Question of the Week
Q: Will the Office of Assessment and Accountability (OAA) be conducting assessment site visits for the 2021 Spring State Assessments?
A: Staff from OAA will be conducting virtual assessment site visits to selected schools across Kentucky, during the upcoming spring testing windows. District Assessment Coordinators (DACs) and Building Assessment Coordinators (BACs) will be contacted to coordinate virtual meetings.
During the visit, OAA staff will interview the BAC and/or Principal. The DAC is welcome to be part of the virtual meeting. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the OAA will be conducting virtual site visits with a limited number of schools. The schools that will participate in the virtual monitoring will be randomly selected and notified for scheduling by a member of OAA staff. The site visits will be conducted during a TEAMS meeting at a mutually agreed upon time after the close of the district testing window. Districts may review the Virtual Monitoring Questions in preparation for the monitoring.
DAC Monthly Webcast
The Office of Assessment and Accountability (OAA), Division of Assessment and Accountability Support (DAAS) will host its live monthly DAC Webcast virtually April 15, from 11 a.m. – 12 noon ET.
The meeting will be hosted by Jennifer Stafford, Director, in the Division of Assessment and Accountability Support. She will be joined by others to discuss current assessment and accountability topics. Topics and direct links to materials will be forthcoming in a Special DAC Email prior to the webcast.
Please join Jennifer at 11 a.m. ET for the live broadcast. If you have a conflict with this meeting, the session will be recorded and posted on the KDE Media Portal and the KDE Meetings and Trainings page with all pertinent materials. Questions may be asked by sending an email to KDE DAC Information.
Future broadcasts are scheduled for the second Thursday of each month at 11 a.m. ET.
ACCESS for ELLs Theme Generator and Standards Expert Recruitment
WIDA and the test development partners at the Center for Applied Linguistics are looking for educators to serve as Theme Generators and Standards Experts for new ACCESS for ELLs test items between July and September 2021. This is a chance for educators to be a part of the test development process.
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Review format: virtual
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Anticipated time commitment: 2-8 hours (can be over multiple days)
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Level of experience needed: any educator who has experience with students in grades 1-12 in a WIDA member state during the previous two years
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Participants involved with Theme Generators will:
- Complete a non-disclosure agreement (NDA)
- Watch a tutorial video to understand what types of themes can be used on ACCESS for ELLs
- Brainstorm theme ideas for assigned grade-level clusters and content areas, and enter them into a survey form
- Receive $25 compensation for each survey completed
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Participants involved with Standards Experts will:
- Complete a non-disclosure agreement (NDA)
- Watch a tutorial video to understand how to review draft test items
- Review sets of test items for grade-level appropriateness of the language and content and enter feedback into an electronic questionnaire
- Receive $25 compensation for each set of test items reviewed.
To apply, educators must complete the participation survey. The survey closes on April 25.
Educators invited to serve as Theme Generators will be contacted beginning the week of April 26. Educators invited to serve as Standards Experts will be contacted beginning the week of June 28. If educators have any questions about these activities, contact Alex Herbert.
ACT Materials Pickups for the Emergency Test Window (Test Window 3)
ACT has prescheduled materials pickups for both standard time and accommodations examinees. The standard time materials pickup is scheduled for April 14, which is the day after the standard time paper test date. Please note that standard time answer documents from the April 13 test date must be returned to ACT for scoring no later than April 20.
Please note: Late arriving answer documents will not be scored, so be mindful of the answer document return deadlines listed above.
ACT has also scheduled a materials pickup, specifically for accommodations and online materials, on April 23 which is the day after the close of the Test Window 3 Accommodations window. The answer document return deadline for the accommodations materials is April 30.
Please note: All accommodations materials should be packaged for return together, even if accommodations answer documents are ready for return the day after the standard time paper test date.
The pickup carrier will attempt three separate pickups, if materials are not ready on the prescheduled pickup date. If the school(s) need to reschedule a material pickup after those three attempts, please contact ACT to make arrangements for a materials pickup.
Additional detailed information about packaging and returning materials after the exam is administered can be found in the Transportation stage of the ACT hosted state testing website.
February DAC Webcast Q and A Session Recordings
On Feb. 24 and March 3, KDE hosted Q and A sessions for the February DAC trainings. The Q and A sessions covered all topics presented in the February DAC training videos. The videos of both sessions are located at the bottom of the February DAC Training Video Page on the KDE Media Portal. Please send any further questions to KDE DAC Information.
Owsley County School District is nestled in the mountains of eastern Kentucky and is part of the Daniel Boone National Forest. There are two schools in the Booneville community: Owsley County Elementary School serves approximately 290 students in grades K-5, and Owsley County High School provides education for approximately 390 students in grades 6-12.
Owsley County Schools adopted the motto of “Live, Learn, Serve.” One of their banner programs is the Portrait of a Graduate which is promoted and stressed throughout the school district:
- Effective Communicator
- Responsible Citizenship
- Innovation
- Resilience
- Lifelong Learner Mindset
During the 2020-2021 school year the district worked to provide remote instruction to students. The Owsley County School District worked with community partners to increase Internet access for all students to be able to have live, remote instruction.
Each day the entire school district – students, teachers, administrators, parents, and community – works to create an innovative learning environment that breaks down all barriers to student learning and prepares all students for college, career and the 21st century world.
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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