How are things going?

We'd like to know. If you are having problems, let us know. If you do have a problem, be sure you give us all of the information you can. Give us the username/password of the student who is having problems. If it's you with a problem, send your username/password. We'll be able to help you better. If it's with a specific test or class, give us the name of the assessment or class. We'll get back to you sooner if you give us the full picture.

If you are finding success, and things work beautifully, we'd love to hear that kind of information too. We'd like to opportunity to share your success stories and great ideas with other Skills Iowa teachers.

Let us know!

October 2nd ends the 1st benchmark window.

If you have not yet administered the first math and reading benchmark assessments, your time is running short. Both of these initial benchmarks end at midnight on October 2nd.

You will not have another opportunity to give another math benchmark assessment until January 4th, but you will get a monthly reading assessment. If you have to choose which one you will not do if you run short on time, taking the math assessment is probably more critical.

You will want to allow enough time to complete the math assessment. It has 30 questions, so it will take somewhere around an entire class period or more to take.

Of course, you will be able to create your own math, language arts and reading assessments to give at any time. The benefit of the benchmark assessments to you and your students is the comparison to other Skills Iowa schools who have taken these assessments.

Remember to turn off your pop-up blockers for these assessments to load.

Is your benchmark assessment working correctly?

If your students are loading the correct number for a benchmark assessment and the assessment is not coming up, one of a few things might be happening.

Number 1: There is a pop-up blocker in place on your computer. There might be two if you have a Google toolbar on that computer. You must turn off all pop-up blockers.

Number 2: Your school may be blocking our site from pop-ups even though things worked last year. We have a new address (ac.corek12.com). You may need to have your technology person change the settings to allow this new address.

Number 3: The student not getting in to the assessment may not be in a class. If the student has been recently created and not yet enrolled in an Assessment Center class, that student will not be considered a valid recipient for that assessment.

Number 4: The student may have already completed the assessment. Once the assessment has been taken, the student cannot retake it.

Number 5: The time period of availability for this assessment may not have arrived, or it may have already passed.

If you are having problems that do not fit one of these situations, please contact your project leader for help.

The Benchmark Tests are Live!

If you haven't yet noticed, you have at least one assessment in your class that you did not create or assign. This is the benchmark test in math or reading (ELA). Your students will need to use the test code protection which has been provided to your principal and possibly a lead teacher in your building. You can also see the test code listed with the assessment when you view the assessment in your list of assessments. Check out the information about the benchmarks on: www.skillsiowa.org

One thing you must be certain to do for the benchmark to work is to have the pop-up blockers on student computers turned off. With a test code, these tests become pop-ups and they will be blocked if the pop-up blocker is on. If you need help with this, contact your school's technology leader or contact your project leader.

The benchmark data is a great way to see how your students are doing.