Wyoming Education Association

Spring 2016

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Spring 2016 | wyoea.org 13 Legislative Update Changes Coming to Assessments & Accountability The 2016 legislature passed two bills that included important changes to future student assessments and to the Wyoming Accountability in Education Act. Following is a short summary; if you have questions or want further information, please contact Kathy Scheurman at kscheurman@wyoea.org. Beginning with the SY 2017-18 administration, statewide assessments will be given in grades 3-10 in English Language Arts & math, and in grades 4, 8, & 10 in science. The ACT suite will then no longer be used in 9 th and 10 th grades. All previous statutory references to ACT & WORKKEYS are now "a standardized college entrance exam" (which will still be required for all 11 th graders) and "a career-readiness exam" (which will be optional, in 11 th or 12 th grade). This wording change allows the state more leverage when getting bids for such exams, instead of tying us to specific brand name products. WDE will provide interim assessments that are aligned to the state summative assessment and to state content and performance standards, but it will be optional for districts to administer them. The statewide summative assessment: o will be limited to no more than 1% of total pupil-teacher contact time; o administered as late as practical in the school year and still allow for use in determining improvement strategies [note: the statewide assessment is not now nor was it ever intended to be used for adjusting instruction—classroom and interim assessments serve that purpose]; o to the extent possible, be administered online; o is no longer limited to only multiple choice items; o student performance results must be comparative to results in other states. Accountability system changes: o Some of the measures used to determine school-level (Phase I) accountability have been modified. o Postpones until SY 2018-19 the requirement for linking student performance on state assessments to school & district leader accountability (Phase II). o Per the recommendations of the Alternative School Accountability Committee, an accountability model specific to alternative schools (Phase I) is to be developed and piloted in SY 2016-17 and will include the following indicators (and measures): 1) academic performance (measured by achievement, & growth); 2) college- & career-readiness (credits earned, & attainment as measured by graduation rate & post-secondary credential attainment), 3) student engagement (attendance, & a school or student success plan), & 4) school climate (appropriate survey results). l l l l l

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