Released Items & Practice Tests

WIDA has made Practice Tests and other student supports available on their page for both online and paper testing at https://wida.wisc.edu/assess/access/preparing-students/practice.

​Using DLM Released Testlets and Practice Testlets

Released Testlets and Practice Activities are available in two ways:

1. PDF documents can be downloaded at https://dynamiclearningmaps.org/about/tests/releasedtestlets. There are testlets available for elementary, middle, and high school grades in English language arts, mathematics, and science.  Kite Student Portal is not needed in order to use the released testlets.
2. Through the Kite Student Portal: To access the released testlets and practice activities, follow these two steps:
   1. Install the Kite Student Portal on the testing device (or devices). Contact your district or school technology coordinator for assistance. The technology specifications and device options can be found here: https://dynamiclearningmaps.org/requirements. NOTE: This is a new version of Kite Student Portal. The old version should be removed and the new version should be installed on all testing devices prior to testing or using the released or practice testlets.
   2. Download and read Instructions for logging in. These documents provide instructions and login information for accessing the practice testlets for DLM. You can use these practice testlets with your students at any time.
      • ELA and Mathematics (pdf)
      • Science (pdf)

NAEP Questions Tool

The NAEP Questions Tool (NQT) is a database of over 3,000 released questions from past NAEP assessments in all subject areas. Users can search for questions by grade level, difficulty, and item type. The tool also provides sample student responses, scoring guides, and performance data for individual questions.

NAEP Item Maps

NAEP Item Maps illustrate the knowledge and skills demonstrated by students performing at different NAEP performance levels. The Item Maps answer the question, “What does it mean for students to be at Basic, Proficient, or Advanced in terms of what they know and can do?”

The Rhode Island NGSA Portal site has a number of resources to support test preparation for both test administrators and for students.

• The Training Test for Test Administrators and its test administrator resources help test administrators become familiar with how the test functions on its platform.
• The Practice Test for Students and Guests provides students and others the opportunity to get familiar with the item types and interactions that students will encounter when they take the online RI NGSA. Though students can score themselves on this practice test, it only includes a small subset of performance expectations that may or may not be found on the actual RI NGSA, and is not a predictor of success on the actual RI NGSA.

Tools that educators can use include calculator tools and an item type tutorial.

• Calculator for Grade 5 (Basic): This is a basic calculator that is available as a tool for the Grade 5 RI NGSA.
• Calculator for Grade 8 (Scientific): This is a scientific calculator that is available as a tool for the Grade 8 RI NGSA.
• Calculator for Grade 11 (Scientific/Graphing, Regression): This is a scientific calculator with graphing and regression capabilities that is available as a tool for the Grade 11 RI NGSA.
• Item Type Tutorials: This page has tutorials on item types that may appear on the online tests. Students and families can prepare for the tests by becoming familiar with the item types and how to answer them.

Practice Resources

SAT Practice at Khan Academy offers College Board-approved practice activities for students preparing for the PSAT and SAT.

There are separate paper-based and computer-based released item documents. Most Rhode Island students took the computer-based RICAS tests. Generally, only students with an IEP or 504 plan requiring a paper-based test took paper-based assessments.

• 2021 ELA RICAS Item Information (Excel)
• 2021  Mathematics RICAS Item Information (Excel)

Computer-Based RICAS Released Items

• The RICAS Digital Item Library (linked on the RICAS Resource Center) provides access to released items from the computer-based RICAS tests. The library offers easy-to-use tools for sorting items by standards or other criteria. Items in the library are displayed in TestNav 8, the testing platform for the computer-based tests, allowing users to interact with the items exactly as student test-takers do. To get started, choose a Subject and Grade. Or click on Help for more information on how to use the library.
• Released items from the computer-based version of the test are available online at the Pearson RICAS Resource Center. The computer-based released items are collected in a mini test called an ePAT (electronic practice assessment tool). Items in the ePAT are displayed in TestNav 8, the testing platform for the computer-based tests. Once you click into a subject and grade in the Resource Center, you will see a link to the released items (the ePAT) and the Released Item Answer Key/Scoring Rubric document. This document maps the items in two tables. The first table maps the released items to the student reports/district and school files and the second maps the non-released items to the student report/district and school files.

Paper-Based RICAS Released Items

Please note that as the RICAS assessment was created by Massachusetts, some links within documents will take users to the Massachusetts Department of Education website. The RICAS 2018 Introduction to Released Item Documents provides information about how to use RICAS student item score information with released item documents for paper-based assessments.

The items are organized by grade and content-specific documents in the table below. Within each released item document, two tables map the released items to the student item data in the student report and district and school files. The first maps the released items to the student reports/district and school files and the second maps the non-released items to the student report/district and school files.

ELA Released Items

Items are organized by grade and then by year.

Mathematics Released Items

Items are organized by grade and then by year.