Third‑grade teacher demonstrates YTOP authoring tool, warns platform usability may affect student scores

Katie Seewell, a third‑grade teacher, gave Fremont County School District #2 board members a live demonstration of the YTOP authoring tool during the district's February meeting and warned that platform usability — not just student knowledge — can affect assessment results.

Seewell walked the board through sample math and reading items and interactive tools students must use. She demonstrated a draw/connect tool for area and perimeter tasks and showed how an extra unintended dot or an imprecise drag can make a correct geometric figure register as incorrect. "If I was a third grader, I'd be super frustrated," she said. She also showed a problem that required students to submit a variable ("n") rather than a numeric answer, and said, "If you put the answer in, it's wrong," describing the difference between knowing the math and providing the expected test input.

Seewell described reading passages that require students to switch between multiple passages and numbered paragraphs and noted scrolling, zoom and highlighting limitations on the platform. She said reading passages sometimes address topics that may not engage all third graders and that the passage navigation can be non‑intuitive for young readers.

District staff and board members discussed the instructional response. Seewell said teachers are practicing short, targeted items with students — about five questions three days a week — so students build familiarity with the test tools and receive quick feedback. Seewell said that some item types (for example, short written responses) require longer scoring time and don't fit easily into brief classroom blocks.

On timing and workload, Seewell and board members agreed the full summative assessment period can be long: both reading and math summatives run around 40 questions and the whole battery can take multiple hours for some students. Seewell said quick practice items yield results in about 20 minutes, allowing near real‑time reteaching. A board member asked whether the district could quantify total teacher time spent specifically on test preparation; Seewell said time varies by student and she did not have a district‑wide quantification.

Superintendent Steve Sweenle framed the test as one piece of an overall assessment strategy: quick snapshots can inform instruction but do not alone capture all classroom learning. Board members thanked Seewell and district staff for the demonstration and for ongoing efforts to prepare students and reduce testing stress.