Our monthly information sessions include professional learning for district leaders of multilingual learner programs as well as timely information with clock hours provided! Sign up here on pdEnroller.
Our last session on January 4 focused on Early Literacy screening and instruction for multilingual learners. Please see the recording and slides here. The next session will focus on Inclusionary Practices and will be held on:
2023-24 Info Session Dates & Topics: Mar. 7: Braided Funding, Apr. 4: Long-Term ELs, May 2: Program Evaluation, & June 6: Using Assessment.
Add sessions to calendar: AM Session (9-10 am) | PM Session (3-4 pm)
For previous resources please go to the Multilingual Education Webinars and Newsletters page.
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In Washington, a student's eligibility for English language development services has been determined by a single data source, the annual English language proficiency assessment. OSPI has analyzed data from WIDA ACCESS and Smarter Balanced assessments, as well as educator input, to identify improvements to this current approach. Beginning in 2024 students who score close to proficient on the WIDA ACCESS assessment will have an additional opportunity to demonstrate their readiness to exit ELD services.
2024 Updated Exit Criteria:
- Students in grades K-1 who score 4.0 on the Kindergarten ACCESS or ACCESS test will exit ELD services. (no change)
- Students in grades 2-12 who score 4.7 on the ACCESS test will exit ELD services. (no change)
- Students in grades 3-12 who score 4.3-4.6 on the ACCESS test may exit ELD services if they also score a 3 or 4 on the state required ELA content assessment.
For questions about the new exit criteria, please contact ELPassessments@k12.wa.us.
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LLRNs are professional learning communities of school and district language learning leaders in each Educational Service District (ESD) who meet regularly to engage in professional learning, collaboration, and program improvement planning. Click on the pdEnroller links below for a full list of dates and to register for a LLRN.
Region Program Supervisor: Katie Sperling
Region Program Supervisor: Virginia Morales
Region Program Supervisor: Shannon Martin
Region Program Supervisor: Lindsey Maehlum
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ACCESS Test Preparation for Students
Welcome to 2024! As always, we are kicking the year off with English language proficiency testing beginning at the end of January. Below are some quick updates to help you prepare for testing and have a smooth testing season.
Important Dates
January 19-22 - Districts will receive their initial materials for WIDA testing. These materials will be based on the data file pulled from CEDARS on December 8.
January 19 - Additional Materials Order window opens. It is important that you receive your initial materials shipment before ordering additional materials as you will often receive overage on common materials. Also, please refrain from making daily or weekly additional materials orders. OSPI must approve these orders and having multiple orders from each district will delay how fast we can approve orders.
January 29 - Opening day of the testing window. The window will close on March 22.
February 24 - The first day districts have the authority to decide if students enrolling in Washington schools will take both the screener and the annual test before the end of the test window or if they will only do the screener. Students arriving on or before February 23 must take both if they are determined eligible for program.
March 29 - Deadline to ship completed test materials to DRC.
Training
Test administrators are required to complete annual training for the test they administer. In general, test administrators need to complete trainings in the WIDA Secure Portal. In the Secure Portal, trainings are organized by the test and test version individuals will administer. If a TA is only administering WIDA Kindergarten ACCESS, then they would only need to complete that training. However, if they are also administering WIDA Alternate ACCESS, then that would be an additional training that they will need to complete.
For the WIDA Online ACCESS there is a state-developed refresher training. The refresher training is available to TAs who will be administering the Online ACCESS and have completed either (or both) the WIDA Secure Portal training for Online ACCESS for the 2023 test administration or the WIDA Screener. If someone completed the Refresher training for 2023 and did not complete screener training after July 1, 2024, then they will need to complete the WIDA Secure Portal training for the annual test this year. As a reminder, districts can choose to allow the refresher training for their test administrators. The refresher training is not required.
Materials
OSPI submitted the CEDARS file to DRC in December, and from that file students will be loaded into WIDA AMS and initial materials orders will be generated for each school. All materials will be sent to the district along with school allotment information.
Once you receive your materials, you may find that you need some additional materials. Only District Assessment Coordinators (DACs) can make additional materials orders in WIDA AMS. When ordering additional materials, DACs must select “District Level Additional Materials” as the school in the dropdown menu. Choosing any other school in the dropdown menu will result in a canceled order. OSPI can only approve orders for District Level Additional Materials.
OSPI must approve each additional material order. To help streamline this process, please ensure that you have a plan to collect requests for materials only two or three times throughout the testing window. This will ensure that OSPI staff can review the orders in a timely manner for approval.
Testing Incidents
Any situation that includes a request to invalidate, regenerate or move a test to a different SSID must be requested through ARMS. These situations should be rare, but when they occur, they will need to go through ARMS. Assessment staff will plan to review ARMS requests daily; however, if volume is high there may be a delay in resolving issues.
Resources
The WIDA Secure Portal offers a number of webinars to support testing activities through the year. The following webinars may be most helpful at this time of year as you prepare for testing to begin.
Contact Us
As we gear up for testing, this is a reminder that OSPI is here to help things run smoothly. Please don’t hesitate to reach out and ask your questions or clarify understanding. We are here to support you and are eager to hear from you. Some useful contacts are below.
wida@datarecognitioncorp.com – DRC’s help desk can support any questions about WIDA-AMS and how it works.
help@wida.us – WIDA’s help desk can support questions about WIDA Secure Portal access.
ELPAssessments@k12.wa.us – OSPI can support questions about state policy and provide support when DACs have questions.
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The Zoom at Noon: Lunch with Leslie
Lunch with Leslie is an opportunity on Mondays at noon for districts to hear updates from the OSPI Assessment Team, ask questions about WIDA assessments, or find out how other districts are approaching testing processes.
Zoom link for January 2024-July 2024: Zoom Link
In January, we will have some Tuesday sessions to accommodation Monday holidays. Please mark your calendars. January sessions will be held on January 16, 22, and 29.
Upcoming Professional Learning
HL & Less-Commonly Taught Languages (LCTL) Educator PLC: Planning with Purpose: In this monthly PLC, heritage language educators and educators teaching LCTLs in all contexts will collaborate across the state to plan and reflect on units of study. In October, November, and December we will be working on identity/ autobiography-based units.
Tuesday, January 23 | 3:00-4:30 PM | Zoom
Dual Language Webinar Series: Developing Strong DL Programs: In this webinar series we will explore how to develop strong, sustainable dual language programs. Each session will explore one of the steps in planning a new dual language program or strengthening an existing one. Our next session will focus on developing enrollment and family outreach plans.
Tuesday, February 6 | 3:00-4:00 PM | Zoom
Dual Language “Lunch with Leaders” PLC: Join your colleagues for this PLC to discuss problems of practice in developing and leading strong dual language programs.
Tuesday, February 13 | 12:00-1:00 PM | Zoom
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Seal of Biliteracy Rules Revision Focus Group Members Wanted
OSPI's Office of World Languages is looking to update the WA State Seal of Biliteracy (WAC 392-410-350) to add a second level of award to recognize students who have achieved a higher level of proficiency in one language other than English or have earned the original Seal in two or more languages other than English.
As this change will affect multiple interest groups, OSPI is looking for professionals who can represent these areas:
- MS/HS World Language Education
- MS/HS Dual/Heritage Language or Bilingual Education
- MS/HS/District Administration (Department Head, Subject Area Coordinator, Directors, TOSA, etc.)
- University Education and Language Professors
- Special Education
- American Sign Language
- Less Commonly Taught/Tested Languages
- Career and Technical Education (CTE)
- Assessment/Reporting
- Alternative Learning Experience/Options
For Tribal languages, OSPI will work with the Office of Native Education and Tribal consultation will occur.
This will a two-hour, one-time Zoom meeting per group held in January and February 2024. Participants will receive a draft copy of the proposed revisions at the beginning of the session, 45 minutes to review, and then come back for a group discussion to give feedback, ideas, and suggestions. Those selected will be contacted in early January with a meeting time/date poll. Clock Hours will be available for those who want them. Contact Veronica.Trapani@k12.wa.us with any questions.
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These professional learning opportunities are shared for your information but do not constitute an endorsement by OSPI of any specific organizations.
WIDA 2024 Annual Conference Proposals
Share your expertise as a presenter at the conference that is by teachers, for teachers! The 2024 WIDA Annual Conference will take place October 15-18, 2024 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania under the theme Bridging Cultures, Empowering Multilingual Voices. The knowledge and insight of educators and experts in the field are essential to the quality of the WIDA Annual Conference. Pro tip: Before you push submit on your proposal, review Five Ways to Build a Winning Proposal. Next, visit the Present webpage to learn about becoming a presenter, proposal submission information, the presenter timeline and get answers to frequently asked questions. The deadline to submit concurrent session and workshop proposals is January 24, 2024.
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Supporting Secondary MLs in Career and Technical Education Programs Webinar
In this free webinar offered on Wednesday, January 24 from 1:30 to 2:30 PM you will:
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Discuss the urgency around creating equitable pathways for ML enrollment in CTE programs and supporting MLs currently enrolled in CTE programs.
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Explore five instructional strategy recommendations to advance MLs' equitable participation in CTE programs.
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Set a goal for effective CTE programming and instruction for MLs in your context.
Clock hours available. Click here for registration.
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The Washington Association for Bilingual Education is thrilled to invite you to join us as at the 2024 WABE Dual Language Institute! We are thrilled to offer featured sessions from Rosa Molina, Dr. Cristina Alfaro, and more at the Institute!
January 25-27, 2023 | SeaTac DoubleTree | More information and registration!
We will be joined by a fantastic line up of speakers to discuss dual language education!
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OSPI Standards Review Webinar
January 31, 2024 3:00-4:30 pm: Register in advance
Washington’s learning standards for English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics (adopted in 2011), and Science (adopted in 2013) are now due for review. In this webinar OSPI staff will share timelines and processes, as well as the current status of updates to the ELA, math, and science learning standards.
You can find more information about this project can be found on the Standards Review webpage. Questions about the webinar or the project can be sent to standards.review@k12.wa.us.
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2024 STARTALK Teacher Training Opportunity
The Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) is pleased to announce that our free 2024 STARTALK teacher training program is now open to Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Persian, and Russian teachers across the United States.
The STARTALK Performance Assessment Training Program is a hybrid program that will help you gain the technical knowledge and practical skills to develop and use performance-based assessments in your own language classroom or program. The program will take place from March 2024 to December 2024, and all participants will receive a travel stipend to attend an in-person meeting for the program in summer 2024 in Washington, DC.
To learn more and apply, go to https://www.cal.org/projects/startalk-performance-assessment-training-program/. The deadline for applications is February 2, 2024. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to jbushton@cal.org
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Collaboration among educators can take various forms, ranging from having two teachers in the same room to sharing responsibilities and leveraging expertise. EL program administrators must make decisions based on demographics, enrollment, available staff, and more, keeping collaborative teaching in mind. We invite you to join us and hear from three program leaders who have achieved success with their unique situations. Thursday, February 8 from 1:00-2:30 PM. Register here!
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Climate Science: Voices of Hope
3-Day Immersion Class "OCDE Project GLAD®” Unit
STEM Clock Hours: 18 | Cost $575.00
Come to this BRAND-NEW 3-day class offering and leave with NTC Project GLAD® unit including science investigations and all the materials to teach this unit designed for 4th - 8th grade classrooms.
PSESD - Renton, WA | February 27-29, 2024 8:30 AM - 3:30 PM | More information and registration! Registration ends February 23, 2024!
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WIDA ACCESS Writing Theme Generation
The Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) is recruiting educators to share their ideas for new WIDA ACCESS test items.
This is an opportunity for educators in the field to help make sure the WIDA ACCESS test reflects the topics, themes, and language of classroom instruction.
Educators who are selected to participate will serve as Theme Generators, brainstorming possible test item ideas based on specific WIDA English Language Development standards.
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 Kristin Percy Calaff, Ph.D. – Executive Director of Multilingual & Migrant Education | 564-999-3144
Virginia Morales– Supporting ESD 121 (King) & 189 | Assistant Director of Multilingual Education | 564-669-1179
Shannon Martin– Supporting ESD 113, 114, & 121 (Pierce) | Multilingual Education Program Supervisor | 360-269-5232
Katie Sperling– Supporting ESD 101 & 171 | Multilingual Education Program Supervisor | 360 -701-5064
Lindsey Maehlum– Supporting ESD 105, 112, & 123 | Multilingual Education Program Supervisor
Ema Shirk– Supporting Heritage and Dual Language Programs | Dual Language Program Supervisor | 564-200-3167
Teresa Mendoza-Casby– Supporting Dual Language Programs | Dual Language Program Supervisor | 564-999-0610
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