Information Update Bulletin 02.07

September 2002

TO:	District Administrators, CESA Administrators, CCDEB Administrators, Directors of Special Education and Pupil Services, and Other Interested Parties
FROM:	Carolyn Stanford Taylor, Assistant State Superintendent Division for Learning Support: Equity and Advocacy
SUBJECT:	Guidelines for Complying with the Wisconsin Alternate Assessment, Part 2

This bulletin is the second of a series of bulletins describing the guidelines for complying with the Wisconsin Alternate Assessment (WAA). The first bulletin (Bulletin No. 02.03) described the WAA Participation Checklist. This checklist is a required document to be used by Individualized Education Program (IEP) teams when making decisions about a student's participation in the WAA.

Once the IEP team has decided the student will participate in the WAA, the WAA will be completed by an individual or individuals who have first-hand information of the student's IEP goals, objectives or benchmarks, educational curriculum, knowledge and skills. This will be completed during the months of September, October, and November until the close of the testing window or when testing has been completed in the school district.

The WAA is part of the Wisconsin Student Assessment System (WSAS) and is designed to assess the educational performance of students with disabilities who cannot meaningfully participate in the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examination (WKCE) or the local assessment of oral language even with accommodations. The WAA, which is a checklist completed by teachers, will focus on the knowledge and skills that are aligned with Wisconsin Model Academic Standards in reading, language arts, (including oral language and writing), mathematics, science and social studies. These knowledge and skills are considered to be prerequisite to the majority of content assessed by the WKCE. For purposes of reliability, there will be a second rater used to rate only IEP-aligned items in each content area. This will be accomplished by reviewing two sources of evidence for each IEP-aligned item collected by the first rater. The second rater needs to be a licensed teacher or related service provider who is familiar with the student and the student's IEP.

To assist the field in understanding the WAA, the Administrative Guidebook for the WAA for Students with Disabilities was developed. This document provides detailed information about the development and use of the WAA. It is divided into five chapters and includes the participation checklist, the WAA Rating Scale, a guide for teachers, a parent brochure, case studies, resources, and appendices. This is available on our special education website at: http://dpi.wi.gov/sped/assessmt.html.

The department will not be sending the WAA Rating Scale for each student participating in the WAA. It is the district's responsibility to copy a sufficient number of WAA Rating Scales for each student in fourth, eighth, and tenth grade who will be participating in the WAA. A copy of the WAA Rating Scale is attached for your use. Once completed, the prerequisite skill levels for each content area assessed will be entered on the back cover of the WKCE test book. This information will be sent along with all test books to CTB McGraw Hill. Reports on the results of the WAA will be sent to the district along with the reports of the WKCE. The completed WAA Rating Scale and all evidence collected for the IEP-aligned items must be kept in the student's behavior file for five years.

Finally, the WAA must be completed this year for each student with a disability whose IEP team has determined the student will participate in alternate assessment. The department has provided training opportunities to assist educators, administrators, and parents in understanding how to conduct the WAA. If your district has not been involved or scheduled for training please contact your CESA Regional Services Network (RSN) Coordinator or CESA Assessment Coordinator for information.

Questions regarding this bulletin may be directed to the Special Education Team at (608)266-1781.

mks
Enclosure

For questions about this information, contact Sandra A. Berndt (608) 266-1785

Last updated on 2/22/2008 1:21:22 PM