SD DOE Office of Assessment

A brief checklist to help you stay on top of all things assessment.

Your ACCESS materials will arrive this Friday at your schools/districts.

ACCESS Webinars will be January 9th, 14th, and the 23rd. To register for any of the webinars in the ACCESS for ELLS Webinar Series, please go here.

Your students will be in the WIDA AMS on January 13th. If you have students missing from your list, please contact Yutzil Becker at Yutzil.Becker@state.sd.us.

All District Assessment Coordinators and Test Administrators must fill out and sign the Non-Disclosure Agreement if they are involved with the ACCESS and Alternate ACCESS assessments. Click here for the link to the Non-Disclosure Agreement.

AIR Webinars about AIRWays Reporting, TIDE, and Proctor Training are next week. To participate, sign up here.

The Office of Assessment Winter Roadshow is happening soon. To attend a workshop, sign up here.

*We will be changing the format of the newsletter as we head into the testing season. We also intend on sending out the newsletter weekly.

1/10/20-1/13/20

Districts will receive materials at the district address listed in the DOE directory. Remember you will only receive materials for grades 1-3 writing, KG ACCESS, Alt. ACCESS and if you are a paper ACCESS district.

1/13/20-2/28/20

Students will appear in WIDA AMS

1/27/20-2/28/20

Test Window

Just a reminder that in order for an educator to administer the ACCESS assessments they must be a certified educator. They must also complete their training via the WIDA Secure Portal Training Course.

Quizzes include ACCESS KG Quiz, Alternate ACCESS for ELLs Quiz, ACCESS Paper Administration Quiz Grades 1-2 & Speaking Quizzes, ACCESS Online Quiz. Please remember you only need to complete the quizzes that pertain to the assessment you will be administering.

This school year the SD DOE will not be hosting face-to-face ACCESS for ELLs workshops. A variety of webinar opportunities will be offered on different dates and times. The following webinars have been scheduled:

ACCESS for ELLs: Materials.- January 9, 2020. This will be offered from 8-9 AM, 12-1 PM, and 2-3 PM.

WIDA Assessment Accommodations Webinar- January 23, 2020. This will be offered from 12-1 PM and 2:30-3:30 PM.

To register for any of the webinars in the ACCESS for ELLs Webinar Series, please go here

Once you are in gosignmeup click on the following:

Professional Development

ACCESS for ELLs

There will be additional webinars as we move closer to the testing window opening.

AIR will host training webinars for the TIDE System, AIRWays Reporting System, and the Proctor Interface on January 14, 15, and 16th and they will be repeated February 25, 26, and 27th. The webinars will be at 9:00 AM CST and 12:00 PM CST. They will also be recorded and posted afterward for those who are unable to attend. Register here

The dates for the annual workshops for the state summative assessments are below.

Each workshop is scheduled from 8:30 am - 4:00 pm local time.

January 28, 2020, MacKay Building, Pierre

February 4, 2020, Southeast Technical Institute, Sioux Falls

February 5, 2020, Southeast Technical Institute, Sioux Falls

February 6, 2020, Lake Area Technical Institute, Watertown

February 13, 2020, Western Dakota Technical Institute, Rapid City

February 25, 2020, Skype Virtual Meeting (This question and answer webinar is from 3:30-4:30 CST.)

Please make sure all students who will be taking alternate assessments are properly marked in Infinite Campus. There is a one-time data pull for MSAA, and that will be happening soon. If students aren’t marked, they will not be included in the assessment system.

If you have a student that needs a non-embedded accommodation, please send either the students name or SIMs number along with the student’s school, grade, and what accommodations they need. This can be sent through email to Beth.Schiltz@state.sd.us. If you have any questions please contact Beth.

The Tools, Supports, and Accommodations (TSA) document which outlines the supports and accommodations can be found at https://doe.sd.gov/Assessment/SMARTERbalanced.aspx in the Designated Supports and Accommodations Information section.

Below are the accommodations for state assessment and interim assessment that are enabled at the state level. An email will be sent when these have been enabled. It may take up to a week for this to be completed.

1. Reading Passages (form needs to be completed and sent/emailed/faxed)

2. Print on Demand (form needs to be completed and sent/emailed/faxed)

3. Special Considerations (form needs to be completed and sent/emailed/faxed)

4. Non-embedded accommodations (email sent to Beth.Schiltz@state.sd.us with student name or SIMS and non-embedded accommodation needed)

Communication with your special education counterpart is key. If you have questions about supports and accommodations questions directed them to Beth.Schiltz@state.sd.us

Text-to-Speech or Read aloud as a Designated Support: This support is NOT meant for a whole classroom, but rather only for those students that need this support.

Each district should have in place a process for deciding which students need this support. Informed adults make decisions about designated supports. Ideally, the decisions are made by all educators familiar with the student’s characteristics and needs, as well as those supports that the student has been using during instruction and for other assessments. Student input to the decision, particularly for older students, is also recommended.

All educators making these decisions should be trained on the process and should be made aware of the range of designated supports available. The district may choose whatever decision-making process works best for their district. Some processes already in place could be (this is not an exhaustive list) RTI (Response to Intervention), MTSS (Multi-tiered System of Support), SAT (Student Assistance Team), TAT (Teacher Assistance Team), IEP (Individual Education Program), 504 planning, LAP (Language Acquisition Planning), and others.

Students should also need this support for instructional purposes as well, which means they should be using it in the classroom for daily assignments and such. The SD TSA (South Dakota: Tools, Supports, and Accommodations) document has more information.

Familiarizing students with universal test tools can yield be a confidence boost! Check out our blog post for tips on using five built-in tools like the highlighter and notepad. http://ow.ly/yTuq50xt70c

AIRWays has replaced the Online Reporting System (ORS). You can look at last year's scores or go back to the year it all began to see how your students did on their assessments. The new system allows you to take a granular look at an individual student's assessment progress. We hope you will find this new system valuable and easy to use.

For help in navigating AIRWays, here are some tips:

When you are in AIRWays, go the “My Settings” on the top right. Click on it and a menu will dropdown. Then scroll down to “Change Reporting Time Period” and change the dates to what you need.

This is the AIRWays Quick Guide link:

https://sd.portal.airast.org/core/fileparse.php/2122/urlt/SD-1920-Quick-Guide-to-AIRWays-Reporting.pdf

This is the link for further resources on how to use the AIRWays system:

https://sd.portal.airast.org/resources/user-guides-manuals-ed/

We will be looking to do a webinar about navigating AIRWays in the near future.

The Department of Education will be closed on January 20th, 202 in observance of Reverand Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Introducing…Smarter Content Explorer! It’s a one-stop-shop for educators who are ready to dig into the range of knowledge and skills that are necessary for students to be college and career-ready. Easy to use, packed with information like assessment blueprints, scoring rubrics, and accessibility guidelines, Smarter Content Explorer clearly maps how @SmarterBalanced test items connect to academic standards. http://ow.ly/6Efe30pCvpx

The Office of Assessment is here to assist school districts and educators with the process of planning, implementing and utilizing assessments for students in grades K-12. Feel free to reach out to us with any questions, concerns, or suggestions you might have for how we can assist you better.

CONTACTS

General Mailbox, for the quickest response to any question

Amanda Thronson, South Dakota ELA and Math General Education, Interim Assessments, Digital Library

Chris Booth, South Dakota Science and Science Alternate, South Dakota ELA and Math Alternate Assessment, Paper/Pencil Assessments, Home School Assessment Requirements

Yutzil Becker, Title III/ACCESS 2.0 and ACCESS Alternate

Beth Schiltz, Special Education and accommodations for assessments

Email: doeassessment@state.sd.us
Website: doe.sd.gov/Assessment
Location: 800 Governors Drive, Pierre, SD, USA
Phone: (605) 773-3134
Facebook: facebook.com/sddoe
Twitter: @sddoe