The CAPIT Placement Test
The Placement Test
Before new students begin learning with CAPIT, they must take the Placement Test to demonstrate mastery of critical foundational reading skills. Students are then placed in the program at a customized skill level.
The Placement Test is launched automatically when a student first enters the program, but teachers can relaunch the test at any time if they believe a student can skip lessons they already know. See below for instructions on relaunching the test.
Students begin the Placement Test by clicking on the Test icon.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
DURATION: The Placement Test can take a few seconds, an hour, or even a week—depending on your student’s knowledge and skill level. Students should work on the Placement Test for no longer than 20-25 minutes in a sitting.
SECRET CODE: Make sure your students don’t have your secret code, as this will allow them to launch and relaunch the Placement Test. If you believe that your students know your code, be sure to change it.
The Placement Test Journey
This is the CAPIT Placement test. Notice that it is comprised of 11 tests/skills (Fig. 2).
Test 1 checks for knowledge of letter sounds. Students who demonstrate they know the letters and their sounds will skip CAPIT Level 1 and begin learning at a later point in CAPIT. Please be aware that we give first-time students three chances to pass Test 1. After the third failed attempt, CAPIT will place the student in Level 1. This is perfectly normal for first-time students.
DO THIS BEFORE YOUR STUDENTS TAKE THE PLACEMENT TEST
Prepare your students for the Placement Test by opening the Test in your Teacher Profile (Fig. 3).
Click on the Test (Fig. 4).
Demonstrate Test 1 (Fig. 6).
Test 1, Matching Sounds with Letters
Test 1 in the CAPIT Placement Test checks if students know the sounds corresponding to the Lowercase and Uppercase letters (Fig. 7). Show your students how you listen to a sound, and then match it with a letter.
Students who pass Test 1 will automatically skip Level 1 of CAPIT.
Demonstrate Test 2
Now click on Test 2 (Fig. 8).
Test 2, Spelling Test
Test 2 in the CAPIT Placement Test checks if students can read and spell CVC words (Fig. 9). Show your students how you listen to a word, and then drag the correct letter-tiles into the right holes.
Now your students know how to take the test.
The Exit Warning
After students complete a few tests, they can stop and pick up where they left off on the following day. But if a student stops in the middle of a test, they will lose their progress and need to retake that test. CAPIT will warn the student before they exit in the middle of a test (Fig. 10).
Relaunching the Placement Test (a)
Some students will stumble during the Placement Test and accidentally get placed below their skill level. This scenario can occur if students were working in a noisy room or just fooling around and making errors; either way, they will not be happy working on skills they already know.
When a teacher discovers a student who can work at a more challenging skill level, the teacher should relaunch the Placement Test by clicking on the Placement Test icon on the Level Menu screen (Fig. 11).
Relaunching the Placement Test (b)
The Placement Test is behind a lock (Fig. 12) that ensures students can’t relaunch the test independently. Teachers will need to enter their 4-digit secret code.
Are There Missing Tiles?
Nope!
Sometimes we ran out of space and had to put "letter tiles" on another screen. Students can navigate to these tiles by clicking on the "arrows" (Fig. 13).
How Do I Know if a Student Finished a Test?
Please see Fig. 14.
The window says: You’ve completed Test 4!
Notice that all four bars are filled in with a solid green color. Each bar represents a section, and test four has four sections.
Fig. 15 shows a student who completed only the first of four sections—notice that only one green bar is filled in with a solid green color. This student is in the middle of Test 4.
The Placement Test Scope and Duration
The Placement Test consists of 11 tests, testing 11 foundational reading skills. Each test takes between 5 to 10 minutes to complete, and they do not complete all 11 tests in one sitting; they can spread the work over a few days. The test will not end until either the student completes all 11 tests or begins making mistakes.
Students who complete all 11 tests will skip Level 1 and Level 2 and begin learning in Level 3.
Fig. 16 explains the correlation between the 11 tests, the skills they check for, and the lessons skipped.
To download the key CLICK HERE.