FAQ

 Every year in November.

There are five competence tests and one pre-test each lasting no more than 40 minutes, plus a student questionnaire which will take around one lesson period. The parent questionnaire takes around ten minutes to complete.

The ÉpStan are conducted on behalf of the government; therefore, participation in the tests and answering the questionnaires is mandatory for all students. The parent questionnaires must be handed out to the parents / legal guardians. If parents / legal guardians are not willing to answer the questions, their choice must be respected.

Children with little knowledge of the language of instruction (Primo-Arrivant students) should always attempt to complete the mathematics tests, as the assessment is as language-free as possible and a translation of the tasks by the supervisor is possible. Regarding the language tests, it is suggested to carefully consider the student’s language ability, in order to decide whether a participation would make sense or not. It is also possible to have Primo-Arrivant students work on the booklets so that they are not excluded but not to code the answers. For children with visual or auditory impairments, the test material will be adapted by the respective Centre de compétences and, if necessary, carried out separately. In the case of developmental disorders of varying severity, a case-by-case decision by the teacher in consultation with the Direction de région or the school management is proposed.

In elementary school, the students work on the test booklets and the booklet containing the student questionnaire together with the teachers. Currently, it is not possible to complete the tests on a computer or a tablet.

The test materials are delivered during the first few days after the autumn half-term holiday (All Saints Day holiday) and should be checked for completeness as soon as it is received.

The students have time to work on the test booklet as long as the audio file is playing. From the moment the audio file starts there should be no more talking until the test is over. Please do not stop the audio file prematurely and do not play passages several times.

To ensure a comparable administration of the test across all classes, assistance is only permitted in the following situations: for the mathematics test and the student questionnaire, the question (or part of it) may be translated in the event of linguistic comprehension difficulties, but without influencing the processing of the item in itself. If children have practical questions about completing the test, for example which pen they must use or how they should cross an answer option, pursuant instructions may be provided.

The mathematics tests are provided in the language of instruction. They are intended to assess mathematical skills only and should not be influenced by language skills. Therefore the material is presented using pictorial rather than linguistic elements. If a student does not understand the task due to language boundaries, please provide help by paraphrasing or translating the question. However, the explanation should not simplify the solution of the task by providing content knowledge. To assist you, you can request a standardised translation of the mathematics booklets in French or German from us (info@epstan.lu, by phone at 46 66 44 9777).

The class teacher gives the parent questionnaire to the children, together with a blank envelope. Parents are asked to complete the questionnaire, seal it in the envelope and give it back to their child to return it back to their teacher at school. Class teachers then return all the envelopes from their class together to the University of Luxembourg. Should legal guardians not want to follow this procedure, they can also send the completed questionnaire directly to the University of Luxembourg (University of Luxembourg, LUCET, Campus Belval, Maison des Sciences Humaines, 11, Porte des Sciences, L-4366 Esch/Alzette).

At the beginning of the school year you receive a provisional class list (without student codes) from the ÉpStan coordinator of your cycle, to check for accuracy. If any changes are required (students are missing or included in your list by mistake), please enter them into Scolaria by 10th October. After the 10th October, there is no automatic transfer of modifications from Scolaria to itrust and any changes to the class list must be communicated to the ÉpStan coordinator. In October, you will receive the class list for test administration with the student codes provided for the ÉpStan testing. One additional code is provided per class in case any missing student still needs to be added after the first review. Please make a copy of the amended list and immediately return it to your ÉpStan coordinator so that they can pass this information on to itrust. If the extra code is not sufficient, please see the note under “The test material is insufficient”.

If you need the additional test booklet for a student, please request another test booklet for your personal use from us as soon as possible in order to guide your students through the test. If the material is not complete or insufficient, please contact us immediately (info@epstan.lu or by phone at 46 66 44 9777)! If the material is not sufficient, please contact your ÉpStan coordinator as soon as possible. The ÉpStan coordinator can request additional codes from itrust. We are automatically informed of these changes and send the required additional materials (we send a full set of tests and questionnaires for each additional code).

Contact the ÉpStan team as soon as possible (info@epstan.lu, tel.: +352 46 66 44 97 77) to reorder any missing materials! Please do not under any circumstances use materials from other classes.

For the mathematics test, you may help students who have linguistic difficulties (e.g. by explaining unknown vocabulary), but this is not permitted for the language tests.

If a student falls ill or is not present on the day of the test, the missed test or questionnaire should be taken on another day within the test period under conditions that are as standardised as possible. This means that they take the test independently under supervision and in a quiet atmosphere. If it is not possible to take the test in time, please enter the reason for non-participation in the coding mask. The same procedure applies to the student questionnaire: it should be completed within the test period under the same standardised conditions.

If, during the test phase, a new student joins your class, please use the test material with the additional code for this student and update your class list accordingly. Then, provide a copy of the updated class list to your ÉpStan coordinator so that they can add the student to the TTP portal, ensuring that the report for this new student can be included in your feedback documents.

If you have handed out the parent questionnaire incorrectly, please inform the parents / the legal guardian immediately that they will receive new questionnaires and contact the ÉpStan team (info@epstan.lu, tel.: +352 46 66 44 97 77) as soon as possible to request new parent questionnaires. If you have distributed the student questionnaires incorrectly, the administration must also be repeated, as incorrect assignment could distort the results. In this case, please contact the ÉpStan team (info@epstan.lu, tel.: +352 46 66 44 97 77) to request new student questionnaires.

The ÉpStan are evaluated using digital coding masks. The use of the coding masks is intuitive and explained in an instruction video in the application. The correct solutions are always shown in the digital coding masks. You can access the coding masks via the following link: https://coding.epstan.lu. If you would like to add an additional teacher for coding, you can request this in the coding masks. You will need your colleague’s full name, IAM code, and email address. If you still experience technical problems, please contact the following technical helpline: 46 66 44 4999.

In grade 1, inverted written numbers (“single digits”) and letters are not counted as incorrect. However, for inverted numbers, it should be noted that only the individual figure may be inverted, not the number as a whole (e.g., “13” instead of “31” should be coded as incorrect, whereas „ε“ for „3“ or „я“ for „R“ should be coded as correct).

Spelling mistakes are not taken into account during marking. A contextually correct answer is considered correct, even if there are spelling mistakes.

Results for the children as well as for the class as a whole will be supplied to you in pseudonymised form. Only you as class teacher will be able to use the class list you received from your ÉpStan coordinator at the beginning of the ÉpStan process to assign real names to the student codes used in the results feedback. Other agencies, such as Directions de région or MENJE, will not be informed of either the results of your class or of children’s individual results.

The results of your class provided in the form of a class report as well as individual reports for each student in your class (in the three languages of German, French, and English) will be made available for download via https://feedback.epstan.lu in mid-February. You will be notified by the MENJE in due course.