In response to feedback from LEAs, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) has changed the Pre-Code Winter Keystone Exams PIMS collection window that was originally scheduled for August. Districts planning to participate in Classroom Diagnostic Tools (CDT) and/or the 2012-2013 Winter Keystone Exams are encouraged to upload student files into the Pennsylvania Information Management System (PIMS) during the 2012-13 Pre-Code for Winter Keystone Exams and CDT student upload collection window that is now planned for Sept. 12- 25, 2012. Participating in this collection and uploading as many of the optional templates as possible during this window will benefit your district and school users when adding students to test sessions in DRC eDIRECT during the test setup process.

Please note: In addition to the September collection window described above, there continues to be an optional monthly PIMS collection that enables LEAs to upload student data specifically for the ongoing use of the Classroom Diagnostic Tools. This option will support monthly uploading of students that LEAs plan to assess using the CDTs.  PDE/DRC will receive updated files on the first of every month as long as the upload is completed prior to the last day of each month.

The Templates collected are as follows:

Required Templates:
Student
Student Snapshot (9/25/12)

Optional Templates:
Course
Course Instructor
Student Course Enrollment
Staff
School Enrollment
Program Fact

An additional field has been added to the Student and Student Snapshot templates for the 2012-13 school year. The Assessment Participation, now field 202, is an identifier indicating which test(s) students will be taking at any time during the school year.  Below are the Valid Values for this field:

A  – PASA only
B  – PSSA only
C  – Keystones only
D  – CDTs only
E  – PSSA and Keystones
F  – PSSA and CDTs
G  – PSSA, Keystones, and CDTs
H  – Keystones and CDTs
I  – N/A; not participating in an assessment

If you have any questions concerning CDT or Keystone assessments in 2012-13, please email pacustomerservice@datarecognitioncorp.com or call a DRC PSSA Customer Service Representative at 1-800-451-7849.