Administering PCAP

The school contact will receive all assessment forms by email approximately 10 days before the scheduled assessment date. One email will include all the required forms for each selected class. If you do not receive your materials the week before your assessment day, please check your junk or spam folder. If still missing, contact the PCAP administrative team. A printed copy of the Assessment Script will be delivered separately to schools by mail, but can also be found online.

To change your assessment date, please contact the PCAP administrative team, advising them of your new date.

Yes—if a new student is enrolled in a class selected for PCAP, please provide them with one of the three extra Student Login Forms. Make a note of the login number used. When filling out the Student Tracking Form, manually add the student's name, date of birth, and gender on the line that matches the login number.

If the student participation rate is lower than 85% for any of the participating classes, then a makeup session is required.

If holding a makeup session will not increase the student participation rate to 85%, the makeup session is still required in order to increase the rate as much as possible.

If a makeup session is conducted, only students who are listed on the Student Tracking Form may participate in the assessment. No substitution of students is permitted.
 

CMEC does not cover any additional expenses the school may incur as a result of administering PCAP (e.g., hiring supplementary staff or purchasing extra supplies).

The LockDown Environment restricts students to only accessing specific sites and functions (which are permitted for the assessment), while blocking access to all other browsers and functions.

To install it, follow the appropriate instructions here.

PCAP aims to be as inclusive as possible (see available accommodations). Students are eligible to receive these accommodations, if and only if, they receive these individualized supports or special considerations during regular school programming, or on formal assessments.

Use the Student Identification Form to request accommodations.

If in Ontario, please use EQAO’s Student Data Collection System (SDC) tool to identify students with special education needs (SEN) and to request accommodations.

The principal may exempt any student for whom the assessment may be detrimental or if the available accommodations do not meet their needs. A student should not be exempted solely due to poor academic performance, typical behavioural challenges, or self-regulation concerns.

To note a student is exempted, the participation code 1A (Student was absent due to lack of appropriate accommodations) is used for this student on the Student Tracking Form.

The PCAP poster, parent/guardian letter, and video are great resources to share.

Parent/guardian permission is not necessary for students to write PCAP. However, if a parent/guardian requests that their child not write PCAP, record the appropriate student participation code (code 7) on the Student Tracking Form.

CMEC does not need to be informed in advance if a parent/guardian refuses to allow their child to write the assessment.

• Check if you are using the correct access code for the respective part of the assessment. Access codes and mandatory instructions are provided in the Assessment Script.
• If a student submitted a section, they cannot access it again. They should continue forward with the rest of the group. Please note this on the Student Tracking Form.
• The assessment (Part 2a and Part 2b) is timed. After 60 minutes, for each part (i.e., Part 2a and Part 2b), the system will automatically submit the student’s assessment (except if the extra time accommodation was requested in advance).

• Try closing the assessment and waiting 2 minutes before logging in again. 
• Try restarting the device.
• Try changing devices.

• Check if the LockDown Environment is installed.
• Check if you are using the correct login form:
  • Student Login Form: one per student, used to access the Student Assessment and Questionnaire.
  • Teacher Questionnaire Login Form: one per sampled class, used to access the Teacher Questionnaire.
  • School Questionnaire Login Form: one per school, used to access the School Questionnaire.
• Check if your network is blocking the website domain.