Important Announcements from Assessment & Accountability – Week of September 15, 2014

Announcements from Assessment & Accountability - located within the Division of Accountability Services (DAS) - Week of September 15, 2014

1)     WIDA New Assessment Coordinator and New Principal Primers Available

2)     WIDA Testing Foreign Exchange Students

3)     Interpretation of Kindergarten WIDA ACCESS for ELLs Scores

4)     KEA Participation Reminder

5)     Final Opportunity to Register for Fall 2014 Interims and Receive Incentive Funds

6)     REMINDER: Pre-ID your students NOW for the Fall 2014 K-2 and High School Interim Assessments in the Secure Site at https://baa.state.mi.us/BAASecure/Login.aspx.

1)     WIDA New Assessment Coordinator and New Principal Primers Available

If you’re a new Assessment Coordinator or a new Principal and want to make sure you have everything in order to start your school year off in the right direction when it comes to assessing your English Learners (ELs), then these documents are just for you! These handy documents help you make sure you are signed up for the correct listservs and user accounts with MDE and also aid you in understanding major acronyms. And if you’re a principal, they can help you prepare yourself and your staff for a smooth year of testing your ELs by giving you some examples of major pitfalls and their solutions for districts. Go to www.michigan.gov/wida to check them out!

2)     WIDA Testing Foreign Exchange Students

Administration of the Home Language Survey (HLS) and subsequent screening of all students who have a ‘yes’ indicated on that survey with the WIDA ACCESS Placement Test (W-APT) is a state and federal requirement. Students who are foreign exchange students are held to these same requirements. If students are found to be in need of EL services based on Michigan’s Entrance & Exit Protocol, these students must be identified as such in MSDS and will need to be assessed on the Spring 2015 WIDA ACCESS for ELLs.

3)     Interpretation of Kindergarten WIDA ACCESS for ELLs Scores

Score reports for Kindergarten students who took the WIDA ACCESS for ELLs will show two proficiency levels (PLs): Instructional and Accountability. For placement decisions, districts should refer to the Accountability PL since this is on the same scale as that of the 1^st - 12^th grade assessments. The Student Data File available in the Secure Site includes these Accountability PLs only. However, schools may find it beneficial to utilize both PLs for differing purposes and should refer to the WIDA ACCESS for ELLs Interpretive Guide to do so.

4)     KEA Participation Reminder

Although many teachers are registered for KEA, not all have completed the Inter-Rater Reliability (IRR) and Pre-ID of students in the BAA Secure Site.

•  The KEA test window begins September 2 and closes October 31, 2014.
• The IRR module (3 SCECHS) must be completed before entering data into the TS Gold System.  Professional Development modules (12 SCECHS) may be completed later.
• If you are a district or site administrator, would you please check with KEA Test Administrators to ensure they are able to complete their IRR as soon as possible?
• All students must be PRE-ID’d on the BAA Secure Site by someone at the school or district with password access to the Secure Site and then placed in a session. Directions for both steps can be found at: www.michigan.gov/securesitetraining.
• If you need assistance during the test window the TS Gold Help Desk number is: 1-866-736-5913 or email: techsupport@teachingstrategies.com.

5)     The final opportunity to register your school to participate in the Fall 2014 Interim Assessment Field Test will be Friday, September 26. If your school has not yet registered, please do so now and your school district will be eligible to receive incentive funds of $3.00 for each student test completed.

Although the interim assessment field test is already in progress, the testing window is open now through October 17. Schools still time to join the field test and collect the incentive funding, but you must register by Friday, September 26.

The incentive funds are being made available through the Technology Readiness Infrastructure Grant (TRIG), furthering the TRIG goal to support and build state capacity in technology.

Additional Information on Participation in the Fall 2014 Interim Assessment Field Test for K-2 and High Schools  

• Schools are invited to register for participation in the Fall 2014 Interim Assessment Field Test (September 15 – October 17, 2014). This field test is an important part of a high quality test development process and will be valuable to schools, students, and teachers.

Reasons to Participate

• The Fall 2014 Field Test provides an opportunity for schools to test bandwidth capacity and student scheduling for online testing prior to the state summative assessment which will be administered in spring 2015.
• Students will have the benefit of taking an online assessment in a low-stakes setting and practice using common online assessment tools (calculators, highlighters, etc.).
• Earn TRIG incentive funds in the amount of a $3.00 minimum per test completed. (Each content or subject area test consists of two parts, and both parts of the test must be completed to be eligible for the participation incentive.) For example, a student who completes both parts of each assessment in ELA and Mathematics will earn the school district a participation incentive of $6.00. The final amount will be based on the total number of completed tests throughout the state.
• Teachers will receive an invitation to provide feedback and recommendations for improving the testing process.

Districts may have several schools participate in one or more subject(s) and grade level(s). Each participating school must register individually. Content areas to be field-tested include:

• English language arts (ELA) and mathematics for grades K, 1, and 2.
• High school science courses (Earth Science, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics).
• High school social studies courses (US History & Geography, World History & Geography, Civics, and Economics).
• If Earth Science high school courses are offered to 8^th grade students, schools may consider offering the Earth Science interim assessment to these 8^th grade students.

Technology Considerations: 

• Schools may use Windows or Mac desktops and laptops to administer the field test assessments.  The field test window is September 15, 2014 through October 17, 2014.  Schools may administer the field test assessments any time within this five-week testing window.
• NEW – MDE is also seeking schools to administer the field tests on iPads and Chromebooks.  This separate testing window concerns only these devices and runs from October 20 – November 14, 2014.  Registration for the iPad and Chromebook window will open Monday, September 29.  More information about testing with these devices will be provided at that time. Tests completed as a part of this separate window will also qualify for the TRIG participation incentive.

Details regarding the minimum requirements for each device type are provided in the Michigan Testing Device Requirements http://mtrax.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Michigan-Testing-Device-Requirements.pdf document.

You also need to know:

• The Michigan interim assessments are only available online.
• All interim assessments are aligned to Michigan’s education standards and assess students currently enrolled in the subjects selected. 

REGISTER NOW TO PARTICPATE AND RECEIVE YOUR TRIG FUNDS

To participate in the Fall 2014 Interim Assessment Field Test, please complete the registration survey for each school at https://baameap.wufoo.com/forms/fall14-interim-assessment-field-test-registration/.  If you have already completed the registration survey, you do not have to complete it again to qualify for the TRIG participation incentive.

 More information about the Michigan Interim Assessments may be found at: http://www.michigan.gov/interimassessments.

More information about TRIG may be found at:

http://22itrig.org

6)     REMINDER: Pre-ID your students NOW for the Fall 2014 K-2 and High School Interim Assessments in the Secure Site at https://baa.state.mi.us/BAASecure/Login.aspx.

It’s time to pre-id your students for the fall 2014 K-2 and High School Interim Assessments. Students must be pre-identified on the Secure Site in order to be loaded into Data Recognition Corporation’s (DRC) eDIRECT system before you can begin administering these assessments. It is strongly recommended that you pre-identify students well in advance of administering these assessments to ensure that student information has loaded correctly into the eDIRECT system. The window to pre-id students in the secure site is now open and will close on October 14, 2014.

There are multiple methods to pre-identify students on the Secure Site for the Interim Assessments. Camtasia videos with instructions for each of the pre-ID methods and the Secure Site Procedure and User Manual can be found at http://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,4615,7-140-22709_57003---,00.html.

You can use one or a combination of these methods to identify students for testing.   

Once students have been loaded into the eDIRECT system, users (Interim Assessment Building Coordinators) will need to assign students to a testing session.  Instructions for creating testing sessions and adding students can be found in the Interim Assessment Building Coordinator Handbook found in the Documents section at https://mi.drcedirect.com (no login required).

Have Other Questions?

For assessment questions, please email BAA@michigan.gov.

For accountability questions, please email MDE-Accountability@michigan.gov.

For phone assistance with assessment or accountability issues, call 877-560-8378 and select the appropriate menu option.