Roster tab at the top of the class page. There are several different ways in which you may add students to the Social and Emotional Learning class roster:

1. Provide students with the unique Class Code that will enable them to register themselves for the ACT Academy account and join the Social and Emotional Learning class automatically.

2. Upload a class list using a CSV file.

3. Import students with one click for Google Classoom or Canvas LMS rosters.

No matter the method you choose to create your class roster, each student in your roster will have an ACT Academy account, which is a requirement for taking the Tessera assessment and maintaining assessment data. In this way a teacher, school, or district can have multiple Tessera instances, multiple years of assessments, or multiple locations and still maintain individual student testing data.

Create Your Tessera AssignmentOnce the Social and Emotional Learning class roster is complete, the individual Tessera assessment must be assigned to that class (and to the students in that class roster). After ensuring you are in the Social and Emotional Learning - ACT Tessera class, select the Assignments tab at the top of the class page. First, name the assignment, then select Create.

To add the Tessera assessment to that assignment, select the Add Resources button (the button with the plus [+] symbol). Select the assessment appropriate for that class group and grade level (e.g., Tessera Middle School or Tessera High School). Be sure to add that assessment to the assignment by selecting the plus (+) symbol in the lower left corner of the assessment description block. Select the X in the upper-right corner to exit back to the Assignments page.

To complete the assignment setup:

1. Reserve the number of Tessera assessments needed for the students in your class. This number should be the same as, or similar to, the number of students listed on your class roster. Use the pencil icon to change the number, then select Save.

2. Enter a Due Date for the completion of students’ assessments. Select Change Date to access the calendar, select the end date on the calendar and the checkmark to save the date.

Your class setup is now complete. Your students may log in to ACT Academy and take the Tessera assessment.

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POST-ASSESSMENT ACTIVITIESAccess Your Reports

You will be able to download score reports, Excel (CSV format) roster reports, and the School Aggregate Report directly in the ACT Academy class containing the delivered assessment assignment under the Mastery tab.

Usually within 10 minutes after administration, you will be able to download score reports and an Excel roster report in the ACT Academy class where the assessment has been assigned to your students. For each student in your roster, you can download the short or the long version of their Individual Student Report by selecting their report link and selecting the format.

Student reports

Student reports are available as two-page or five-page PDF documents. The reports give each student a score from one to four stars for each of the five SEL areas. The longer reports include performance-level descriptors for each potential level, as well as links to ACT Academy resources to help students develop their SEL skills in areas identified for improvement.

Roster reports

Roster reports — available by group, test session, or school — are available as .xls or .csv files for uploading into your school’s student data system, if desired. These reports include students’ star scores (out of four) as well as their percentile scores. Scale scores for school climate are also provided.

y A personal profile report will be available for each student.

y Resources and strategies to address areas identified as requiring increased focus will be recommended at both the student and school levels.

Tessera HELPS YOUHELP YOUR students

Page 2 © 2018 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. Report Number: AC-201639292-1-99cc513e5df • April 14, 2018

Where you are today doesn’t have to be where you are tomorrow Social and emotional skills change over time, and improving these skills can

help you achieve your academic, professional, and personal goals. This report provides you

with your scores and some exercises that may help you learn more about each skill and improve.

The more you practice your Grit, Curiosity, etc., the stronger you become in those skills.

Improve Your Grit Other Words for Grit: Hard-working, organized, trustworthy, reliable, conscientious, and tenacious.

Improve Your Grit One way you can improve your grit is to maintain an awareness of why you want to achieve your goals. What would it mean to you and others if you achieved your goal? Think about the steps you must take to achieve your goal and then monitor progress to stay on track. Go to This Link To access videos and other

tools to help you improve your grit, go to www.act.org/grit-test.

Improve Your Teamwork Other Words for Teamwork: Helpful, supportive, empathetic, respectful,

collaborative, and agreeable. Improve Your Teamwork Considering other team members’ perspectives can enhance teamwork and cooperation. The next time you work with other team members, try to see things from their points of view. Go to This Link To access videos and other

tools to help you improve your teamwork, go to www.act.org/teamwork.

Improve Your Curiosity Other Words for Curiosity:

Interested, inquisitive, eager to learn, creative, inventive, and imaginative. Improve Your Curiosity Try to consider several ways

of solving a problem before you settle on a solution. Observe people you think are creative. How do they solve problems or come up with solutions?

Go to This Link To access videos and other tools to help you improve your curiosity, go to www.act.org/curiosity.

Improve Your Leadership Other Words for Leadership: Assertive, persuasive influential, optimistic, encouraging, and enthusiastic.

Improve Your Leadership Great leaders are often optimistic and enthusiastic.

They see that the “glass is half full” and are confident that the future will turn out well. Do your best to see the positive side of most situations.

Go to This Link To access videos and other tools to help you improve your leadership, go to www.act.org/leadership-

training.

Improve Your Resilience Other Words for Resilience:

Relaxed, calm, self-controlled, collected, not overly worried, and not overly stressed.

Improve Your Resilience Being grateful can help improve your composure. Being grateful means being thankful for the things you have. Try to spend a little time each day thinking about the things in your life for which you are grateful. Go to This Link To access videos and other

tools to help you improve your resilience, go to www.act.org/resilience.

ACT Tessera • Scores for Student Name

Page 3 © 2018 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. Report Number: AC-201639292-1-99cc513e5df • April 14, 2018

Curiosity Curiosity reflects the extent to which a student’s actions demonstrate creativity, inquisitiveness, flexibility, open mindedness, and embracing diversity. To access videos and other tools to help you improve your curiosity, go to www.act.org/curiosity.

Resilience Resilience reflects the extent to which a student’s actions demonstrate stress management, emotional regulation, a positive response to setbacks, and poise. To access videos and other tools to help you improve your resilience, go to www.act.org/resilience.

ACT Tessera • Scores for Student Name

Page 1 © 2018 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. Report Number: AC-201639292-1-99cc513e5df • April 14, 2018

Scores for Student Name

April 14, 2018

ACT Tessera measures five important social and emotional skills, described below. Stars

indicate your current level on each skill. Don’t worry too much if you get one star on any of

the skills. You can always improve with practice.

For detailed information on improving the five Tessera skills, and for explanation

of how star scores are related to percentiles, go to www.act.org/tessera

report.

Grit Grit reflects the extent to which a student’s actions

demonstrate persistence, goal striving, reliability,

dependability, and attention to detail at school.

Teamwork

Teamwork reflects the extent to which a student’s

actions demonstrate collaboration, empathy,

helpfulness, trust, and trustworthiness.

Curiosity Curiosity reflects the extent to which a student’s

actions demonstrate creativity, inquisitiveness,

flexibility, open mindedness, and embracing diversity.

Resilience

Resilience reflects the extent to which a student’s

actions demonstrate stress management, emotional

regulation, a positive response to setbacks, and poise.

Leadership

Leadership reflects the extent to which a student’s

actions demonstrate assertiveness, influence,

optimism, and enthusiasm.

At or below the 16th percentile. Approximately 84% of the national tested sample scored higher than students in this range.

Between the 17th and 50th percentiles (inclusive). Approximately 16% scored lower and 50% scored higher than students in this range.

Between the 51st and 84th percentiles (inclusive). Approximately 50% scored lower and 16% scored higher than students in this range.

At or above the 85th percentile. Approximately 84% scored lower than students in this range.

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School aggregate report

School aggregate reports are designed to provide a more detailed picture of your school as a whole. These reports provide your school’s performance compared to other ACT Tessera-tested schools, and average your school’s performance, in the form of percentiles, categorized by grade and by gender. A detailed view of your school’s climate, categorized by grade and gender, also is provided..

Understand Your Score ReportsTessera assessments help educators, parents, and students identify and reflect upon strengths and opportunities for improvement in a set of critically-important social and emotional skills related to success in school, college, careers, and life. ACT Tessera measures social and emotional skills in five areas: Grit, Teamwork, Resiliance, Curiosity, and Leadership. It also assesses school climate. The student reports provide insight into a student’s strengths and areas for improvement. School reports provide individual and group-level information on students’ social and emotional skills, as well as group-level information on school climate. More detailed information about understanding your Tessera Score Reports can be accessed at Using Your ACT Tessera Results.

Access Your PlaybookAfter students have taken the assessment and their Tessera scores are available, it is time to access The ACT Tessera Teacher Playbook, which provides activities and interventions for each of the Tessera skills.

When you are on your Social and Emotional Learning - ACT Tessera Class page, select the Assignments tab.

In the Assignments view, select the tab titled Lesson Plan.

In addition to sections that will help you get started, you will find sections for each of the ACT Tessera skills in the Playbook. Navigation of the Playbook is via the clickable table of contents.

Each of the skills has an associated lecture along with various activities and knowledge quizzes that can help reinforce those skills and help students improve. Additionally, helpful resources about each of the skills from ACT Academy’s resource library are woven throughout the sections of the Playbook for additional support.

The Tessera Playbook is available for any class that has Social and Emotional Learning – ACT Tessera as the subject and has the Tessera Middle School or Tessera High School assessment assigned to at least one student.

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ACT Terms

Policies and ProceduresThis manual provides direction in administering ACT Tessera, including specific instructions for conducting the assessments. It is important to follow these instructions to successfully measure students’ skills.

The following actions are prohibited:

y Photocopying, making an electronic copy, or keeping a personal copy of the test or of any test items

y Taking notes about or paraphrasing assessment items to aid in preparing students for the assessment

y Aiding or assisting a student with a response or answer

y Rephrasing assessment items for students

y Editing or changing student responses after completion of the assessment, with or without the student’s permission

Equal TreatmentAll staff are required to administer and supervise ACT Tessera in a nondiscriminatory manner.

Fair Testing PracticesACT and its affiliates endorse the Code of Fair Testing Practices in Education and the Code of Professional Responsibilities in Educational Measurement, which guide the conduct of those involved in educational testing. ACT and its affiliates are committed to ensuring that each of its testing programs upholds the guidelines in each Code.

ACT Tessera Data UseStudent scores and other information provided through the online testing system are governed by the ACT Academy Privacy Policy at https://about.opened.com/privacy.

© 2019 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. MA80001.CJ0052

Learn more about how ACT Tessera can help you accurately assess your students’ social and emotional learning (SEL) skills—and deliver the sound data critical to promoting continued growth and whole child develop-ment.

Call toll free 855.730.0400 Visit www.act.org/act-tessera