Wyoming educators are invited to participate in the upcoming Wyoming Alternate Assessment (WY-ALT) Policy Achievement Level Descriptor (ALD) and WY-ALT Science Data Review Committee Meeting.

This committee will review field tested items developed for the WY-ALT Online Science Assessment tested this spring 2019. As a member of the committee, you will review items and their data from this year's field test to ensure the reliability and validity of the item for use within the Wyoming item bank. This committee will review the ALDs for the WY-ALT to determine the overarching Policy ALDs for the WY-ALT.

If you are interested in serving on the WY-ALT ALD & WY-ALT Science Data Review Committee, please complete the application form found at the registration button below.

WIDA and DRC are retiring the Testing Site Manager (TSM) and implementing Central Office Services-Service Device (COS-SD) for the ACCESS for ELLs Online and WIDA Screener Online administrations. 

Please note:   

• May 15, 2019 - All states will start the transition.  COS-SD and its supporting documentation will be available in WIDA AMS for download. 
• June 27, 2019 - TSM will no longer be available.
• August 15, 2019 - TSM will no longer be supported.  

To help districts prepare for these changes, WIDA and DRC will be hosting a series of webinars geared to technology coordinators on the following dates:

• Wednesday, June 12 at 10 a.m. CT
• Thursday, August 1 at 10 a.m. CT

Login information is located on the WIDA Q&A Webinars 2018-2019 for Technology Coordinators Schedule.  For questions contact DRC Customer Support at 1-855-787-9615 or WIDA@DataRecognitionCorp.com.

When any student enrolls in a Wyoming school district for the first time, parents are asked to complete a Home Language Survey (HLS).  All students must have a HLS survey on file, regardless of a student or family’s perceived language proficiency, ethnicity, race, or linguistic background. HLS forms must be a standard part of the enrollment process for each and every student. It is unnecessary to ask parents to complete a HLS each year when a student is in the same district, as it can lead to a student being misidentified for English Learner (EL) services.

A district may have multiple HLS’s for a student when:

• A student transfers to another district within Wyoming.
• A student enters Wyoming from another state. 

Every attempt to obtain records from the previous district or state must occur to verify that the student is not already an Active EL or on Monitoring status.

EL Teachers, EL Coordinators, administrators, and instructional coaches have the opportunity to learn how the ACCESS for ELs 2.0 Score Reports provide important information about students’ academic English language proficiency. Participants will examine the different types of reports available and each report’s function. Participants will also discuss the connection between the score reports and the WIDA ELD Standards and Assessment System, and how these reports can serve as a tool to initiate discussion about instruction. This is a great opportunity to get any questions you might have answered. Participants have the option to bring score reports or learn how to pull score reports at the workshop.

Follow this link to register for the Casper location.

Follow this link to register for the Riverton location.

Wyoming uses the ACCESS 2.0 and ALT ACCESS as valid and reliable ELP assessments that test all four language domains to ensure that ELs have achieved English proficiency. The proficiency score on the ELP assessment that is administered every spring must be set at a level that enables students to effectively participate in grade-level content instruction in English without EL services. Wyoming has a new multi exit-criteria set for the 2018-2019 school year.

For an English Learner to be considered proficient on the ACCESS 2.0 assessment, a student must have met both of these criteria:

• An overall composite performance level (CPL) score of at least 4.6.
• AND A literacy performance level (LPL) of at least a 4.3 (NEW).

WIDA is currently recruiting schools to participate in a field test for the new writing tasks. Field testing takes place August 19-January 20. The test consists of two writing tasks that take about 60 minutes to administer. The field test is open to all schools and districts with multilingual learners in grades 1-12. Writing prompts will be online, however, students in grades 1-5 will handwrite their responses and students in grades 6-12 will type their responses on the computer. WIDA will provide a $100 stipend for participating schools.

If you’re interested in participating in the writing field test complete the interest form located at: go.wisc.edu/MODELfieldtest. Complete one form for each school you plan to register.