New York State testing will take place in April (ELA & Math) and May (Science grades 5 and 8). While the exams are still a few months away, we are already planning and preparing. Students will take their exams on their Chromebooks rather than paper. Any testing accommodations listed for your child will be appropriately administered. The CBT platform includes built-in accessibility features, and we will ensure that all student needs are addressed.

Our ELA (Grades 5–8), Math (Grades 5–8), and Science (Grades 5 & 8) teachers will provide students with multiple opportunities to practice using the testing platform. On January 28 (previously scheduled for Jan. 27), we will conduct a schoolwide CBT “simulation” to give students and staff a practice run of what testing days will look and feel like. This simulation is required by New York State to ensure that our technology and internal systems are ready.

Because this experience is new for our 5th-grade students:

• 5th graders must charge their Chromebooks on the evening of January 26 and bring them to their first-period class on January 27.
• Chromebooks will remain in their first period classroom all day and overnight in preparation for January 28.
• All other students should bring their Chromebooks fully charged on January 28.

The simulation will take approximately 40 minutes. Students with extended time will stop working and submit at the 40-minute mark. This is not a scored exam—it is a test run designed to help students and staff become familiar with CBT.

To learn more about CBT, please visit the NYS Education Department website. To see sample CBT questions, you may explore the NYS Question Sampler website.

Free SUNY Brockport is offering a FREE online literacy learning opportunity that seeks to strengthen and enrich the literacy lives of students in grades 5-12. Sessions are 45 minutes long on either Mondays or Wednesdays (and we are offering a few sessions on other evenings too), starting the week of February 9.  Students will work 1-on-1 with a certified teacher who is completing her final coursework for a master's degree in literacy education. Each teacher will create engaging online literacy learning experiences in reading and writing that are appropriate for her student and adhere to principes of effective literacy instruction learned throughout his/her coursework in the master’s literacy program at SUNY Brockport. All instruction will be overseen by myself, a SUNY Brockport Adjunct professor and public-school literacy specialist.

Click here - the Registration Form  

Click here - the FLYER  

The second marking period ends on Friday, January 30. Please continue to monitor your child’s grades and assignments in Schoology. If you have questions, please contact your child’s teacher(s) and/or school counselor. If your child reports that all work has been submitted but grades suggest otherwise, we encourage families to reach out to teachers for clarification.

• Don’t know how to sign in? Here is a video on how to log into Schoology.