District Assessment Coordinators (DAC) Webinar

September 8, 2014

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● Background/Context for WaKIDS

● DAC Roles in Supporting Teaching Strategies GOLD® Assessment and Data Reporting

● DAC to DAC: Use of WaKIDS Data

o Nancy Katims, Edmonds SD

o Peter Finch, West Valley SD (Yakima)

Webinar Topics

2http://www.k12.wa.us/WaKIDS/default.aspx

WaKIDS: A Kindergarten Entry Transition Process

• Cross-Sector Partnership• First state K assessment

and only one to be observational, strengths-based and whole child-focused

• Formally recognizes: Parents as partners Collaboration of early learning and

K—12

• Process and product

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WaKIDS Assessment• Uses an online tool, Teaching Strategies GOLD®

• Conducted by trained teachers assessing their own students• Occurs over a period of 2 months; completed by October 31• Measures strengths in 6 areas of development and learning• Observation-based; ongoing; embedded in classroom

activities

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WaKIDS Differs from Other State Assessments

WaKIDS Teaching Strategies GOLD® Other State Assessments (Smarter-Balanced, MSP-Science)

Measures development and learning evident at beginning of school year

Measures knowledge and skills evident at end of school year or course

Observational Multiple-choice or constructed response; can be computer-adaptive

Assesses whole child Assesses knowledge and skills in specific academic content areas

Conducted while children are engaged in curriculum-embedded learning activities

Conducted as a separate testing activity

Not a screening tool Not screening tools

Ongoing; evidence collected over multiple points of time within the assessment window

Measure a single point in time

Uses formative data to inform instruction at the moment collected

Not applicable

Reports summative data immediately after teachers finish uploading it

Report summative data weeks after students finish testing

http://www.k12.wa.us/WaKIDS/default.aspx

New in 2014• Student Import Tool embedded in

Teaching Strategies GOLD®

• Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) spring scores accessible to kindergarten teachers in Teaching Strategies GOLD®

• Common Core State Standards feature enabled for information purposes only—not for assessment purposes

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DAC Roles in Supporting Teaching Strategies GOLD® Assessment and Data Reporting

● Summer/Early Fall: Learn how the Teaching Strategies GOLD® online system works to provide administrative technical assistance.

● Late August/Early September: Assist with the process of uploading class lists/student rosters to Teaching Strategies GOLD®.

o Collaborate with your CEDARS administrator to be sure SSIDs are assigned by early September to all WaKIDS students.

o The Student Import Tool is located on the Teaching Strategies GOLD® Administrator Site Home Page.

o Teachers would like their class lists uploaded by September 15.

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DAC Roles in Supporting Teaching Strategies GOLD® Assessment and Data Reporting

● September/October: Assist with the implementation of Teaching Strategies GOLD®.

o Work with principals to manage the placement of students (transferring across classes or schools within district; adding students) and monitoring progress

o Never delete a student from the system! Instead, archive students who have left the district. When in doubt, call the WaKIDS office. 360-725-6161

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DAC Roles in Supporting Teaching Strategies GOLD® Assessment and Data Reporting• Fall/ Winter/ Spring: Play a leadership role in maximizing

the use of WaKIDS data, as an integral part of all district assessment data. How can this data be used to:

• Analyze building and district-level student strengths?

• Seed conversations with local early learning providers?

• Communicate with families about their children’s strengths?

• Document student growth in mathematics and literacy for the purpose of TPEP? (at teacher discretion, and when used at more than one checkpoint)

• Winter/Spring: Analyze district data available from OSPI in January 2014 through WAMS and State Report Card

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DAC to DAC: Use of WaKIDS Data

Nancy Katims, Edmonds School District

KatimsN@edmonds.wednet.edu

Peter Finch, West Valley School District (Yakima)

finchp@wvsd208.org

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Edmonds School District Approach to Teaching Strategies GOLD®

Data Analysis• Full-day workshop with teachers and

principals• Teams look at district and school data

o Identify areas of strength and areas of need

o Discuss and share strategies to meet the needs

• Teachers look at class datao Identify target students to monitor

through year• District staff share findings with PreK

providers at subsequent meeting

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West Valley—Yakima

• P-3 Leadership Team: Analyzed data and identified focus on math

• Official Partner meetings

• PreK Workshops

• Universal screening assessment in the fall, winter, and spring using WaKIDS math and easyCBM

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Questions? WaKIDS ResourcesTeaching Strategies GOLD technical support: • Call 1-866-736-5913• Hours: Monday through Thursday 5:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time• E-mail: wakids@teachingstrategies.com with a description of your concern and your username

OSPI and ESD support, contact: • Susan Swanberg (360-725-6161 or susan.swanberg@k12.wa.us) for questions regarding

usernames, transferring users, accessing GOLD, resetting passwords

• Gretchen Stahr Breunig (360-725-6180 or gretchen.breunig@k12.wa.us) for questions regarding training, teacher or principal support, ESD contact information

• Kathe Taylor (360-725-6153 or kathe.taylor@k12.wa.us) for questions about overall implementation and data questions

• OSPI Assessment Analysts (assessmentanalysts@k12.wa.us) for technical questions about student uploads and data

• Your regional ESD WaKIDS Coordinator for technical classroom and curriculum assistance and regional support; see list at: http://www.k12.wa.us/WaKIDS/Contacts.aspx

WaKIDS website: http://www.k12.wa.us/wakids

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