Wisconsin: A Parent’s Guide to Standards and Assessment

What Are Wisconsin Academic Standards?

Academic standards specify what students should know and be able to do. Wisconsin has academic standards for 21 separate content areas, and adopted Common Core State Standards forEnglish language arts and mathematics in 2010. In addition, Wisconsin adopted Common Core State Standards for Literacy in All Subjects

What is the Curriculum?

The curricula used in your child’s classroom prepare your child to meet the standards. The standards define what children will learn at certain points in time and what performances are accepted as evidence that the child has learned. Parents can get more specific information about the connections among the academic standards, the curriculum, and the tests in their school district from their children’s teachers, the school principal, or the guidance counselor.

What is Assessment?

How is a Child’s Learning Progress Measured?

Schools use many ways to assess, or measure, the progress of students: homework completion, class projects, portfolios, unit tests, and student effort. Another way to measure student progress statewide is with state tests. In Wisconsin, the state Department of Public Instruction develops and administers statewide examinations to measure children’s learning in five subject areas:

1. reading 2. language arts 3. mathematics 4. science 5. social studies

The statewide tests that children take help improve teaching and learning. The tests are based on Wisconsin’s Model Academic Standards, and results are reported in terms of proficiency standards. For example, a fourth-grade student’s score on the statewide mathematics test will be reported in terms of the standards established for learning at fourth grade.

The DPI website at: http://www2.dpi.state.wi.us/wsas/default.asp reports summaries of proficiency scores for all public schools statewide. Schools are required to report test results to parents of students in fourth, eighth, and tenth grades. Children will take state tests, or tests developed by the school district, at school.

Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examinations (WKCE)

At Grades 3-8, and 10

The Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examination (WKCE) is customized to measure the Wisconsin Model Academic Standards (WMAS) and is developed and designed by the Department of Public Instruction and Wisconsin educators in conjunction with CTB/McGraw-Hill. This standardized test is composed of items specifically designed for Wisconsin and a few commercially developed questions used in schools across the country. Students in grades 3, 5, 6, and 7 take tests in Reading and Mathematics. Students in grades 4, 8, and 10 take tests in Reading, Mathematics, Science, Language Arts, Writing, and Social Studies. WKCE is administered to all the students enrolled in Wisconsin public schools during the fall of each school year.

The purpose of the WKCE is to provide information about student attainment of subject-area proficiency to students, parents, and teachers, information to support curriculum and instructional planning; and a measure of accountability for schools and districts. The results of the WKCE are used by the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) as an accountability measure for school improvement to meet its statutory requirement of identifying low-performing schools as stipulated by Wisconsin s. 115.38(4), meet the federal Title I (NCLB) requirement to determine how well children are learning, and determine the extent to which schools and districts across the state are meeting the Wisconsin proficiency standards.

You can find more information about the WKCE at:

http://dpi.wi.gov/oea/wkce.html

The Wisconsin Alternate Assessment for Students with Disabilities (WAA-SwD)

The Wisconsin Alternate Assessment for Students with Disabilities (WAA-SwD) is administered to any student with significant cognitive disabilities when the Individualized Education Program (IEP) team determines that the student is unable to participate in the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examination (WKCE), even with accommodations. The WAA-SwD is administered to students in grades 3 through 8 and 10 in reading and mathematics, and grades 4, 8 and 10 in science. The reading, mathematics and science WAA-SwD test forms and administration guidelines were initially developed for the 2007-08 administration and the assessment is now scheduled to be administered in the fall of each school year.

The purpose of the WAA-SwD is to provide information about student achievement and to allow school district staff to use test results to improve educational programs. The WAA-SwD is designed to meet the requirements of the NCLB accountability goals, IDEA, Wisconsin Statutes, and to provide students, parents, teachers, and schools with information about how students are progressing in relation to the Wisconsin Model Academic Standards through the Wisconsin Extended Grade Band Standards.

You can find more information about the WAA-SwD at:

http://dpi.wi.gov/oea/waa.html