Question of the Week
Q: What COVID-19 guidance is available for Alternate Assessment Work-Based Learning (WBL)?
A: The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) Office of Career and Technical Education (OCTE) has released COVID-19 Guidance for Work-Based Learning for all students for this year. It is strongly encouraged, where possible, that these WBL opportunities within business and/or industry continue this year.
However, the current crisis is placing strains on districts to ensure that the needs of all student learners are met and that opportunities for WBL are still made available for all students. The KDE has produced the following language for temporary flexibility around the required WBL requirements of the Employability Skills Attainment Record (ESAR) and the courses leading to the Career Work Experience Certification (CWEC):
The KDE will temporarily offer flexibility in where and how these WBL opportunities are offered during this state of emergency as long as such options continue to align to CWEC course content and standards (Employability and Foundational Standards: Alternate Assessment. These options must continue to allow the student to learn, practice and demonstrate workplace skills, but will offer these through additional methods and settings.
OCTE will be providing a guidance document offering alternative ways to provide WBL for students, but this document will not be all inclusive and should be used to help districts determine new ideas for these options. This guidance document is not yet available, but it is important that schools know that this flexibility will be available this school year. At this time, the plan is to post the full guidance document within the next two weeks. This guidance document should be used primarily for students that are 100% virtual this school year, but it is understood that some students may have other extenuating circumstances, due to the crisis, that would prevent them from accomplishing this in the traditional business and/or industry setting.
For any questions or concerns, please contact Kiley Whitaker, Assistant Director of the Division of Technical Schools and Continuous Improvement.
ACT TAA Deadline Extended - Reminder
On Friday, Aug. 14, ACT migrated the Test Accessibility and Accommodations (TAA) login page to the ACT Success Knowledge Hub. Unfortunately, this change was not timely communicated to all users; therefore, it caused confusion for those attempting to access the system on Friday. To ensure all users have ample opportunity to submit their accommodation requests, ACT is extending the deadline to request accommodations through Tuesday, Aug. 25. ACT has updated a training tutorial on How to Access TAA.
TAA Hosted Open Office Hours - Reminder
Test Coordinators and Test Accommodations Coordinators are invited to attend an open office hours session hosted by ACT accommodations staff members. They are dedicated to answering your questions about accommodations and support requests. The open office hours are live webinars. Please see registration links and times below:
Monday, Aug. 24
Tuesday, Aug. 25
ACT-Authorized Accommodations Late Consideration
The TAA system is used to request late consideration for ACT-approved accommodations for eligible examinees. Eligibility is limited to students who have a newly defined disability, students with medical emergencies or sudden medical onset, or students with previously approved accommodations transferring from another Kentucky school. The TAA system will reopen Friday, Aug. 28 through Sept. 18, to complete the Late Consideration Form and upload supporting documentation. The form can be found in tray three at the Kentucky ACT Site.
ACT - Additional Order Materials
If additional standard time testing materials are needed for the Sept. 22 test date, the window to order the materials begins on Friday, Aug. 28 through Sept. 11. Directions for ordering the supplemental materials can be found under the Order Materials section of the PAN User Guide.
ACT Non-College Reportable Accommodations Materials
The school test coordinator authorizes non-college reportable accommodations test materials (NCR) as appropriate for examinees. These are not requested through the TAA system. The test coordinator is responsible for ordering non-college reportable accommodations test materials in PAN for each examinee who needs them. The window to order NCR material begins on Friday, Aug. 28 through Sept. 11. Directions for ordering the NCR materials can be found under the Order Materials section of the PAN User Guide.
Spring 2020 ACT Scores in Infinite Campus (IC)
The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) strives to publish student results data in IC as it becomes available. In this spirit, the Junior ACT test from the 2019–2020 school year has been imported into IC. These are the test results from last spring for students who were able to test. The fall 2020 ACT scores will be imported whenever they become available.
KDE will publish these scores to all districts beginning on Aug. 25, 2020. Please email Raymond Carter with any questions on this matter.
Founded originally in 1855 by abolitionists as a one-room schoolhouse, the Berea Independent School District, most often identified as Berea Community Schools (BCS), has a unique history of education, acceptance and innovation. The initial founders sought to create a system of learning that would include children of all racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. This goal was reached through the determination and selflessness of the first educators. Students were given the opportunity to seek knowledge in an environment that did not limit individuals to their birthrights. In the late 1960s, Berea Independent Schools switched to the format of a public, preschool-grade 12 system. During this change, the school adopted a policy and partnership with Berea College--a private, liberal arts undergraduate school--which began allowing Berea Community students to take classes and gain credits at the college. Over the past 50 years, students have been encouraged to explore their passions, hobbies and futures, whether that is inside a classroom, on the black box theater stage, or at one of the many athletic fields. To this day, Berea Independent School District strives to provide students of all backgrounds with an atmosphere that allows them to thrive socially and academically. The school district currently serves approximately 1,200 students in one building, housing one elementary, one middle and one high school.
Most recently, Berea Community Schools has been working closely with local/regional business and industry partners as well as postsecondary institutions and the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) to design meaningful, innovative CTE pathways that open the doors for BCS students to engage with industry experts; to develop specific technical and 21st century skills; to have access to real-work and problem-solving events; while earning college credits for the rigorous work. Staff are excited about the progress made during this unprecedented time that has BCS and partners prepared for the 2020-2021 school year. Regardless of virtual or onsite (in-person) learning, BCS feels confident that students and staff members will engage in meaningful activities that support deep student exploration into each of the CTE pathways while opening career considerations. It is truly a delicate balance in providing students with a narrow enough focus and at the same time broaden the scope of work possibilities. Through continuous improvement measures and processes, the district has designed a system of supports that has the learning community extend beyond the classroom walls (or personal monitors) and into the actual workplace.
BCS is also working to provide customized workplace learning opportunities – potentially establishing a digital badge system – to support teachers’ implementation of professional development (PD) through their respective personalized learning commitments. BCS’s Educator Personalized Learning is an approach that affords teachers to customize their PD experience to their workplace and make decisions about what PD is needed based on their professional expertise and learning interests. The digital badging coursework/experiences and assessments will be supported by an accredited institution/vendor. Using a theoretical framework that focuses on decision making and customization as part of personalization, BCS will be able to conduct a theory-driven thematic analysis on educator personalized learning artifacts (goal statements, interviews, reflective activity logs, and student outcome measures). This project will inform future research aiming to understand how personalized learning activities support educator development beyond the scope of classroom responsibilities and expectations and into real-work learning environments.
Disclaimer: Any views or opinions presented in the article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE).
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