KAP Test Security and Ethics Training

Required Training 2025-2026

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Kansas leads the world in the success of each student.

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Kansas leads the world in the success of each student.

• Test Security Overview
• DTC Responsibilities
• Maintaining Security
• Appropriate Testing Practices
• Physical Conditions in Testing Room
• Distribution of Materials
• Test Administration Procedures
• Accommodations
• Incident Reporting
• Monitoring Visits
• Test Security - Agreement to Abide by Guidelines & Sign Off

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Kansas leads the world in the success of each student.

Test Security Overview

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Purpose 

• All Kansas assessment programs must abide by test security and ethical testing practices.
• These programs include the following:
• Kansas Assessment summative tests in English Language Arts (ELA), Math, and Science.
• Kansas English Language Proficiency Assessment (KELPA).
• Career Pathways (cPass®) assessment.

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Assessment Overview

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

DTC Responsibilities

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

District Test Coordinator Responsibilities

Refer to KSDE Test Security Guidelines for a complete list of responsibilities.

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

DTC Training Responsibilities

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Dashboards

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Maintaining Security

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Kansas leads the world in the success of each student.

Administering Summative Assessments

• ALL district staff who administer a state assessment must complete Security and Ethics training and sign an agreement to follow test security and ethical testing practices.
• District and building personnel include administrators, educators, paraeducators, and other appointed staff members
• Parents or volunteers may not administer a state assessment.
• Paraeducators may not administer any part of the KELPA assessment, but may proctor while in the same room as a licensed educator.
• Written verification is needed for the protection of each teacher, proctor, and the district.

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Kansas leads the world in the success of each student.

Required Before Proctoring a Test

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Kansas leads the world in the success of each student.

Test Administrator Manuals

• Test Administrator Manuals are published for each assessment.
• Any staff member who administers or supports the administration of the state assessment must read the Test Administrator Manual (TAM) before administering the assessment. 
• The manuals include information on test security, test administration, accommodations, and scripts to be used when administering the assessments.
• All manuals can be accessed via the Kansas Assessment Program website

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Kansas leads the world in the success of each student.

Kite Educator Portal Accounts

• All staff administering assessments will need active accounts in Kite Educator Portal (EP).
• This includes
• DLM
• KELPA
• Test proctors do not need an account in EP to proctor a summative assessment.

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Kansas leads the world in the success of each student.

Daily Access Codes (DACs)

• Daily Access Codes are used by students to enter a KAP Summative Assessment.
• Codes only available to DTCs or BTCs.
• Establish and describe the system used for sharing DACs with staff. This plan should include the transmission of the information each day.
• DACs are now fully numeric.
• Turn to a neighbor and share with them your process for sharing DACs with staff administering assessments.

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Kansas leads the world in the success of each student.

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Kansas leads the world in the success of each student.

Appropriate Testing Practices

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Acceptable Practices

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Acceptable Practices

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Acceptable Practices

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Acceptable Practices

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Physical Conditions in the Testing Room

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Physical Conditions in Testing Room

• Remove or cover (with opaque material) bulletin board displays, charts and diagrams, and other instructional material that may give assistance or advantage during testing.

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Physical Conditions in Testing Room

• Monitor the testing environment actively by moving around the room; moving around the room encourages students to focus on their own work.

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• Testing environment should be quiet without background music.

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• Students should not have cell phones, smart watches, wireless (Bluetooth) headphones, or any technology devices other than device in which they are testing.

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Distribution of Materials

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Kansas leads the world in the success of each student.

Distribution of Materials

• Provide clean graph or blank paper.
• Students in grades 4-8 and 10 may have a clean math resource sheet. Math resources sheets are located at ksassessments.org
• Math resource sheets are also available to students in the Kite Student Portal.

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Kansas leads the world in the success of each student.

Math Manipulatives

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Kansas leads the world in the success of each student.

Test Administration Procedures

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Daily Access Code (DAC)

• Students must enter a Daily Access Code in Kite Student Portal to access their summative assessments.
• Code is found in EP
• Not directly available to teachers and proctors.
• DTC/BTC will provide the DAC each day.

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Kite Student Portal

• Students will test online in Kite Student Portal.
• Each student will need login information- username and password.
• Make sure students enter correct username and password.
• Usernames and passwords are the same for all KAP Assessments.

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Kite Student Portal

• Students will select TAKE A TEST to see assigned assessments.
• Any incomplete assessment assigned will show up for the students.
• This includes Interims and Instructional Mini Tests.

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Kite Student Portal

• In Kite Student Portal, the name of the student logged in to the test is displayed at the top of the screen during the assessment.
• Make sure the correct student is taking the test!
• A student who completes a test in the wrong account is a testing violation.

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Calculator Use: Math Summative

No calculators are allowed in grades 3, 4, or 5!

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Calculator Use: Math Summative

• Each test has two sessions for all grades
• Think: 2 sessions = 2 days
• Grades 6-8 and 10
• Each session may be divided into two sections by a soft break.
• Once students pass the soft break, they cannot return to the previous section.
• The soft break enables the online calculator.
• Grades 6-8: Basic four-function calculator or a scientific calculator (e.g. TI-30X).
• Grade 10: Basic four-function calculator or a graphing calculator (e.g. TI-85).

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Calculator Use: Math Summative

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Calculator Use: Math Summative

• Calculator apps or websites on phones or other devices are strictly prohibited.
• Handheld calculators must have the memory cleared before and after each testing session to maintain security.
• Monitoring is crucial to ensure students are using the tool during the appropriate test session.

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Calculator Use: Science Summative

• A calculator is available within the Kite Student Portal Toolbox to use on appropriate sessions of the assessment.
• Grade 5: Basic four-function calculator
• Grade 8 & 11: Scientific calculator
• Graphing calculators are not allowed for any grade.

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Review/End Screen

Blue dot indicates student has responded

Red box (empty) indicates student has not responded

Flags (red or blue) indicate student has flagged the item

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Unacceptable Testing Practices

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Unacceptable Practices

• Scenario: You find a question that does not look to be correct. You take a quick picture with your phone to send the photo to your BTC. Without realizing it, the photo is automatically saved to your cloud. Is this acceptable?
• Answer: NO!
• Do not store or save any items on computers or personal storage devices. Test items must never be shared via email or other file sharing or reproduced in any way.
• Do not use your cell phone to take pictures of the students or items.
• Do not use your cell phone while you are proctoring a test.

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Unacceptable Practices

• Scenario: As you are proctoring your classroom during the assessment, you notice a question that looks different than what you taught. You decide to go over the question with your class after they finish testing. Is this acceptable?
• Answer: No. Do not review tests or analyze items before, during, or after test administration.

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Unacceptable Practices

• Scenario: As your class is taking the Math assessment, you notice that the session they just completed did not cover coordinate planes. You change your lesson plans for Math the next day to review this concept. Why is this not acceptable?
• Answer: Do not conduct comprehensive reviews or drills the day of the test or between testing sessions. Once testing has begun, all reviewing should stop. Curriculum may be taught but not for review for the specific purposes of the assessment. 

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Unacceptable Practices

• Scenario: You have been working hard with your class on showing their work when they are solving any type of Math problem. To incentivize your students, you offer a piece of candy to each student who uses their scratch paper. Is this okay to do?
• Answer: No. Do not require students to show work or use scratch paper; scratch paper may not be graded and must be destroyed at the end of the test session.  

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Unacceptable Practices

• Scenario: As you are actively monitoring your class during the ELA assessment, you notice a student who has selected the wrong answer. You pause and ask them what their thought process was when selected their answer. Why is this unacceptable?
• Answer: Do not ask students how they arrived at an answer.

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Unacceptable Practices

• Scenario: Your class gets extra recess after they finish each session of their assessment. A student approaches you and asks if you can help them understand one of the questions on their assessment. Discuss what you might say to this student based on the unacceptable practice below.
• Do not discuss any specific test items with students or colleagues before, during, or after administration of the assessment.

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Unacceptable Practices

• Scenario: While practicing for the Science assessment, you happened to find questions that appear to be from Kite. You have hit the jackpot! Or did you?
• Answer: You did not. Do not use actual or altered items (e.g., clone, parallel) for practice or instruction.

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Unacceptable Practices

• Scenario: As you are actively monitoring your classroom, you notice that a student is working through a question on their assessment incorrectly. You pause next to them and give them a little head shake without saying anything. Upon noticing you there, they proceed to ask for help on the question they are struggling with. Have you violated ethical testing practices?
• Answer: Yes!

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Unacceptable Practices

• Do not say or do anything that would let a student know whether a response is correct or incorrect.
• Do not coach or cue students in any way during test administration, including using gestures or facial expressions.
• Do not respond to questions during testing that would help students understand an item, help them respond to an item, or advise or encourage them to change a response. 

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Unacceptable Practices

• Do not tell students to redo a specific item or to review any specific part of the assessment after testing has begun.
• Do not go back and review each item individually with a student; simply direct students to answer items that did not have a blue dot to indicate that the item was answered.

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Accommodations

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Kansas leads the world in the success of each student.

KAP Accommodations

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Kansas leads the world in the success of each student.

Personal Needs Profile (PNP)

• Students may receive accommodations during testing. The accommodations must be part of the student’s routine and are typically part of an IEP or 504 plan. Accommodations must be entered in Educator Portal.  
• Establish procedures for recording student-accommodation information into the PNP in Educator Portal.
• Keep records of documentation for text-to-speech accommodations and other accommodations used on the assessment that have not been a regular part of instruction; documentation must be kept at the district and building levels.

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Kansas leads the world in the success of each student.

Personal Needs Profile (PNP)

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Kansas leads the world in the success of each student.

Human Reader

• A human (in person) reader is not allowed on Kansas assessments. Students must use the synthetic voice in Kite Student Portal.
• An occasional word in an item or a stem may be pronounced for students but reading any words in a passage is not allowed.

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Kansas leads the world in the success of each student.

PNP Planning Tool

• PNP Planning Tool for the KAP

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Kansas leads the world in the success of each student.

Incident Reporting

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

What is PII?

Personally identifiable information (PII) is any data that may potentially identify a specific individual. Any information that can be used to distinguish one person from another and can be used for de-anonymizing anonymous data is PII. 

• PII must not be conveyed when reporting testing issues. 
• Include only the Student State ID number in an email—no other identifying details.

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

When Contacting the Service Desk

• do not send any PII for a student via email. Doing so is a federal violation of the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). PII includes such information as a student’s name, building name, or district name. 

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• do send student ID number, identify the test the student is taking (ELA, math, science, interim, instructional mini-test), and state the error or concern you are reporting.

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Reactivations

• In rare instances, some students may not be able to complete a test session. 
• If this happens, ONLY the DTC or BTC may reactivate the student test.
• Share your district procedures for reactivation with your staff.

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Reactivations

• Turn and talk with a neighbor about a reason you may need to reactivate a student assessment.

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• Don't forget to have students use the SAVE button in Kite Student Portal if they must leave during an assessment.

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Reporting Testing Discrepancies and Potential Security Violations to KSDE

It is the responsibility of the superintendent or their designee, on behalf of all school principals, to report in writing all discrepancies in test-material delivery, administration, and collection, as well as issues and concerns regarding potential violations of KSDE’s test security procedures, to Chelsea Pelfrey, KSDE Assessment Coordinator at 785-296-0040.

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

• In consultation with staff from KSDE, appropriate consequences will be put in place at the district level upon breach of security.  
• Because each case is unique, a variety of actions could take place but are not limited to the following:
• No action taken—discussion with KSDE indicated the breach was not severe enough to warrant any action.
• KSDE action—Written letter or phone call to superintendent and DTC stating concerns and processing of action steps.
• Retesting of students.
• Removal of test proctors from testing rooms.
• KSDE monitor visit will perform a follow-up the next testing year to verify that changes to inappropriate practices have been made.

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Reporting Testing Discrepancies and Potential Security Violations to KSDE

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

How to report 

• Access the KSDE Testing Violation Report found in the Help tab of Kite Educator Portal.
• Form only available to DTCs and BTCs.

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Monitoring Visits

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Monitor Visits

• Why?
• To monitor test security
• Who monitors?
• KSDE staff and members of the Kansas Assessment Advisory Council
• How often?
• annually
• Who gets monitored?
• 5%–10% of Kansas schools
• All BOE regions
• Large school districts
• Small school districts

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Monitor Visits

• Two methods
• Voluntary
• Unannounced
• Random sample collection includes consideration of board member districts, district size, rural or urban, previous violations, and previous monitor visits.
• Monitor assigned to district
• DTC contacted and informed about potential visit
• Testing schedule shared with monitor
• Exact monitor date not shared with district  

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Kansas State Test Security Guidelines

Kansas State Department of Education Test Security Guidelines

• Checklist for monitoring visits included in Appendix

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Agreement to Abide by Test Security Guidelines & Sign Off

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Kansas leads the world in the success of each student.

Kansas State Test Security and Ethics:�Quick Check

• The DTC is responsible for training all staff and keeping documentation of training along with the signed agreements to abide by ethics and test security policies and practices.

    True

• If a proctor notices a student didn’t answer a question correctly, it is okay to tell them to have the student check their work. 

    False. You may not tell students to redo or review a specific item.

• Scratch paper can be collected and used for a classroom grade.

    False. Scratch paper should be destroyed immediately following the testing     session.

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Kansas leads the world in the success of each student.

Kansas State Test Security and Ethics:�Quick Check

• A monitor visit allows KSDE to see the good things that schools are doing to ensure that test security and ethical practices are maintained.

   True

• When reporting an item issue on the test, it is okay to take a picture of the item and send it to KSDE. 

   False. Report only the student ID, test being taken, session number, item     number, and the issue with the item.

• During administration of the mathematics assessment, students may use handheld calculators in grades 3-5.

   False. Only grades 6-8 & 10 in the second sections.

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Kansas leads the world in the success of each student.

Kansas State Test Security and Ethics:�Quick Check

• To maintain security, test coordinators must actively monitor testing sessions throughout the building or district.

   True

• Parents may help administer the state assessment.

   False. Parents may not administer the assessment. 

• Accommodations on the state assessment must be part of regular classroom practice.

   True

• It is acceptable for a test proctor to read the assessment from the screen to a student. 

   False. A human reader is not allowed.  

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Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Kansas leads the world in the success of each student.

Thank you for being here!

Be sure to fill out the form found at this link BEFORE you leave.

Kansas State Department of Education | www.ksde.gov

Kansas leads the world in the success of each student.

Chelsea Pelfrey�Assessment Coordinator�Career, Standards, and Assessment Services�(785) 296-0040�chelsea.pelfrey@ksde.gov

Julie Ewing�Assistant Director�Career, Standards, and Assessment Services�(785) 296-2325�julie.ewing@ksde.gov

The Kansas State Department of Education does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability or age in its programs and activities and provides equal access to the Boy Scouts and other designated youth groups. The following person has been designated to handle inquiries regarding the nondiscrimination policies: KSDE General Counsel, Office of General Counsel, KSDE, Landon State Office Building, 900 S.W. Jackson, Suite 102, Topeka, KS 66612, (785) 296-3201.