This Message Center is organized and operated by David Vitale A new Wisconsin Alternate Assessment for students with disabilities (WAA-SwD) will be given in January of the 2007-08 school year. This assessment will be a performance assessment where teachers record student responses on a standardized set of performance tasks. The new WAA-SwD assessment is for grades 3 through 8 and 10 in reading and mathematics, and grades 4, 8, and 10 in science. The language arts/writing and social studies assessments at grades 4, 8, and 10 will remain checklist assessments for the 2007-08 school year; however, teachers will not be required to collect work samples. 

IEP teams continue to be responsible for deciding whether students with disabilities will participate in the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examinations, with or without testing accommodations, or participate in the alternate assessment for students with disabilities.  IEP teams need to continue to utilize the WAA Participation Checklist as appropriate during IEP team meetings to determine how a student will participate in the Wisconsin assessment system.

Although the administration date will be later than the regular WKCE test window for 2007-08, the DPI's goal is to distribute all test results by late spring so that Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) determination can be completed on schedule by the end of the school year.  In subsequent years, this assessment will be administered in the fall as has been the practice with the WAA-SwD.

Updates and additional information on testing students with disabilities can be found at the DPI OEA website.

posted August 2, 2007 « back to Message Center home

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