ELP Assessment Update July 14, 2022
The summer is a difficult time to think about school, but screening season begins on August 1. Below we are offering some information to help you plan for screening and training as we begin our year.
TA training is an annual requirement for those who are administering WIDA Screener tests. TAs must complete training and pass the appropriate scoring quiz before administering the screener. However, there is currently a glitch in the WIDA Secure Portal and the quizzes for those who completed scoring training after September 1 have not yet been reset in the WIDA Secure Portal, so the TAs cannot redo their quizzes. We are working with WIDA to get this issue resolved.
During the 2022 WIDA ACCESS testing window more than 50 incidents of plagiarism were identified in Washington. The increase in plagiarism is concerning, and we are asking districts to please emphasize the prohibition on personal electronic devices (phones, watches, etc.) in the testing environment when training test administrators on test security.
The process DRC uses to identify incidents on of plagiarism on WIDA ACCESS includes multiple steps. OSPI also reviews the incidents identified by DRC for confirmation of probable plagiarism. The steps are outlined below.
- During scoring a DRC trained scorer identifies an incident of probably plagiarism and elevates the incident to the DRC lead. The trained scorers listen to many responses for a particular question, so they know what a typical student response sounds like. So, when they hear one out of the ordinary, one that sounds like the student is reading from an article, or the student provides related factual information not given to them in the input, or they phonetically pronounce certain words, it triggers the raters to alert the response to the scoring director.
- Once the response is alerted, the scoring directors listen to it, and if they agree it sounds like it could be from a website, they enter specific words from the response into a search engine and see what comes up.
- The lead reviews the incident, identified the website (or other source) from which the plagiarized response was taken.
- The lead documents the source along with the item information and makes this information along with a copy of the student’s response available to the state.
- At OSPI, a staff member reviews the information provided to confirm that the evidence is overwhelming that plagiarism occurred.
- OSPI invalidates the impacted domain test. The student will not receive a domain score nor an overall score.
- OSPI notifies districts of the incident of the domain invalidation and asks for districts to conduct a local investigation.
OSPI is bringing back Lunch with Leslie for the 2022-23 school year. This is an opportunity on Mondays at noon for districts to hear updates from OSPI, ask questions about WIDA assessments, or find out how other districts are approaching testing processes. This is a casual opportunity for collaboration and information sharing and any district staff involved with ELP assessments is welcome to attend.
- July 18 at noon: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85671837519 Topic: General Screener Information, Updates for 2022-23 school year, Training, Q & A, Ordering K materials.
- July 25 at noon: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81132915461 Topic: General Screener Information, Updates for 2022-23 school year, Training, Q & A, Ordering K materials
- August 8 at noon: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83126193007 Topic: Q & A, End Domain Incomplete, Resetting a screener
- August 15 at noon: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83810789794 Topic: TBD
The WIDA Store has developed a new process for ordering materials for Kindergarten Screener. Only district level staff can order materials for WIDA Kindergarten Screener. The new process is outlined below.
- Districts will place their order directly online through the WIDA Store.
- Kindergarten Screener items are located under the MODEL/Screener Assessment heading in the green Shop Products bar
- Answer "no" to the tax exempt question.
- Select "Purchase Order" as their payment method at checkout and submit the order. This is essentially a quote. Districts won't be sending a PO.
- Districts will receive an order confirmation email.
- Districts must forward the order confirmation email to ELPAssessments@k12.wa.us for approval.
- The state will forward the order confirmation to the WIDA Store upon approval. OSPI will review orders on Tuesdays each week through August and September and then monthly through June.
- The WIDA store will process the order and send the invoice to OSPI.
If you have students who cannot participate in the screener or students who have reached their limit in testing, there is an option called “End Domain Incomplete.” How to do this is different depending on the domain you are trying to end.
Students must be offered an opportunity to test in each domain unless they qualify for a domain exemption. Domain exemptions are available for a student
- whose disability prevents them from accessing a domain as part of their regular communication and
- who cannot access the domain test even with accommodations
To End Domain Incomplete for Listening and Reading domains, begin the test and test the student. If the student reaches a point at which they can no longer participate in the test, end the test. If the student begins the test and cannot engage with the first item, offer the second item. If the student still cannot respond, determine if this is a result of behavior and the test should be paused and the student can complete testing at a later time, or if the situation is a result of a disability and the domain should be ended incomplete. For the Reading and Listening domains, a student whose test is ended incomplete will receive and automatic score of 1.
To End Domain Incomplete for Speaking and Writing domains the test needs to be routed through the Screener Scoring system. If there is no response to any item in these domains, then the test will appear as a non-attempt. To “End Domain Incomplete” for Speaking and Writing domains, students must be given an opportunity to respond to a non-practice item. If they are unable to engage in anyway, the TA can type or say the phrase “no response” as the response. The student must be given the opportunity to respond and a reasonable time to respond. Before ending the domain incomplete, please consider if pausing the test and having the student finish at a later time is possible. If a Speaking or Writing test is ended incomplete from a not started status, a Screener report will not be able to generate. The student would need to be rescreened.
Additional information on this process is available from OSPI. Please email the ELPAssessments@k12.wa.us inbox if you would like to receive the document. Only those with permissions enabled in WID
If a student is unable to use the technology effectively, a TA can operate the technology for the student on the Listening and Reading domains. The TA may click as directed by the student or in response to student gestures such as pointing. The TA may not support the student in any way with the content of the test, only the technology. For the speaking domain, the TA can operate the technology; however, there is only one opportunity for a student to record, so spending some time in the practice items, so the student knows how to use the microphone is often a better option. For the writing, if a student cannot respond through typing a response, the response can be handwritten on paper. Please see the WIDA Secure Portal training for more details on how to use paper for the response. The TA may not type a student’s dictated response directly into the test.
The staff at OSPI is here to help answer questions and provide guidance. Please don't hesitate to reach out to get the answers you need.
ELPAssessments@k12.wa.us - use this address for ordering Kindergarten screener materials (see process above), general questions about screening or training, requests to reset screener assessments.
DRC Customer Service wida@datarecognitioncorp.com - Contact DRC for technology concerns associated with WIDA AMS and the testing process.
WIDA Customer Support - Help@wida.us - Contact WIDA for support with the WIDA Secure Portal.
Leslie Huff (ELP Assessment Coordinator) leslie.huff@k12.wa.us. Contact Leslie for questions around ELP assessment policy or if you are not sure where to direct your questions.
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