Create an Iowa, CogAT, or Logramos Test Event

1. Click the Assessments heading, then select Test Events.

Assessments: Test Events submenu

The Test Events Overview page opens to the All Test Events table, which defaults to events that are currently open. Typically, your district will have 0-2 open test events at a time, one per assessment type, one season or quarter at a time.

IMPORTANT: Test events constitute the broadest grouping of test assessments, incorporating locations, grades/levels, batteries/domains, and students. Create one only per assessment type and testing period, and select the broadest possible participant group and roster. If you see an open event with the same assessment type as you are about to create, use that existing event rather than creating a new one for the same testing period.

Tip: Use an easily repeatable, recognizable naming convention, such as: test family/test season/test year (for example, "Iowa Assessments Fall 2020" or "CogAT Spring 2021"). The test event name must be unique.

4. In the TEST EVENT PARTICIPANT LIST, click Select Participants to display the location hierarchy. The list shows only those locations at or below your location level.

a. Click the down arrow to expand the hierarchy, the up arrow to collapse the hierarchy.

b. Select one or more locations for this test event. Typically, the location encompasses one district. If, however, you have only a subset of schools or classes participating in testing, select only those buildings or classrooms. Locations that are not selected will not be able to participate in the newly created test event or any related assignments or sessions.

5. In the TEST EVENT ASSESSMENT TYPE list, select the test family, either CogAT, Iowa Assessments, or Logramos.

Note: Your options may vary. If, for example, your district has purchased one or more Iowa Assessments Single Subject tests in addition to Iowa Assessments, CogAT, and Logramos, your options would appear as follows:

Test event assessment type selections

6. In the TEST EVENT ROSTER field, select a student roster to apply to the test event. Note the following regarding test events and rosters:

– Once the test event is created, you cannot change the roster used for this test event. However, students can be added or removed from the current roster. See Adding a Student to a Roster for instructions.

– See Building Rosters from OMR Scanning for information about building a roster with the optical mark recognition (OMR) option. This is a unique designation for OMR scanning when students and locations are not loaded into DataManager in advance of testing.

7. In the TEST EVENT DATE box, type or use the drop-down calendar to enter the date of testing. The date should occur midpoint between your start and end date, with a maximum window of 60 days.

More information...

Test administration dates for event- or referral-based testing

For event- or referral-based testing, your test event date should reflect the midpoint in your test administration window. If you administer tests from September 1 to September 30, then select September 15 as your test event date. You can begin testing up to 30 days prior to and 30 days after the test event date. During this time, you can administer tests to multiple schools within a school system and multiple grades within a school.

You can also select a test event date up to 60 days prior to the current date. This allows you to account for test administrations that have already occurred but have not yet been scanned and scored. Setting a test event in the past allows you to have your data scored using a midpoint date in the past. In these cases, the test event automatically expires 30 days from the date you enter the event into DataManager.

By default, test events that are not set in the past will automatically expire 30 days from your test event date so that the number of administrations you estimated at the time of placing your order can be reconciled against the number of students that were actually assessed. While not recommended, it is possible to extend the test event window beyond 30 days and reopen a closed test event, if needed. A common reason for reopening a test event is to process makeup sessions that occur after the majority of students are tested.

As a guideline, if you want the testing window to exceed five weeks, you should consider setting up monthly test events. This is also the case if your program generally fits the description of event-based testing but has an unusually long administration window. Keeping your test events limited in duration will ensure you are getting the most valid and reliable data possible in your score report.

If testing is completed in less than 30 days, which is often the case, it is also possible to close a test event prior to its 30-day expiration so that scores can be aggregated and reports produced.

If you are administering a two-part CogAT test, screening and post-screener, set up the post-screener immediately after you have set up and saved the screening, and ensure that the post-screener occurs within 30 days of the screening.

Test administration dates for benchmark testing

For IowaFlex, enter start and end test dates in two separate designated fields. The start date defaults to today's date, but you can select a date up to 60 days in the past. The end date defaults to 30 days from today's date. You can change the dates from the default values the first time you set up a test event. You can edit the test event end date one additional time after the initial setup, provided no students have begun testing yet.

9. Select a season or quartermonth for the NORMATIVE PERIOD. (Options are based on the test event date you entered.)

– Allow Calculator Use (Iowa Assessments and Logramos only) specifies whether a calculator will be available during online test administration.

– Allow Audio Test Administration specifies whether online testing with audio will be available during this test event. Audio for Iowa Assessments is in English, for Logramos in Spanish, and, for CogAT, in English, Spanish, or, if enabled during system administration setup, in one of six additional languages (see CogAT additional audio languages).

– Allow Draw Screen provides the creator of a test session the option of allowing students to doodle on a blank screen while they wait either for a test to begin or for other students to complete a test. If you select it, the test session creator can allow or prevent students access to a doodle page. If you select Do not allow Draw Screen, the test session creator does not see the option for a doodle page. In this case, students will see a static screen with their name on it and no drawing tools.

12. Click Save. A message confirms that the test event has been created, and the Create a New Test Event modal closes. The Test Events Overview page shows the newly created event in the All Test Events table.

Note: DataManager prevents you from accidentally creating multiple test events, which can cause problems with reporting, by checking for other open and/or closed test events in a specific normative period. See these guidelines for options on working with multiple test events within a given normative period.

Option	Action
Achievement Scores (Iowa Assessments only, ignore for CogAT)	In the ACHIEVEMENT SCORES list, select the achievement scores you want to be included on reports. Common scores such as National Percentile Ranks, Grade Equivalents, Stanines, and Scaled Scores are automatically provided with your order. Local and private school percentiles (PRIV) may also be available for scoring and reporting. The scores included in this list are optional, and no scores need be selected if you do not want them as a part of your testing program.
Ability Scores (CogAT only, ignore for Iowa Assessments)	In the ABILITY SCORES field, select the ability scores you want to be included on reports. A number of common ability scores are automatically provided with your order. The scores included in this list are optional.
Program Label Suppression	For SUPPRESS PROGRAM LABEL(S), select Yes if you do not want information about students' participation in sensitive district-wide or school-based programs to appear on class-level reports (for example, Free or Reduced-Price Lunch).

Create an Iowa, CogAT, or Logramos Test Event

To create an Iowa Assessments™, Cognitive Abilities Test™ (CogAT®), or Logramos® test event:

Test administration dates for event- or referral-based testing

Test administration dates for benchmark testing