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Click on the question that best suits your needs.
- What is the CAL software?
- Who do we contact if we have problems?
Student Tutorial & Practice Test Questions:
- How do I access the Student Tutorials and Practice Tests?
- Is it necessary that I use both the Student Tutorials and Practice Tests?
- Will I get a score on the Practice Tests?
- Do I need to have a Test Session Ticket for the Practice Tests?
- Are there Spanish Practice Tests?
- What do I need to access the Student Tutorials?
- Why are the Student Tutorials not working?
- Is there an audio version of the Student Tutorials?
- Is there an audio version of the Practice Tests?
- How do I use Full Screen Mode?
CAL User Questions
- How do I prepare students to take the ISAT?
- How do I enroll my students to take the ISAT?
- Is there an audio version of the ISAT?
- Do I need to do anything if a student leaves my district?
- Why is it taking so long for my student to log into the CAL test delivery engine?
- Why am I getting error messages when my students try to login to the CAL test delivery engine?
- Why am I experiencing visual display problems with the test?
- What happens when Internet interruptions or any other system failure occurs and students are forced out of the test?
Answers
- What is the CAL software?
- CAL is the software required to participate in the Idaho Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) program. CAL is a java application that needs to be installed on each of the computers to be used for computerized testing in your school.
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- Who do we contact if we have problems?
Student Tutorial & Practice Test Questions:
- How do I access the Student Tutorials and Practice Tests?
- The Student Tutorials may be accessed by clicking on “Tutorials”, then “Student Tutorials” from the ISAT Home Page.
To access the Practice Tests, you must download the CAL software on any computer that will be used to take the ISAT test. You can download the software by clicking on “Downloads” from the ISAT Home Page. Once you download and install the CAL software, you can run the application and access the Practice Tests by clicking the “Practice Using the ISAT Software” link. You can also access the Student Tutorials by clicking on the "View the ISAT Tutorial" link.
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- Is it necessary that I use both the Student Tutorials and Practice Tests?
- All students and teachers must review the Student Tutorials and Practice
Tests to help learn how to take a test with the CAL tools and software.
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- Will I get a score on the Practice Tests?
- No, the Practice Tests should only be used to learn how to use the CAL tools and software.
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- Do I need to have a Test Session Ticket for the Practice Tests?
- No, you only need the CAL software and Internet connectivity. The Practice Tests use a generic login that can be used as often as needed to practice.
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- Are there Spanish Practice Tests?
- What do I need to access the Student Tutorials?
- You will need to have Internet connectivity and Flash version 7r63 or higher.
We recommend the most current version of Flash for best performance.
If you need to update your version of Flash, visit the Flash Player
Download Center.
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- Why are the Student Tutorials not working?
- Lack of Internet connectivity and/or having an old version of the Flash player
installed on your computer could be reasons your tutorials
are not working properly. If you need help installing or upgrading your Flash
Player, you can visit the Flash Player
Download Center
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- Is there an audio version of the Student Tutorials?
- Yes. When you run the Student Tutorials you will be given an option to run the tutorial with or without audio.
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- Is there an audio version of the Practice Tests?
- Yes, there is speak functionality on the Practice Tests for Mathematics and Science. Only students who require an audio accommodation in Mathematics or Science should use the speak functionality on the Practice Tests.
- The following requirements must be met for the speak functionality to be present on the Mathematics and Science Practice Tests:
- A working sound card must be present.
- The required SAPI components must be installed. Windows 98 users will need to install Microsoft SAPI 5.1 Redistributable.
- The Cepstral David voice must be installed. Instructions for downloading the Cepstral David voice are located on the Downloads page.
- The Speech Feature must be enabled as part of the CAL Preferences.
- Contact your Technology Coordinator if you need help preparing your computers for use with an audio accommodation.
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How do I use Full Screen
Mode?
- For computers with a screen resolution of 800x600 pixels,
or for browsers with several add-on toolbars, your browser's
Full Screen mode will provide the largest possible area for
viewing the Student Tutorials.
PC: Internet Explorer, Opera,
Firefox
- Press F11 to enter Full Screen
- To exit, click outside of the tutorial, then press F11:
- Select View > Full screen from the Opera menu.
- To exit, control-click outside of the tutorial. The
browser menu will have an option to leave full screen
mode:
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CAL User Questions:
- How do I prepare students to take the ISAT?
- There are many tools available to help properly prepare students to test with CAL test
delivery engine. A good guide to using these tools is listed in recommended
order.
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- Review the Test Administration Manual which can be downloaded from the Testing Main Page when logged into the Management Tools.
- Observe and interact with the tutorial (students and teachers) for your subject
(mathematics, reading, language use, and science).
- Complete a Practice Tests for your grade and subject (students and teachers) to practice using the testing software.
- Review as necessary.
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- How do I enroll my students to take the ISAT?
- Please read the ISAT Test Administration Manual available on the Testing Main Page when logged into the Management Tools for a detailed description of the student enrollment process. Districts are responsible for adding/updating all student demographic information via the Management Tools. These additions/updates can be made by working directly in Student Editor or by uploading a new Student Enrollment File (SEF). Once the student information is in the Student Editor, students are eligible to participate in the ISAT.
- CAL utilizes a "Test Session Ticket" system that allows students to login
to take a test. School administrators use the Management Tools to print Test Session Tickets that need to be handed out to students
before the test session begins.
- Students will be assigned a unique Test Session Ticket (username, password and
session id) for each test they are to take. This ticket is valid for one
login and once a student uses it, he/she will not be able to login again
(unless an administrator "reactivates" the ticket to allow a student to login again).
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- Is there an audio version of the ISAT?
- Yes, there is speak functionality on the ISAT for Mathematics and Science. To use this feature, an audio accommodation must be available for the test the student is enrolled to take, and the student must be marked for an audio accommodation in the Student Editor via the Management Tools.
- The following technical requirements must also be met for the speak functionality to be present on the Mathematics and Science tests:
- A working sound card must be present.
- The required SAPI components must be installed. Windows 98 users will need to install Microsoft SAPI 5.1 Redistributable.
- The Cepstral David voice must be installed. Instructions for downloading the Cepstral David voice are located on the Downloads page.
- The Speech Feature must be enabled as part of the CAL Preferences.
- Contact your Technology Coordinator if you need help preparing your computers for use with an audio accommodation.
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- Do I need to do anything if a student leaves my district?
- You will need to code those students as “Exited” in the Student Editor for each subject and destroy the Test Session Tickets for those students.
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- Why is it taking so long for my student to log into the CAL test delivery engine?
- This situation is not unusual if local bandwidth is limited.
- When a student logs in, the entire test is downloaded to the local computer.
Some of the tests are relatively large (due to the many illustrations
and charts) and it will take longer to download. To decrease
the amount of time to login, stagger your students by a few seconds (i.e., have
10 students login, then direct another 10 students to login after 20 seconds,
etc.). This will help speed things along. Once students start taking the
test, they should not experience further delays.
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- Why am I getting error messages when my students try to log in to the CAL test delivery engine?
- "Unable to connect to the central server. Please check your Internet connection. Contact your teacher or test administrator."
- "Your internet connection has been lost. Contact your teacher or test administrator to reactivate your password for this part of the test."
- "A system error has occurred. Contact your teacher or test administrator."
- "A system error has occurred. Contact your teacher or test administrator to reactivate your password for this part of the test."
- There could be multiple reasons for these errors to occur; the primary
one being the loss of Internet connectivity. To test your Internet connectivity,
try to access a site such as Google. If your connection is good,
try to access a Practice Test. If you have the same results, contact
your Technology Coordinator to assist in determining if your CAL software is installed
properly. Contact us if you continue to have problems logging into the CAL test delivery engine.
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- Why am I experiencing visual display problems with the test?
- Some text seems to be cut off.
- Text seems to be missing.
- The text seems to run off the screen (word wrap).
- The tools or the screen seems to blur.
- Words appear joined (e.g., "appearjoined").
- One or more of the tools do not work or stop working.
- The computer will not take an answer when selected.
- This issue has been observed with some old Windows 98 platforms and some older Macs. This problem is most likely related to old video cards and/or not enough memory in the computer. If you see this problem, have your student log off the test, reboot the machine, reactivate the student login, and have your student log back into the test. If this is not successful, have your student log off the test and increase the color resolution on your monitor before continuing. These actions usually correct these particular problems.
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- What happens when Internet interruptions or any other system failure occurs and students are forced out of the test?
- Once a student is "out of the system" (either by accident, loss of Internet connection, or exited unknowingly), the student will have 90 minutes to log back into the same test session without having to have his/her test reactivated. Past 90 minutes, you will need to have his/her test reactivated. Once reactivated, the student can log back into the test and continue where he/she left off.
- Check the ISAT Test Administration Manual available on the Testing Main Page when logged into the Management Tools
for details on the reactivation process.
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