NC Check-Ins 2.0 Mathematics Grades 3–8 Specifications

NC Check-Ins 2.0

Mathematics Grades 3–8 Specifications

Purpose and Overview

The North Carolina Personalized Assessment Tool is a system of through-grade assessment opportunities aimed toward a balanced assessment system that will provide granular data for immediate feedback about students’ performance throughout the year. The system is currently being developed as a pilot study under the U.S. Department of Education’s Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority (IADA) and includes three interim resources (NC Check-Ins 2.0) and an end-of-grade assessment for mathematics and reading at grades 3–8. 

The current design purposes of the North Carolina Personalized Assessment Tool are to

• provide educators, students, and stakeholders with immediate and detailed feedback on student performance on grade-level-specific content standards so classroom instruction may be tailored to an individual student’s needs; 
• provide a reliable estimate to inform a student’s starting point on the end-of-grade assessment that will be used to determine an academic achievement level and to provide data for state and federal accountability; and
• provide a progress indicator for each interim on individual student performance in relation to overall grade-level performance expectation (if feasible).

Content Specification Development

The NCDPI Office of Accountability and Testing/Test Development Section used a combination of in-person and online surveys and webinars to gather feedback from educators across the state. 

The following outlines the development of content specifications for NC Check-Ins 2.0:

• To address the main purposes of NC Check-Ins 2.0, the content design was expanded to include at least three domains with a minimum of five standards. 
• North Carolina does not have a state-adopted pacing guide and curriculum organization is a local decision. Thus, the criteria for groupings of content standards were based on reviewing feedback gathered from participants.
• In January 2019, the NCDPI Office of Accountability and Testing/Test Development Section facilitated an in-person NC Check-Ins 2.0 specification workshop for grade 4. Teachers and educators, with the majority representing IADA pilot schools, recommended possible groupings of standards. Groupings for each grade 4 NC Check-In 2.0 were later summarized and are currently being used during this pilot phase (see Table 2). 
• In October of 2020, a series of surveys was used to gather input on recommended groupings for grade 7 from educators participating in the IADA pilot. Feedback was reviewed and groupings for each grade 7 NC Check-In 2.0 were summarized and are currently being used during this pilot phase (see Table 5).
• In the fall of 2021, statewide surveys were used to gather feedback to guide recommended groupings of grade-level content standards for NC Check-Ins 2.0. In December 2021, staff from the Test Development Section facilitated eight statewide webinars to present draft content specifications for grades 3, 5, 6, and 8.  At the conclusion of each webinar, a follow-up survey was shared with webinar participants to gather additional feedback. The NCDPI Office of Accountability and Testing/Test Development Section collaborated with mathematics content staff from the NCDPI Office of Academic Standards and Technical Outreach for Public Schools (TOPS) at North Carolina State University to review feedback and summarize groupings (see Tables 1, 3–4, 6).

Table 1. Content specifications NC Check-Ins 2.0 Mathematics Grade 3

Table 2. Content specifications NC Check-Ins 2.0 Mathematics Grade 4 

Table 3. Content specifications NC Check-Ins 2.0 Mathematics Grade 5 

Table 4. Content specifications NC Check-Ins 2.0 Mathematics Grade 6 

Table 5. Content specifications NC Check-Ins 2.0 Mathematics Grade 7 

Table 6. Content specifications NC Check-Ins 2.0 Mathematics Grade 8 

*Incorporating aspects of NC.8.NS.2

NC Check-Ins 2.0 Format

The NC Check-Ins 2.0 are online resources with twenty-five total questions each. Each of the three mathematics interims will include four-option multiple-choice questions, open-ended numeric response questions, and technology-enhanced questions. For all grade levels, the NC Check-Ins 2.0 will have calculator inactive and calculator active sections. 

Administration and Review

To accommodate local control of curriculum, the NCDPI will offer a flexible administration and review window for all interims that will open the third week of September to the end of May. PSUs may choose to administer interims in the order that best aligns with their curriculum. The NCDPI recommends one interim administration per quarter. 

Proctors are not recommended for the administration of interims. The interims are not timed; however, the estimated time for most students to complete a twenty-five-item interim is about ninety minutes. Schools have the option to administer the interims in one school day or over multiple school days. For multiple school days, the total administration time can be divided into mini sessions.

The interim item-review window for teachers will also be available from the third week of September to the end of May. Teachers may access interim forms after administration so they can conduct formative reviews with their students. The main purpose of these interims is to provide reliable formative data on grade-level-specific content standards so teachers may adjust instruction. Previewing or disclosing interim content to students before an administration may result in an invalid interpretation about student performance on grade-level-specific content standards.

Some schools may not have completed the entire scope for all standards assessed in a NC Check-In 2.0 before the administration.

NCPAT Pilot Timeline 

• For the 2023–24 school year, all NC schools may choose to participate in the NC Check-Ins 2.0 at grades 3–8 (mathematics and reading).
• Following a thorough review of Spring 2023 pilot administration data, the NCDPI will determine by September 29, 2023 if the NCPAT system will be implemented statewide for the 2023–24 school year at grades 4, 5, 7, and 8 (mathematics and reading).
• Students must complete at least two NC Check-Ins 2.0 by April 1, 2024, for their data to be used to determine an informative starting point on the end-of-grade assessment.