State board trainer outlines rules, scoring and data deadlines for PEAP preschool exit assessment

Theresa McIntyre, who oversees elementary arts assessments at the Utah State Board of Education, led a training session on administering the state’s PEAP preschool exit assessment, emphasizing scripted administration, scoring practices and the state data‑entry timeline.

The training, intended so “participants will understand how to administer the PEAP exit assessment,” reviewed the test’s purpose — to measure early learning aligned with early childhood standards using selected indicators predictive of later academic success — and practical details: the assessment is a one‑on‑one, untimed administration that typically takes about 10 to 15 minutes and must be entered into the state data gateway by June 15.

McIntyre stressed fidelity to the script. “It is important that the exact script is followed,” she said, explaining that text in bold in the manual is to be read verbatim to students while italicized lines are directions for the assessor. She said assessors should continue through each scripted prompt even when a student already gives a robust response so every student receives the same opportunity to respond for scoring consistency.

The session walked through item‑level scoring rules. Assessors were shown that the assessment contains scorable and observational components (explained during training as 14 scorable items and 7 observational items), and she demonstrated how common items are recorded: naming objects/actions in a picture (scored for quantity and storytelling quality), uppercase and lowercase recognition (with a discontinue rule that opens the full page for struggling students), writing the student’s name and letter formation, first‑sound tasks (with allowable prompts and a four‑consecutive‑miss discontinue rule), directionality checks (return sweep and left‑to‑right reading), rote counting and numeral recognition, one‑to‑one correspondence with manipulatives, quantity discrimination, and shape‑drawing tasks. Several items are interdependent — for example, cardinality and quantity‑to‑numeral scores depend on the student’s counted response — so McIntyre demonstrated examples to show how aligned and misaligned answers affect points.

She reviewed timing and prompting limits: assessors should generally pause up to three seconds for each prompt (longer only when an IEP explicitly provides extended time) and may accept brief self‑corrections if they occur within about three seconds and before the next prompt. For nonverbal or nonspeaking students, McIntyre said the system currently lacks a “not applicable” selection; assessors must enter those items as incorrect (score 0) and document in parent conversations that the item was not applicable, and she said a not‑applicable option is planned for the next year.

On accommodations, McIntyre directed assessors to pages 36–38 of the manual and said braille or large‑print materials are available from Tracy Gulley (contact information in the manual). She reiterated that scripted item wording must be delivered in English for the scores reported to the data gateway; non‑item directions may be translated into a student’s native language to ensure comprehension, but those native‑language responses would not be reported as PEAP scores.

McIntyre also explained data gateway procedures: assessors enter the PEAP via My Tools → administer PEAP, mark used accommodations, and submit scores; the system automatically computes totals based on the first incorrect response selection. Once a student score is submitted it cannot be changed without a state‑level unlock; McIntyre said she can unlock or delete a student score on request. For content questions she named Sydney McCarty as the state lead for assessment content and referenced Tracy Gulley for alternate assessments and accommodations; she also listed program contacts for administrative questions.

The training closed with an invitation to ask follow‑up questions via chat and a reminder of the June 15 deadline to enter scores into the data gateway.

Next steps: assessors were asked to finish reading the administration manual, schedule test sessions with parents or site administrators, gather the listed materials and follow the scripted directions when administering assessments to ensure consistent statewide reporting.