NYSTCE ATAS Assessment Skills 4 â Questions and Answers
Question 1: A TA notices a student's behavior has changed significantly over two weeksâbecoming withdrawn and turning in incomplete work. The BEST first step is to:
- Discipline the student for incomplete work
- Document the behavioral changes and bring them to the teacher's attention (Correct answer)
- Contact the student's parents directly without informing the teacher
- Assume the student is going through a phase and wait it out
Correct answer: Document the behavioral changes and bring them to the teacher's attention
Documenting and reporting behavioral changes to the teacher ensures the instructional team can coordinate appropriate support and involves the necessary professionals.
Question 2: Which action BEST demonstrates a TA using assessment data to support student learning?
- Informing a student of their score without additional context
- Using a student's quiz errors to identify which concepts to reteach in a small group (Correct answer)
- Sharing a student's low scores with the class to motivate improvement
- Filing assessment results without reviewing them
Correct answer: Using a student's quiz errors to identify which concepts to reteach in a small group
Using error analysis from quizzes to target small-group reteaching is a direct application of assessment data to improve student outcomes.
Question 3: A student who is an English Language Learner scores low on a written vocabulary test. The TA should recognize that this result:
- Confirms the student has a learning disability
- May reflect language proficiency differences rather than a content knowledge gap (Correct answer)
- Shows the student is not trying hard enough
- Should be reported to special education immediately
Correct answer: May reflect language proficiency differences rather than a content knowledge gap
For ELL students, language proficiency can affect performance on written assessments, so results must be interpreted carefully in cultural and linguistic context.
Question 4: A TA is asked to keep a running record while a student reads aloud. In a running record, an omission means the student:
- Added a word that was not in the text
- Skipped a word that was in the text (Correct answer)
- Repeated a word or phrase
- Self-corrected an error
Correct answer: Skipped a word that was in the text
In running record notation, an omission occurs when a student skips over a printed word without reading it.
Question 5: Which of the following statements about rubrics is TRUE?
- Rubrics are only useful for grading artwork and writing
- Rubrics provide clear criteria and performance levels that guide both scoring and student understanding (Correct answer)
- Rubrics are developed after grading is complete
- Rubrics should be kept secret from students to prevent gaming the assessment
Correct answer: Rubrics provide clear criteria and performance levels that guide both scoring and student understanding
Rubrics articulate expectations in advance, helping students understand quality benchmarks and helping evaluators score consistently.
Question 6: A TA is recording interval data on a student's on-task behavior by observing every 5 minutes and noting whether the student is on-task at that exact moment. This method is called:
- Continuous recording
- Momentary time sampling (Correct answer)
- Duration recording
- Latency recording
Correct answer: Momentary time sampling
Momentary time sampling records whether a behavior is occurring at the precise moment of each interval rather than throughout the entire interval.
Question 7: When a teacher-made test consistently measures what it is supposed to measure, the test is said to have:
- Reliability
- Validity (Correct answer)
- Normativity
- Objectivity
Correct answer: Validity
Validity refers to whether an assessment actually measures the intended construct or skill.
NYSTCE ATAS Assessment Skills 4
A TA notices a student's behavior has changed significantly over two weeksâbecoming withdrawn and turning in incomplete work.
The BEST first step is to: