Office of Curriculum, Technology, & Assessment

Given the magnitude of testing going on across South Dakota with the DACS test, it is possible that a few technical issues may come up before or during the testing period. Our goal is to make the testing environment as positive as possible for the students. Please read the following scenarios and prepare accordingly or trouble shoot issues as they arise during the test. Following the Trouble Shooting Guide is a list of suggested tips to help DACS Coordinators.

Problem Scenario: Student is being shown an hour glass on their computer screen that continues to spin after a few minutes:

Possible problem with the server’s content filter not allowing the message to come back to the workstation: Solution: Ask your computer coordinator in your district to allow the web site (test.edperformance.com) to be exempt from the content filtering software used to block inappropriate internet sites.
Possible problem with a connection between the school’s server and the EdPerformance site. Solution: Have the student click the STOP button at the bottom of the screen, or if the stop button is not shown, log out of the system, then proceed to log back in. The computer will save any progress the student has made, but for some reason a disconnection has occurred and needs to be reestablished.
Possible problem with the IP address not connected to the server from that particular workstation. Solution: contact your technical support person for your school and have them check the connection or contact Scantron to check on the connection. (1-800-445-3141).

Problem Scenario: Test coordinator is having trouble getting a student logged onto the system:

Problem Scenario: The students are in the testing process, but the response time for questions is very slow:

Problem Scenario: Students are only receiving half of a screen for some questions:

Who to Contact for DACS Assistance:
For training or technical assistance please call SDDOE first.

Tips and Tricks offered by Scantron for administering the DACS Test

One suggestion schools have offered is to put the web site (step 1) under Bookmarks, or Favorites. This allows students to simply pull down on the menu and click the site since it is already entered. Then they are not required to type it into the address line each time they test.

Another suggestion is to create a shortcut directly to the web site on the desktop. To do this, open Internet Explorer and type in the URL of the site you wish to create a shortcut for. Once the page is open, click on FILE…SEND…SHORTCUT TO DESKTOP. This will put an icon on your desktop. When this icon is double-clicked, it will automatically open up Internet Explorer to the specific URL.

If the testing coordinator chooses to have students enter their own login data (versus setting up the login in advance) providing small note cards with the student data already printed can be helpful. It saves time and confusion, especially for the little ones.

Students’ data can be entered electronically, saving you from entering the information for each student by hand. For a small fee, Scantron can import existing student data from any student management system capable of exporting to comma-delimited with quotes format. If you would like to import information through Scantron, you must first create all locations at that site. Then, request an import specification sheet so that the necessary information will be sent to Scantron in the proper format.

If you decide to print reports, it is suggested that you print in black and white only. Each report is independent and needs to be copied/printed individually. If you want to print out a student list all in one report, you can highlight the list on each page, then copy and paste it into a word document.

To quickly locate a student’s information, type the student ID, the last name, or the first name in the Student Search at the school level. PERFORMANCE will immediately take you to that student’s individual profile.

At the top of each report, you’ll see “Group Filtering” and “Demographic Filtering.” Clicking on these links will take you directly to the appropriate filtering page without having to scroll to the bottom of the report.

Clicking on the Chalkboard in the upper left corner of the PERFORMANCE Admin Web Site will take you back to the HOME Admin Screen.

Always click “Log Out” before leaving the Administration site in order to maintain the security of the reports.

If you want to create reports that are not available on the PERFORMANCE site, or store your data in a separate management system, you can request an Export of your data. For a small fee, Scantron will export your data onto a CD-Rom and Fed Ex it directly to you. If you are interested in having your data exported, please contact Scantron.

If you are using the new "Internet Explorer version 6.0", we recommend changing a default setting in order to provide a better testing environment on PERFORMANCE:

This will shut off a small toolbar appearing above large test question images that allows the student to print or email the graphic.

You may have noticed in the PERFORMANCE Series that a student list (Student menu) changes back to the default column sort and the first page when you return to it from another page. This can make entering changes to a series of students difficult. A clever way around this is to print the list of students you want to change. Take the first student on the list, enter them into the student search box at the top of the page, and press Enter. PERFORMANCE will bring up the student's profile page and you can use the edit student menu item (on the right side of the screen) to edit the student. After you have saved your changes, simply enter the next student ID in the search box and so on. Since the student search box is available from any page, this makes a very convenient data entry tool.

There has to be a Location Controller attached to each site. However, multiple sites may “share” a Location Controller. Remember, if a person is going to be a LC for multiple sites, they will need multiple Staff IDs (each ID can only be used once). An ideal method for keeping the multiple IDs straight is to add the initials of the building at the end of the Staff ID normally used. If your Staff ID is jsmith at the district level, it would be jsmithse for Sunnyside Elementary. It is also recommended that you have two LCs at each site, so that tasks can be performed when necessary (what if your only LC is at a conference for a week?).

We put no limits on how many times you may give the PERFORMANCE assessment in a year’s time. However, good educational theory should allow for instruction between testing times to allow for growth. We suggest no more than three times per year, with two or three times providing optimal levels of accuracy in assessment.

Office of Curriculum, Technology, & Assessment

DACS Trouble Shooting Guide

Tips and Tricks offered by Scantron for administering the DACS Test