Question of the Week
Q: How should District Assessment Coordinators (DACs) prepare for Public Release 2023?
A: To assist districts with public reporting this year, the Office of Assessment and Accountability (OAA) has updated 2023 public release resources. The resources will provide guidance to DACs and district leaders surrounding the communication of school and district performance.
Resources:
Note: OAA recommends using Chrome to open and edit these resources. There is a known issue with Microsoft Edge which may interfere with access.
School Report Card - Public Release Prep (Timeline Confirmed)
The following information was shared with School Report Card Contacts today which confirmed the public release timeline and may be of interest to District Assessment Coordinators.
Reminder: The School Report Card (SRC) will go public at 10:00 p.m. ET, Oct 31. The district embargo period opens Monday, Oct. 30, 8:00 a.m. ET and closes Tuesday, Oct. 31, 9:59 p.m. ET. During this embargo period districts and schools may discuss results internally or with media (during media embargo), but not in public meetings. This release provides an opportunity for districts to see School Report Cards (SRCs) before the public release and to access the research data sets for all districts and the state.
The release of data to media, under embargo, will be Monday, Oct. 30, 1:00 p.m. ET. KDE is coordinating the media's access to the data. This embargo period provides media time to review and prepare stories prior to public release. All data is embargoed until 10:00 p.m. ET, Oct. 31; however, it may be discussed with media during the media embargo period to prepare for a local press release.
During the embargo period, no data can be changed. Most data was previously reviewed in the SRC approval tool or Student Data Review and Rooster (SDRR) application; however, this is the first opportunity to review Assessment (Academic Performance) and Accountability data in the School Report Card.
A secure URL/password will be shared with district assessment coordinators (DACs) and School Report Card contacts. They are asked to share this access information with superintendents or other school and district leaders with an understanding that this is an embargo period.
During this last week before embargo release, schools and districts should:
- Prepare for media and community questions. No changes to the SRC can be made during the embargo period. The embargo period will be the first opportunity to see Assessment (Academic Performance) and Accountability data in the SRC.
- Develop a local plan for sharing the SRC, including updating school and district websites. Previously posted URLs may need to be updated to reflect a direct link to 2023 data or use the generic link without year – https://kyschoolreportcard.com/. The SRC Sharing Requirements document details how schools and districts must distribute the SRC locally.
- Ensure that signed School Profile Reports are available for each school in the district board office. This was due by Oct. 1. Once the SRC is public, the unsigned School Profile Report is available from the school’s report card landing page (bottom right).
- Route any outstanding data issues to the KDE point of contact as designated in the Quality Assurance Worksheet. Our ability to update data prior to public release is limited.
- Access theKentucky SRC Data Approval and Collection Tool to update data collection items if an issue is found before public release, this tool will close Oct. 27, 5:00 p.m. ET. Until then, districts can continue to use the download function to review the data that has been entered, including the optional superintendent message. The preview dashboard feature also remains available to verify that principal and superintendent contacts reflect the current contacts and not prior year.
Please pass along thanks from the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) to all the district and school staff that helped with SRC review, approvals, and data entry. Most districts completed data entry and approved their SRC domains, this is much appreciated and provides assurances that data has been reviewed prior to public release. The SRC data will become public in accordance with the schedule below, regardless of the approval status.
The SRC timeline, previous communications and SRC resources are available on KDE’s SRC Resource webpage.
Public release dates for the 2023 School Report Card, including assessment, accountability, and federal classification data, are:
Monday, Oct. 30: District embargo period opens 8:00 a.m., ET.
Monday, Oct. 30: Media embargo opens 1:00 p.m. ET.
Tuesday, Oct. 31: Embargo period closes 9:59 p.m. ET.
Tuesday, Oct. 31: Public Release of SRC, 10:00 p.m. ET.
Wednesday, Nov. 1: Data Approval and Collection tool reopens to accommodate updates to collection items. This tool will close Nov. 11.
ACT State Fall 2023 State Senior (Optional) Administration Testing: Test Window 2 Concluding
With test window 2 closing soon (online testing concludes on Oct. 26, and accommodations and supports paper testing concludes on Oct. 27), testing staff may find particular interest and value in being aware of the following information:
- Prepare Materials for Return. Return test window 2 test materials as soon as testing is completed. Per the Schedule of Events, the pre-scheduled pickup date is Oct. 30 and the receipt deadline is Nov. 3. Additional information about preparing materials for return can be found in the Test Coordinator Information Manual and its section titled “Collecting, Packing, and Returning Materials after Testing.”
- Schedule Online Test Sessions (if needed). If there are students that will test later in the window, schedule those online test sessions. Step 4 of the ACT-hosted testing website contains helpful resources about creating online test sessions. This includes the ACT Administration Online Manual and training tutorial on how to create and assign test sessions.
- Track Test Materials Shipments. Testing staff can track test materials shipments using Orders and Shipment Tracking in PearsonAccessnext (PAN). Instructions can be found in the “View Status and Shipment Information” section of the PAN User Guide.
For questions or assistance, please contact Shara Savage
ACT State Fall 2023 State Senior (Optional) Administration Testing: Returning Materials After Makeup Testing (Test Window 2)
ACT has scheduled a makeup testing material pickup which will occur on Monday, Oct. 30. There are resources and training tutorials posted within Step 6 of the ACT-hosted testing website that testing staff should review to ensure there is awareness of the process for collecting, storing, and returning materials after testing concludes. This includes the training tutorial on How to Return Online Test Materials. For questions or assistance, please contact Shara Savage.
ACT Spring 2024 Junior Administration: Welcome Email Deploying Soon
School and district testing staff will receive an email from ACT on Monday, Oct. 30, with information about the spring 2024 junior test administration cycle. The communication will be sent from statetesting@operations.act.org. Testing staff should ensure this email address is added as a trusted contact and that your email system allows for the @operations.act.org and @act.org domains so they receive communications from ACT throughout the administration cycle. This communication will provide testing staff with links to various supporting documents designed to align with the upcoming spring administration cycle. For questions or assistance, please contact Shara Savage.
DRC INSIGHT iPad Application Update
Data Recognition Corporation (DRC) released an update to the DRC INSIGHT iPad application on Oct. 18. This update (version 14.1) will disable an AutoFill feature included in iOS 17, which was released on Sept. 18. Beginning Oct. 26, districts using iPad devices for WIDA Screener Online or ACCESS for ELLs Online will be required to update the devices to DRC INSIGHT iPad application version 14.1 to continue testing. No other testing devices will be impacted.
The AutoFill issue only impacts districts who updated the iPad devices to iOS 17 and had administered the Writing domain of WIDA Screener Online. DRC sent a broadcast email to districts in states where iPads are used on Oct. 17.
Please share with the technology coordinators in the district.
WIDA and DRC Customer Service Hours of Operation
The WIDA Client Services Center will hold extended hours starting on Monday, Nov. 6.
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Monday – Thursday: 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. CT
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Friday: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. CT
As a reminder, DRC Customer Service is available Monday – Friday 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. CT.
Free Marco DALE WIDA Webinar
WIDA is launching a free webinar series exploring topics in the field of multilingual learner education! Join WIDA for the first webinar on Wednesday, Nov. 29, at 2 p.m. CT.
In this free WIDA webinar, the writers and developers of Marco de los estándares del desarollo auténtico del lenguaje español de WIDA (Marco DALE) will showcase the components and the relationship to the other WIDA language frameworks. WIDA also provides a walkthrough for educators to adopt and utilize Marco DALE in their classroom. Webinar attendees will gain new insights into understanding Marco DALE and obtain resources to support its implementation.
Register for the webinar!
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