Question of the Week
Q: When will the Kentucky Summative Assessment (KSA) District Test Window Collection Open in the Student Data Review and Rosters (SDRR) Application?
A: School and District level users will see the spring summative testing window dates in the Student Data Review and Rosters (SDRR) application. When SDRR opens on Wednesday, March 12 at 9 a.m. ET, District Assessment Coordinators (DACs) will need to enter the date of the first day of Kentucky Summative Assessment (KSA) testing for elementary, middle, and high schools in the district.
Please note that the first day of the spring summative testing window must fall within the last 14 days of the school year. That date range information is pulled from Infinite Campus (IC) calendars. It is crucial that all IC school calendars are checked for accuracy early (prior to March 7 to allow for updates in IC), including preschools/alternative programs that may impact the district calendar. There will only be a few times (Monday, March 17 and 24) that IC will refresh any changes made to school calendars during the KSA District Test Window collection in SDRR.
There can only be one date for each level (elementary, middle, and high). School-level users can view the test window dates provided by the DAC, but they cannot change the information. Only District level users can make changes to these dates. SDRR will close on March 28 at 5 p.m. ET for District Test Window collection for KSA.
If the district’s testing windows change for any reason, SDRR must be updated to reflect the correct dates. The Office of Assessment and Accountability (OAA) uses the testing window dates provided by DACs and student enrollment information in IC to calculate and pre-load 100 days for students whenever possible, for site visits in the spring and for nonparticipations. If the testing dates are incorrect, the pre-loaded 100 days may be incorrect, and school and district users will have to do more work to correct student 100 days during spring rosters, or during the data review period in the fall.
If you have issues accessing SDRR please contact kdeassessment@education.ky.gov
Online Testing Toolbox Available
OAA has released the 2025 Online Testing Toolbox. This document contains links to resources, tools, practice tests, tutorials, technical information, and accommodations information.
For questions, please contact Devon Avery.
ACT State Testing Office Hour – Tuesday, March 4
The Office of Assessment and Accountability (OAA) and ACT will host an office hour session on Tuesday, March 4, at 11:00 a.m. ET, which will focus on the remaining preparation activities that staff should consider completing as the initial test date approaches. The session will be hosted via a Microsoft Teams meeting. While the content will be focused on highlighting those activities, OAA and ACT encourage testing staff to attend and ask any questions they may have at this time. Please be sure to provide testing staff with this Microsoft Teams Link for the session. Attendees will not have to register for office hours specifically but will want to mark time on calendars to avoid any scheduling conflicts.
For questions and assistance, please contact Christen Roseberry.
ACT Spring 2025 Junior State Administration – Materials for Test Window #2
For schools planning to test during window #2, materials should arrive between March 3 - 13. Testing staff should inventory their material to ensure they have what is needed to support the administration and return of materials. If additional material is needed, testing staff can view the Ordering Additional ACT Materials training tutorial or refer to the PearsonAccessnext (PAN) User Guide’s section titled “Requirements for Additional Materials Orders” to obtain information about placing an additional order in PAN.
Please be aware that schools planning to test during window #2 have between March 11 - 14 to request additional materials.
For questions and assistance, please contact Christen Roseberry.
ACT Spring 2025 Junior State Administration – Prepare Test Sessions
After test sessions have been created and examinees added to those sessions, the District Assessment Coordinator (DAC), Building Assessment Coordinator (BAC), or Technical Coordinator needs to prepare those sessions in PearsonAccessnext (PAN) for testing just prior to the start of the test window.
For Test Window 1, the “Prepare Session” button will appear in PAN on Friday, March 7.
For Test Window 2, the “Prepare Session” button will appear in PAN on Friday, March 21.
Testing staff can find instructions on how to prepare test sessions within the ACT Administration Manual - Online Testing in the section titled “Prepare Test Sessions.”
For questions and assistance, please contact Christen Roseberry.
ACT Spring 2025 Junior State Administration – Change coming to MyACT
Testing staff should be aware that ACT will be making a change soon to the order of information examinees see in MyACT. The new order still has the demographic information first but moves the score recipients next, right after the demographic information. The high school resume and college plan content now appears later in the sequence and is accessible from the examinee’s MyACT Dashboard by selecting “Majors and Careers.”
The content within MyACT will not change, just the order. Examinees who have already completed the MyACT non-test information activity prior to this change will not need to redo their entries.
ACT has updated the following resources under Step 4 based on the change:
Testing staff will also be receiving an email from ACT notifying them when this change has been made.
For questions and assistance, please contact Christen Roseberry.
WIDA MODEL
WIDA is collecting feedback to better understand educators’ assessment needs and to inform future improvements to WIDA MODEL, WIDA’s interim progress monitoring assessment. An interim assessment is a test administered several times during the school year to measure progress and guide instruction.
Please complete this 15-minute survey by March 13 at 11:59 p.m. CT to tell WIDA about district and staff's needs for assessing English learners. WIDA encourages all educators, even those not familiar with WIDA MODEL, to complete the optional survey.
For assistance, please contact Chris Williams.
WIDA Self-Paced Workshops
District and school staff have access to 12 free WIDA self-paced workshops. Grab your laptop, gather colleagues who work with multilingual learners and dive into practical and engaging learning opportunities. The following self-paces workshops are available through Aug. 31:
- Developing Language for Learning in Mathematics
- Engaging Multilingual Learners in Science: Making Sense of Phenomena
- Exploring the WIDA PreK-3 Essential Actions
- Let’s Play! Multilingual Children’s Joyful Learning in PreK-3
- Making Language Visible in the Classroom
- Teaching Multilingual Learners Social Studies through Multiple Perspectives
- Reframing Education of Long Term English Learners
- Newcomers: Promoting Success through Strengthening Practice
- The WIDA ELD Standards Framework: A Collaborative Approach
- Reading Comprehension Across Content Areas with Multilingual Learners
- WIDA Español: Desarrollando el español: Las expectativas del lenguaje
- WIDA Español: Evaluaciones del desarrollo del lenguaje a nivel de salón - Classroom assessment for language development
Visit the WIDA Self-Paced Workshops webpage to view the workshop descriptions, estimated time to complete each course and more.
For assistance, please contact Chris Williams.
ACCESS for ELLs Online and WIDA Screener
Updated supported system requirements for ACCESS for ELLs Online and WIDA Screener Online have been posted to WIDA AMS under My Applications > General Information > Documents. These system requirements are valid for Feb.-June 2025. Please share with test and technology coordinators in the districts and schools.
For questions, please contact DRC Customer Support or call (855)-787-9615 (Teletypewriter (TTY): (763) 268-2889).
WIDA Assessment Webinar Reminder
Please join WIDA and DRC to learn about the following topic:
- ACCESS Data Validation Tuesday, March 4 at 1-2 p.m. CT
Learn more and add this upcoming webinar to your calendar on the Webinars page (login required).
Can’t make it? The recordings for Assessment Webinars are posted to the WIDA Secure Portal on the Webinars page within a week of the presentation. All district and school staff completing ACCESS Data Validation must watch the WIDA Assessment Webinar.
For assistance, please contact Chris Williams.
2025 Feb. DAC Trainings Hybrid Question and Answer (Q&A) Sessions Reminder
The Division of Assessment and Accountability Support (DAAS) is hosting the third and final February DAC Training Hybrid Q&A session on Wednesday, March 5, at the West Kentucky Educational Cooperative (WKEC) in Eddyville, KY.
The in-person Q&A Session registration will begin at 8:30 a.m. CT and will be followed by the Q&A Sessions scheduled from 9 a.m. to noon CT.
Please use the links below to register for the Eddyville February DAC Training Q&A Session. Registration is open for both in-person and hybrid attendance for the remaining location.
Meeting links will be sent out via email containing details on attending virtually.
March 5 In-Person Registration: West Kentucky Educational Cooperative (WKEC) in Eddyville (Capacity 90) or March 5 Virtual Registration: WKEC
Please contact Christen Roseberry with any questions or concerns surrounding the February DAC Trainings.
KSA Office Hours
OAA, in collaboration with Pearson, will be hosting office hour sessions for the spring 2025 administration of the KSA. Pearson will provide tutorials to assist DACs and BACs with the tasks required in PearsonAccessnext (PAN). DACs, BACs and all test administrators will be able to ask questions and receive assistance during this time. Questions can be submitted prior to the office hour using the KSA Office Hour Form. A link to the Teams meeting will be provided in an upcoming Monday DAC email. The dates and times for office hours are listed below.
KSA Office Hour Session 1 – Wednesday, March 26, 10-11 a.m. ET
KSA Office Hour Session 2 – Wednesday, April 16, 10-11 a.m. ET
KSA Office Hour Session 3 – Wednesday, May 14, 10-11 a.m. ET
Please note that the questions asked during the office hour sessions should be specific to the KSA administration. For questions, please contact Melissa Chandler.
Reminder: OAA Committee Work Opportunities
The Kentucky Department of Education is seeking Kentucky educators to assist with various assessment-related tasks in the upcoming months. The goal is to ensure that the assessments are of the highest quality, accurately measure the Kentucky Academic Standards, and are fair to all test takers. The creation of the Kentucky Summative Assessments (KSA) and the Alternate Kentucky Summative Assessments (AKSA) is a complex process that includes standard setting, item writing, bias review, and blueprint development.
K-12 educators who are interested in participating in the assessment development and other committee work for the assessment system are encouraged to complete the application. A pool of candidates is being gathered for these critical steps and other supporting activities. Applications are being accepted for each of these activities in science reading, mathematics, social studies, and writing. Much of this work will be done virtually, and participants will receive a stipend.
The Application for Assessment Committees is due by Tuesday, April 15, for work needed in 2025. If not chosen for participation this spring, summer, or fall, applicant names will be kept on file for future assessment work. is due by Tuesday, April 15, for work needed in 2025. If not chosen for participation this spring, summer, or fall, applicant names will be kept on file for future assessment work.
For questions, please email dacinfo@education.ky.gov.
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