Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes SOAR – Term 1 This package includes an important letter containing the details for accessing SOAR. The letter has: the SOAR web address the school username the school password. This letter must be stored securely. The Handbook for Principals was sent to schools at the beginning of March.

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes 7-14 March - Government schools March - Catholic Education Schools March - Independent Schools SOAR – Term 1 Once these details have been confirmed, overprinting of test books can commence. In March, all NSW schools must access SOAR to confirm their school and student details, during the following periods.

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes If you are new to SOAR, please follow through the NEW USER presentation first. Government school access Non government school access Principal’s SOAR checklistherehere Term 1 tasks – new features in 2011herehere Term 1 tasks – overviewherehere To confirm students’ details for printing test books (personalised)herehere Quick links If you are very familiar with SOAR, try these quick links.

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes Term 1 Term 1 Tasks March School Management  Confirm or amend school details  Add the name and contact details of the NAPLAN coordinator and a second contact person, if required Student Management  Check the roll class groupings - Roll class determines the order of packaging of test books  Confirm student details - Check that the number of students is approximately correct and the students listed are in the right year April Student Management  Register new students who enrolled after the data extract  Delete students who have left the school SOAR Checklist

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes Term 2 Pre Test Week Tasks Early May Student Management  Register new students who enrolled after the data extract  Delete students who have left the school 9 May Assessment Roll  Print the assessment roll for each class and for each NAPLAN test  Ensure the supervising teachers for each test are aware of procedures for completing the assessment rolls SOAR Checklist

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes Term 2 Test Week Tasks May Assessment Roll  Distribute assessment rolls with the test materials  Teachers record student name and barcode for any spare book used  Collect rolls, confirm absences, exempt, withdraw, special provisions Student Management Before Check in, ensure you have deleted all students who have left your school, added any new enrolments and added visiting students. Check in  Step 1 - identify all absent, exempt or parent withdrawal students  Step 2 - identify barcodes for all students who used a spare book  Step 3 - identify all students who accessed special provisions  Step 4 - count all completed books and match the number in SOAR SOAR Checklist

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes Term 2 Post Test Week Tasks 13 May Check in  Step 1 - Update from ‘absent’ to ‘present’ for catch-up students Check out  Complete Check Out, keep a copy of the eParcel label for your records and attach return labels. Deliver through Australia Post. SOAR Checklist

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes New features for SOAR in 2011 include: The date of birth field has a drop-down menu, so the date format is clear (ddmmyyyy). More detailed information is supplied about the student registration number / ERN, particularly for non- government schools and for schools who encounter the message ‘duplicate SRN’. Schools can provide the name of a second contact person, if required. Visiting students will be in red font and easier to identify. SOAR 2011

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes In Term 1 principals or their delegates will use SOAR to: 1.update school details, including the name of the NAPLAN coordinator 2.access and check the approximate number of registered students 3.amend or delete the roll class groupings (the order in which test books will be packaged) 4.confirm the student cohort of data. Principals or their delegates may also: amend, add or delete students indicate students who are exempt from testing. SOAR - Term 1

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes To have the student details correctly printed on the NAPLAN test books: In School Management Step 1: add the name of the NAPLAN co-ordinator(s) Step 2: check school details - school name and address. EMSAD if the address is incorrect. Step 3: save the changes. School Management

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes In Student Management For example, if Year 10 are listed instead of Year 9, please send an to Step 5: check the students are in the correct year. Student Management Step 4: check that the number of students is approximately correct

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes Schools can make changes to roll classes by clicking * alphabetically by YEAR, or * in separate CLASS groups. For example, if Mathematics classes are to be used, the Mathematics class will replace the Roll Class. In Student Management Step 6: confirm whether test books are to be printed Student Management

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes Step 8: If schools have time, they may also check the students’ details and amend any errors before clicking Step 7: click on the button, which confirms that ALL the school and student details are correct and the test books can be overprinted (personalised) with the correct details. In Student Management This is the last slide if you are very familiar with SOAR - press ESC to finish Student Management

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes School Management School details This section allows you to check and confirm the school details. The first screen enables schools to: nominate a school NAPLAN contact person. add a second contact person if required. The second screen is for confirming school address details. The third screen is for saving the details.

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes. School contact details Please add name and phone of the NAPLAN coordinator here and a second contact person, if required. School details Click Next to go to the second screen.

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes School details School address details The school address details cannot be amended by schools. Please contact EMSAD if the details are incorrect. This Save button is a link only and will not save your school details. This text is greyed out because schools cannot change school address details. Click Next to go to the third screen and click Save.

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes Student details are available in the Student Management section. Student Management Using this section, you can: * change students’ details (name, gender, DOB, etc) * add newly enrolled students * delete students who have left the school * indicate class groups for printing. Student details

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes If a student’s details are incorrect (e.g. name spelled incorrectly or wrong gender), click on Edit and use the scroll bar on the right hand side of the screen to navigate down to the individual student’s details. Enter the correct details. Edit student details

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes Please note we are not able to print any special characters (á â ã ç ë ö etc) on student test papers or reports. SOAR will ignore some additional characters in students’ names: e.g. Mc or Mac (McClarke will become Mcclarke) Student Names Edit student details

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes Student ID Edit student details Each student ID must be 9 digits long. Non-government student IDs will be generated by EMSAD. If the student’s ID / ERN / registration number is not known, just type nine 0’s in a row and requesting that a new number is generated. Please provide the school name, student name, cohort. For the message “duplicate student”, type nine 0’s & .

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes The Delete option will remove a student completely from the list of students in Student Management. This should only be used for individual students who have left the school permanently. Delete student

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes Delete student If a deleted student returns before the tests, you can ‘restore’ them by selecting ‘Only show students with the status Deleted’ and clicking Restore for that student. Delete a student

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes Changing details Underneath the list of student details are the buttons: Add a Student, Visiting Students, Reject all Students, Delete all Roll Class Data, Update all Roll Classes and Confirm Student Data of Cohort. Changing details

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes Add a student allows you to enter the details of newly enrolled students who are not registered in SOAR. Again, the Add a Student section opens below the student list.

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes Add a student Note that the fields for have auto-complete or drop down menus. date country of birth main language and parent details

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes allows you to enter details of students who visit your school to complete NAPLAN tests but who are not enrolled in your school. Visiting students Visiting students may be from intrastate or interstate. The details you need to enter for Visiting Students are First name, Last name, Student ID, Gender, Date of birth, Student’s home state and Student’s home school (if the student is from NSW or ACT).

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes Visiting students Select ‘Other’ if school or state is not known. Once a visiting student has been added in Student Management they will appear in red font within the student list and the Visiting column will display Yes.

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes The restore option becomes visible only after you go to the drop-down menu Show students with the status and click Deleted. Reject students If Reject All Students is used mistakenly, there is a restore option available.

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes and are used to indicate how you want your test books sorted for delivery. 1 if no roll class data is entered, test books will be sorted alphabetically by Year group. 2if roll class data is present, test books will be sorted alphabetically within roll classes. 3if your school uses vertical roll classes, which would result in many packages of books with only a small number on them, you will see a message alerting you to this and asking you to change the data. Roll class

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes is used to access the Confirm Student Details of Cohort screen. The Confirm Student Details of Cohort screen is used to confirm that your school and student details are correct and the test books can be overprinted. Confirm student data

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes User Registration The User Registration screen will enable a sub-user (delegated staff member) to access SOAR. The screen shows the school user name (regional code and school code) followed by an underscore and text box. The sub-user must enter a new word, for example their first name, in this text box.

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes On the next line enter a new password. The password must be 7 characters long and contain at least one non- alphanumeric character (e.g #, *). Re-enter the password on the third line to confirm it. Click Add User to register the new sub-user. User Registration

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes Click Change Password to register the new password Update Password The Update Password screen allows schools to change the password which was sent to the school. On the first line type the allocated password in the text box. Then enter and confirm the new password. If the new password is mislaid, please and request a replacement.

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes Information about using SOAR in Term 2 will be distributed with test materials. SOAR - Term 2 Term 2

Educational Measurement and School Accountability Directorate Better informed, better positioned, better outcomes Resources All SOAR resources including manuals, Powerpoints and checklists are available online. Government schools blications.htm Non-government schools EMSAD contact details Phone: