FAQ

Every year in November.

There are four competence tests and a pre-test each lasting no more than 50 minutes, plus a student questionnaire which will take around one lesson period. The parent questionnaire takes around ten minutes to complete.

Taking the ÉpStan, i.e. taking the tests and answering the questionnaires, is compulsory for all students. The parent questionnaire must be passed on to the parents. If parents are not willing to answer the questionnaire, their wishes should be respected.

Children with little knowledge of the school language (“primo-arrivants”) should always attempt to complete the mathematics test, as it is drafted with as little language as possible and the questions may be translated by the supervisor. For language tests, language ability should be evaluated to determine whether it is meaningful taking the test. It is also possible to allow the child to work on the booklets, so that it does not feel excluded, but not code the answers. For children with visual and auditory difficulties, the test materials are adapted by the respective Centres de compétences and organised separately where necessary. In cases of developmental disabilities in various forms, an individual decision of the teacher, in consultation with the direction de région is recommended.

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.

No, the CD must be left to run. Processing time for the questions is incorporated into the CD’s running time.

To ensure comparable administration of the test across all classes, assistance is only permitted in certain cases: when administering the mathematics test and the student questionnaire, the question may be translated in the event of linguistic 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 can use or how they should draw a cross, pursuant instructions may be provided.

Currently, it is  not possible to provide the mathematics test booklet in French. However, when completing the mathematics test, the question may be translated into French (or any other language), but without influencing the processing of the item in itself.

The information day for grade 1 takes place around two weeks before the autumn half-term holiday (All Saints Day holiday). Grade 1 teachers will receive an invitation from MENJE.

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 for your cycle, to check for accuracy. If any changes are required (students are missing or included in your list erroneously), please enter them into Scolaria by 5th October. After the 5th October, it is no longer possible for changes to automatically be transferred over from Scolaria to itrust, so from then on, 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. Two additional codes are provided per class in case any missing students still need to be added after the first review. Please make a copy and then immediately return the amended class list to your ÉpStan coordinator so that they can pass this information on to itrust. If these two extra codes are not sufficient, please see the note under “There are not enough materials”.

In that case, please contact your elementary school’s ÉpStan coordinator as soon as possible. The ÉpStan coordinator can ask itrust consulting for additional codes. We are automatically informed of 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.

Where possible, students who are unable to take the test (e.g. as a result of illness) should repeat it during the testing period under testing conditions that are as standardised as possible. This means that the test should be completed independently and under supervision in a quiet atmosphere. If the test cannot be retaken, please indicate the reason for not taking the test on the coding sheet. The same rules as for the tests apply to the student questionnaire: the questionnaire should be subsequently completed under standardised conditions within the given test period.

If a new student joins your class during the test phase, please immediately contact itrust consulting (epstan_ttp@itrust.lu; +352 26 1762 12) to find out the four-digit ÉpStan code that the child was allocated in their previous class. Please take one of the additional test booklets, one of the additional questionnaires and coding sheets, and write the old code on them by hand. itrust will inform the ÉpStan team of this change so that the report for this new student is added to your feedback reports.

Please immediately inform parents that they will be receiving new questionnaires and contact the ÉpStan team (info@epstan.lu, Tel: +352 46 66 44 97 77) to request new questionnaires. The student questionnaire administration should also be repeated, as an incorrect assignment could skew the results. In this event, please also contact the ÉpStan team (info@epstan.lu, Tel: +352 46 66 44 97 77)to request new questionnaires.

From this year on, correcting the ÉpStan will primarily be done by using digital coding masks in all cycles. You can access the digital coding masks via the following link: https://coding.epstan.lu

The use is intuitive and is also explained via an instruction video in the application. Since the correct solutions are always shown in the digital coding masks, the coding guide will only be sent on request.

If you have any questions or problems, please contact the ÉpStan team (info@epstan.lu, tel: +352 46 66 44 97 77).

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).

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.

 You will receive the results for your class (class report) and for individual students (student report) as a download option on the website feedback.epstan.lu.

From experience, data processing and report compilation is completed in February so that you will be able to download your class’ results from feedback.epstan.lu. MENJE will inform you by email in due course.