ELP Assessment Update [August 5, 2021]
Welcome to August. Screening season is nearly upon us, and we have some updates regarding our transition to WIDA below.
OSPI has establish eligibility criteria for English language development services. A work group was established to develop recommended criteria for each grade level. The recommendations of the work group, along with statements of concern or support from stakeholders, were included in the decision making. The table below are the approved thresholds by grade band. Students will need to meet both a minimum overall score and a minimum in each domain to be ineligible for ELD services.
|
Grade Level
|
Minimum Scores (student achieving these would not be eligible for services)
|
|
Overall
|
Domain
|
|
K
|
4.5
|
4
|
|
1
|
4.5
|
4
|
|
2-3
|
5
|
4
|
|
4-5
|
5
|
4
|
|
6-8
|
5
|
4
|
|
9-12
|
5
|
4
|
OSPI intends to do follow-up analyses when we have screener data for Washington students as well as data from the first year of the annual test.
OSPI has ordered WIDA Screener Materials for districts. There is a delay in processing the orders due to an unexpectedly high volume of orders across the country for the Kindergarten screener kits. The vendor is currently expecting that kindergarten screener materials will arrive in district the week of August 23. The materials you receive will include student response booklets and all the materials associated with administering the assessment. We determined the order based on numbers from previous years, plus some extra for typical growth and delays in screening due to covid-related limitations.
If districts are planning to screen kindergarten students prior receiving the kits, the materials for testing can be printed from the Secure Portal. See the Kindergarten Screener training course for these materials.
The WIDA Online Screener is the test used to determine eligibility for English language development services in grades 1 through 12. The test is an online test across all four domains, except for the writing domain for grades 1-3.
Test administrators will need to successfully pass the appropriate grade level training quizzes before administering or scoring a test. The trainings are located on the WIDA Secure Portal. If you do not see a screener option when you log onto the Secure Portal, please contact your DAC to give you permissions.
DACs can give permissions by clicking on the Account Status and Training Management button. If you (DAC) do not see this button, or if you want to give this authority to someone else in your district, please contact Leslie Huff (leslie.huff@k12.wa.us) to make your request. This is also where DACs can monitor who has completed training.
WIDA will launch a new Secure Portal on September 1. Any incomplete training will be lost. If a TA has completed a training, record of the training will be retained in the new secure portal. Please make sure your TAs are aware of the timeline and complete there testing before the shift or begin training after September 1.
WIDA AMS is the DRC platform used to administer WIDA tests including the online screener. The User Guide for WIDA AMS (DRC’s platform for WIDA testing) can be found on the WIDA Secure Portal in the Downloads Library or in the Resources section (right side) when you enter the training course.
Thank you for your patience as we make our way through this transition. It is a lot of change, and we will do our best to support you through the process. If you have any questions about ELP assessments, please contact Leslie Huff (leslie.huff@k12.wa.us), or send your email to the new ELP Assessments email (elpassessments@k12.wa.us) at OSPI. Please note, the ELPA21@k12.wa.us email is no longer available.
|
