PAL Pilot Test: Policies

By registering for PAL, you are agreeing to abide by the current Massachusetts PAL Pilot Test Rules of Assessment Participation for the PAL pilot and all procedures and policies contained on the current PAL pilot test website and/or in the current PAL Pilot Candidate Assessment Handbooks.

1. PURPOSE OF ASSESSMENT: I understand that this pilot assessment is administered for the purpose of trying out revised tasks and scoring rubrics for the PAL to determine if the tasks and rubrics are performing as expected and is only to be taken by individuals seeking initial school principal/assistant school principal licensure. Submission of a scorable task will receive a score of at least 2.75 and may be used to fulfill a requirement for state principal licensure. I certify that I am taking this pilot assessment for which I have registered for the purpose of initial school principal/assistant school principal licensure.
2. CONFIRMATION OF ORIGINALITY: I understand that by submitting my PAL materials, I am confirming either A or B:
   1. 
      
      1. I am the sole author of the submissions, including written artifacts, video artifacts, and commentary, unless one or more of my submissions is the product of a collaboration as described in B. below.
      2. I am the person who has completed the assessment and all of the submitted task work products, and I clearly explain my role in leading the teachers, staff, and other individuals for the four tasks that comprise this assessment.
      3. I have not shared my submissions with any other candidate or potential candidate of PAL.
      4. I have attributed all materials in the assessment whose sources are from published text, the internet, or any other source, including other educators. I have identified the sources for documents included in my task submission and acknowledged authorship for documents that were created by me or other individuals or organizations.
   2. 
      
      1. In the event that I am collaborating with any other individual in any aspect of PAL, I have identified any and all points of collaboration with any other individual[s]; included the rationale or purpose of the collaboration; clearly stated my role in the collaboration and the role[s] of my collaborators; and attest that my submissions, including written artifacts and commentary, are entirely my own original product and not the product of anyone else.
      2. I have not shared my submissions with any other candidate or potential candidate of PAL.
      3. I have attributed all materials in the assessment whose sources are from published text, the internet, or any other source, including other educators. I have identified the sources for documents included in my task submission and acknowledged authorship for documents that were created by me or other individuals or organizations.
3. PERMISSIONS AND CONFIDENTIALITY: I have protected the identity of people featured in my submission by removing any identifiable information including the name(s) of my district, school, institution, faculty, staff, and students.
4. DISTRIBUTION AND POSTING OF ASSESSMENT MATERIALS: I acknowledge that I am not permitted to reproduce any of the information or materials from the PAL Pilot Candidate Assessment Handbooks for commercial purposes or otherwise display publicly (i.e., personal websites, YouTube, Facebook). If I do reproduce information or materials from the PAL Pilot Candidate Assessment Handbooks for personal use, I will properly attribute the copyright of such materials to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (the Department or DESE) and authorship to Bank Street College of Education.
5. USE OF ASSESSMENT: I agree that my PAL submission, including text, images, and digital files, without the use of my name or other identifying information, may be used by Pearson or other entities authorized by DESE for PAL program development and implementation. Entities must be authorized by DESE; I understand that this means I may not provide my submission, including text and images, to be used by my educator preparation program or to any potential PAL candidates for the purposes of preparing future candidates. If I provided consent as part of my response to registration questions, my submission, without use of my name or other identifying information, may also be used for continued PAL program activities conducted by authorized entities such as future validity and reliability studies and other assessment-related research of the PAL. These authorized entities will not show candidate materials publicly, make them available in a non-secure way, or use them as exemplars for marketing purposes.
6. PILOT TEST RESULTS AND CANCELLATION: I understand that I will receive a score of at least 2.75 if my PAL submission is scorable. My pilot test results will be reported to DESE. PAL pilot results are anonymously used by Pearson and DESE with candidate responses to background questions for the purpose of PAL analyses and assessment development. I understand that once I submit my assessment, I cannot cancel my participation in the PAL Pilot Test, including scoring.
7. LIABILITY OF VENDORS AND DEPARTMENT REGARDING PAL: I understand and agree that the liability for assessment activities, including but not limited to the adequacy or accuracy of assessment materials, the registration processes, scoring, score report accuracy, and information provided to me in connection with PAL, will be limited to score confirmation or PAL retake. I understand and agree that liability for data loss or file corruption associated with my PAL submission will be limited to an additional PAL submission. To the extent allowed by Massachusetts law, I waive any and all rights to all other claims, specifically including but not limited to claims for negligence arising out of any acts or omissions of Pearson and/or the Department (including the agents, employees, contractors, or professional advisors of Pearson and the Department).
8. CHANGES TO PROGRAM OR PROCEDURES: I understand that the PAL assessment and associated policies and procedures are subject to change at the sole discretion of Pearson (with Department approval) and/or the Department. The Department may make changes to their policies and requirements related to the PAL at their discretion.
9. COMPLIANCE WITH PROCEDURES: I understand that if I fail to comply with the rules, requirements, submission requirements and policies specified on the current PAL pilot test website, including these Massachusetts PAL Pilot Test Rules of Assessment Participation, or if I take any prohibited actions, or if my submitted artifacts, commentary, and/or other documents do not comply with the current rules and submission requirements as specified, my submission or portions thereof may not be scored, my results may be voided, my registration may be canceled, and I may be prohibited in the future from registering for PAL. In addition, I understand that assessment fraud may be grounds for denial, revocation, suspension or other sanction of any educator license issued by the Department. Legal proceedings and actions may be pursued as well as other remedies deemed appropriate by Pearson, or the Department, as appropriate. If my submission cannot be scored due to a system error upon submission, I will have the opportunity to resubmit my assessment materials. I understand that my submitted assessment materials, or a portion thereof, may be reviewed by authorized individuals at the Department in order to investigate compliance with the Massachusetts PAL Pilot Test Rules of Assessment Participation, as needed.
10. RULES: I understand that should any of these rules or any other requirement or provision contained on the current PAL pilot test website be declared or determined by any court to be illegal or invalid, the remaining rules, requirements, and provisions will not be affected and the illegal or invalid rule, requirement, or provision shall not be deemed a part of the current PAL website. The headings of each of the Massachusetts PAL Pilot Test Rules of Assessment Participation for PAL are for convenient reference only. They are not a part of the rules themselves; they do not necessarily reflect the entire subject matter of each rule; and they are not intended to be used for the purpose of modifying, interpreting, or construing any of these Massachusetts PAL Pilot Test Rules of Assessment Participation for PAL. I agree that any legal action arising in connection with my registration for or participation in PAL shall be brought in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and federal courts and I consent to the personal jurisdiction of such courts.

This information, prepared by Pearson and the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), describes the policies and procedures related to the confidentiality and security of candidate PAL submissions and assessment data for each phase of the process:

• Pre-Submission of Assessment Materials for Scoring
• Upload and Storage of the Assessment Materials
• Post-Submission and Scoring

This information applies to Pearson and DESE handling of materials and data for candidates who register for PAL at the PAL pilot test website and submit their assessment for pilot test scoring.

PAL candidates own the content they create and submit for each PAL submission. Neither DESE nor Pearson owns the candidates' PAL submissions.

Pre-Submission of Assessment Materials for Scoring

Prior to candidate submission of PAL assessment materials for scoring, the PAL website provides information for candidates related to the creation, review, and handling of candidate assessment materials.

In order to assist candidates in obtaining the appropriate releases, the PAL website includes information describing the nature of the assessment and how assessment materials may be used.

Authorized Access

Only candidates have the ability to access their task submissions once uploaded to the ePortfolio system. Program faculty will not have the ability to access or view candidate work in the ePortfolio system and should refer to the Operational MA PAL Administrative Field Guide for Leadership Preparation Programs for guidance on acceptable support for candidates. While candidates own the content they create and submit for the PAL assessment, once the candidate submits the assessment materials to Pearson for scoring, the candidate will be unable to access the submitted materials in the Pearson ePortfolio system. If a candidate wants to retain copies of their submissions and share with program faculty, the files should be saved outside the Pearson ePortfolio system prior to submission. PAL materials, once submitted, cannot be returned to candidates.

Attestations

When candidates are ready to submit their assessment materials to Pearson for scoring, they are presented with candidate attestations, which include requiring confirmation that they have obtained the necessary video releases and that they have not posted and will not post video recordings in any location other than the Pearson ePortfolio system. Candidates must keep their PAL video recordings under secure conditions and share with programs only when appropriate permissions are granted.

Upload and Storage of the Assessment Materials

Candidates upload assessment materials directly into the Pearson ePortfolio system.

Transmission of assessment materials via this method is protected using industry standard encryption practices.

Once materials have been uploaded directly into the Pearson ePortfolio system, they must be reviewed and verified by the candidate in the Pearson ePortfolio system and submitted for pilot test scoring.

Storage

The assessment materials are stored by Pearson in secure repositories and areas accessible only to authorized users via unique, secure log-in credentials for specific actions and for limited periods of time.

Access

By using industry-standard security software (encrypted protocols and encrypted and expiring tokens), the system ensures that access to view the stored assessment materials/videos is granted only to authorized users.

• Authorized Pearson users may include scorers, scorer supervisors, scorer trainers, scoring support personnel, and personnel required to conduct quality control.

Post-Submission and Scoring

Access

• Authorized Pearson users may include scorers, scorer supervisors, scorer trainers, scoring support personnel, and personnel required to conduct quality control or required to conduct an investigation associated with compliance with the Massachusetts PAL Pilot Test Rules of Assessment Participation, as needed.
• Authorized individuals at the relevant state agency responsible for principal certification may be provided access to submitted assessment materials or a portion thereof as part of an investigation associated with compliance with the Massachusetts PAL Pilot Test Rules of Assessment Participation, or for other quality control purposes, as needed.

Authorized scorers access the candidate assessment materials through Pearson's password-protected secure Scoring System. Candidate assessment materials are available only for the period in which scoring occurs. Scorer access to the Pearson Scoring System is disabled after the scorer's activities are completed.

Access to PAL Data

Candidate pilot test scores will be reported to the candidate and to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

• The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) will receive candidate-level score results and aggregated pass-rate information.
• Data will be available to the authorized PAL score reporting contact at DESE via Pearson's secure reporting site that requires unique username and password access. The information reported via this secure, web-based system is expressly for use by DESE.

Other Uses of Candidate Materials

• PAL assessment materials, without candidate or other identifying information, may be used for PAL program development and implementation, including scorer training.
• Prior to submitting their assessment materials to Pearson for scoring, PAL candidates are asked to consent to the use of their assessment materials to support continued program improvement activities conducted by Pearson and DESE, such as future validity and reliability studies of the PAL.
• Candidate materials will not be used for marketing purposes or as exemplars for marketing purposes.

Other Use or Disclosure of Information

It is Pearson's practice not to transmit personally identifiable information to third parties, except as provided in the Privacy Policy posted on www.ma-pal.nesinc.com. We may disclose personally identifiable information in the following situations:

1. in response to a subpoena, court order, or legal process, to the extent permitted and required by law;
2. to address violations of law, and/or to protect your security or the security of other persons, consistent with applicable law;
3. in connection with a sale, joint venture, or other transfer of some or all of the assets of Pearson;
4. to organizations that are working as contractors or agents of Pearson and that are committed or obliged to protect your privacy in a manner consistent with the Privacy Policy;
5. to the contracted provider of PAL services, should the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education award the contract to a different vendor.

By using this PAL pilot test website and the Pearson ePortfolio system, candidates give their consent for personal information to be transmitted in the situations outlined above.

PAL Retention and Destruction

The standard retention period for PAL task submission materials is five years following the task score report date, after which submission materials will be destroyed. There may be exceptions to the standard retention period for extenuating circumstances, such as a score void or other challenge.

After the retention period, PAL artifacts are disposed of through a set of automated processes that identify and physically delete the artifacts from their repository locations. These processes are executed on a regular, periodic basis and render the artifacts inaccessible and irretrievable.

Candidate PAL pilot scores and associated identifying information will be retained while NCS Pearson, Inc. is contracted by Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to be the testing provider of test administration and reporting services for the PAL. Once NCS Pearson, Inc. ceases to be the contracted provider of PAL services, NCS Pearson, Inc. will facilitate the transfer of data including results and submission materials to the Department or the Department's contracted provider of PAL services.

Submission Requirements

Before beginning to create your PAL assessment submission, you must review these Submission Requirements to ensure that:

• you have provided all the evidence necessary for each task to be scored
• your materials will meet the technical specifications as outlined in the PAL Pilot Candidate Assessment Handbook(s)

All PAL tasks that are successfully submitted in the Pearson ePortfolio system will go to scorers for scoring. A fully scorable task is one that can be reviewed by scorers and have scores assigned to every indicator and rubric.

If your submission does not meet the Submission Requirements, a condition code may be applied during the scoring process instead of a numerical score. If a condition code is applied to any indicator, the task will be unscorable. See below for a list of condition codes.

Note that any material that is intended to be part of your PAL submission must be uploaded to the Pearson ePortfolio system prior to the final submission of your PAL task(s).

Scorers will not be able to access hyperlinks to documents or webpages contained in your submitted artifacts and documents. Hyperlinks are acceptable only as references in your citations, but will not be used by scorers to reference information outside of your submission.

In addition to these specific Submission Requirements, you must also review and comply with all other requirements contained in the PAL Pilot Candidate Assessment Handbooks as well as candidate registration, assessment, and score-reporting policies posted on the current PAL website.

You will have the opportunity to review and confirm all materials before submitting for scoring.

If your complete submission or portions thereof cannot be scored due to failure to meet Submission Requirements, you will not receive a score of at least 2.75 for the submission and therefore must retake the task(s).  

If you are unable to resolve a technical issue observed when you review your uploaded materials, please contact Customer Support for assistance prior to submission.

Condition Codes

If your submission does not meet the Submission Requirements as described above and your submission or portion of your submission is deemed unscorable, the task(s) will be marked as “Incomplete” and your associated score report will specify one or more of the following Condition Codes indicating the requirement(s) that were not met.

All required files must be viewable by scorers and must conform to technical specifications as identified in the Task Evidence Charts posted on the Pilot Test Assessment Materials page of the PAL program website (e.g., format, file type) and included in the PAL Pilot Candidate Assessment Handbooks.

In order to submit your PAL assessment to Pearson for pilot test scoring, you must confirm the following.

As the candidate, I confirm that:

• I have reviewed and agree to the "Massachusetts PAL Pilot Test Rules of Assessment Participation."
• I am the person who has completed the assessment and all of the submitted task work products.
• I have attributed all materials in the assessment whose sources are from published text, the internet, or any other source, including other educators.
• I have identified the sources for documents included in my task submission and acknowledged authorship for documents that were created by me or other individuals or organizations.
• I am sole author of the submissions, including written artifacts and commentaries unless one or more of my submissions is the product of a collaboration.
• In the event that I am collaborating with any other individual in any aspect of PAL, I have identified any and all points of collaboration; clearly stated my role in the collaboration and the role(s) of my collaborators; and attest that my submissions, including written artifacts and commentary, are entirely my own original product and not the product of anyone else.
• I have protected the identity of people featured in my submission by removing any identifiable information, including the name(s) of my district, school, institution, faculty, staff, and students.
• I have reviewed the PAL Pilot Test Submission Requirements and confirm that all of my submitted materials meet these requirements for a scorable task that can be reviewed by a scorer and have scores assigned to all rubrics.

Once you submit your assessment to Pearson, you will no longer be able to view, edit, or retrieve it.

If you have not yet reviewed your uploaded materials in their entirety to ensure that they appear as intended in the Pearson ePortfolio system, you must cancel your submission and do so before submitting.

Candidates may not retake the pilot test. If your pilot test submission is unscorable, you must take and pass the currently available version of the task(s) that were unscorable.

Your assessment results will be reported to you, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and, if applicable, the program or organization that you indicated as a score recipient when you registered. The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will also receive notification upon your successful completion of the assessment.

For the purpose of PAL assessment completion, the score for each completed and scored task will be valid for a period of seven years from the score report date. If a candidate has not completed all four tasks within seven years after the score report date of the initial submission, the score for any task reported more than seven years ago will no longer be considered valid, and candidates will then be required to complete and submit new work under new registrations.

If you violate one of the "Massachusetts PAL Pilot Test Rules of Assessment Participation" or if doubts are raised about the validity or legitimacy of your registration or your scores, Evaluation Systems will notify the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and other parties as deemed appropriate by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Evaluation Systems takes reasonable security precautions in administering PAL and in processing scores. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and Evaluation Systems reserve the right to void your scores if in their sole opinion there is adequate reason to question your scores' validity or legitimacy, due to misconduct (including, but not limited to, a violation of the rules set forth on the current program website, including the PAL Pilot Test Rules of Assessment Participation) or to circumstances within or beyond your control.

Further action may be taken, including denial, revocation or other sanction of any educator license issued by the Department. Other actions, as described in Rule 8 of the Massachusetts PAL Pilot Test Rules of Assessment Participation, may be taken as deemed appropriate by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and/or Evaluation Systems.

Please note that software may be employed to screen submissions for originality of content. Submissions determined to violate PAL rules regarding the originality of the submitted material will be subject to actions described above.