Parents and educators will no longer have to wait for months and months to learn state test results for their third-graders through eighth-graders.
For the first time, the Oklahoma State Department of Education has negotiated with its test contractor for preliminary results of the Oklahoma School Testing Program to be made available by the end of May. The move will give parents access to their children’s scores before summer break and teachers much earlier access to results for their current and next academic year students.
“Part of the reason for the quick turnaround is we were able to negotiate the return of preliminary results much earlier to meet concerns. It was part of a negotiation,” Steffie Corcoran, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Education said, in response to Tulsa World questions. “The thing that helped make that doable is we went to online testing for more grades.”
To access their child’s results, parents and guardians will have the student’s unique 10-digit State Testing Number, which is available from their school or on previous state testing reports for parents.
Individual scores will be posted as soon as they become available on the state testing Student/Family Portal. The portal, at okparentportal.emetric.net, also contains state test results for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 academic years.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister said the state agency worked to ensure the earlier results after hearing from educators and families.
“These timely results will give educators and families academic momentum for their child’s next grade,” Hofmeister said in a written statement. “Moreover, this information can help equip families to combat the dreaded summer learning ‘slide’ that often forces educators to review copious amounts of material once school starts in August.”
The state administers math and English language arts tests for grades 3-8 and science for grades 5 and 8. As high school juniors, students also take the SAT or ACT through their local school, plus a U.S. history test, but those results for high-schoolers will not be available any sooner.
