- Welcome Back to the School Year!
- Initial Standardized Testing
- Continuous Enrollment
- Resources & Upcoming Events
- Workshops & Conferences
- Compliance Reviews
Welcome back to the School Year!
Are you thinking about your first of the year enrollment? Here are a couple of tips to make sure that you are starting off on the right foot!
- Always approach new students or those who have been away with a strength- and asset-based approach. Instead of looking at the credit check and pointing out the deficiencies, look at the successes and find the areas that a student has excelled in!
- Ask about and encourage use of the High School and Beyond Plan as a regular practice in helping students identify their goals!
Initial Standardized Testing
New & Reenrolling Students: Assessing for reading and math levels
When a student is newly enrolled or returning after an 11+ month absence in an Open Doors Reengagement program, they must be assessed for reading and math levels. This is important for two reasons:
- You will know their level and can provide appropriate instruction to help them reach their goals;
- This is a requirement for apportionment claims per WAC 392-700-065
- (d) The program will administer standardized tests to new students, as defined in WAC 392-700-015 (12)(a), and reenrolling student, as defined in WAC 392-700-015 (12)(d), within one month of enrollment or secure test results from no more than six months prior to enrollment in order to determine a student's initial math and reading level upon entering the program.
If the assessments are not completed within 30 days, and no previous assessment scores released within the past six (6) months are available, then the student's enrollment must be corrected to 0 FTE and the student may not be claimed until the assessments are completed.
Assessment Tools
The key word for these assessments is "Standardized". This means that the scoring is consistent for any student in any environment. This would exclude reading assessments that are interpreted and scored by the teacher, where a student may receive a different score if scored by another teacher.
- Some sample assessment tools that programs use are:
STAR, CASAS, TABE, MyPath, MAP, BASI, ELL assessments, ACT, SAT, ACT Asset, Compass, AccuPlacer, SBAC, and GED practice tests such as iReady and GED Ready.
- For skills centers and colleges, there may be specific initial assessment requirements, for example, to meet WIOA federal eligibility requirements, a skills center may need to use a CASAS or similar assessment tool; a college may require AccuPlacer or Compass.
Note: OSPI does not evaluate or recommend any particular standardized test for the initial assessment or subsequent assessments used for Indicators of Academic Progress (IAPs).
Continuous Enrollment: continuing & returning students
Some of your students may be continuing from the previous school year. There are two types:
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Continuing student is an enrolled student who has continuously been enrolled in the Open Doors program and claimed for state funding on at least one count day.
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Returning student is an enrolled student who has returned to the Open Doors program after having been withdrawn and has not received program services for a period of at least one count day and not more than ten count days.
Continuing students' enrollment is processed like any other month in the school year:
- Weekly status checks for each week in August that includes 3+ days of instruction,
- 2 hours of face-to-face time during August,
- IAP is in place within the last 3 months that the student was claimed for apportionment for students who have been enrolled and claimed for more than 3 months within the past year.
Returning students who have been withdrawn and reenrolled after at least one program count date (i.e., were not counted in August) do not need weekly status checks or 2 hours of face-to-face time in August. Instead, they must have face-to-face participation in the program on or within 20 weekdays before the enrollment count date. This might mean one of the following examples:
- orientation
- meeting with case manager
- course planning with instructor
- participation in classroom instruction
The amount of time of participation is not a factor for returning students.
Resources and Upcoming Events:
Workshops & Conferences
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GATE Equity Webinar Series Regular monthly webinars. Information and registration available through the GATE website
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Suicide Prevention Event September 10, 2019. More information available here
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Fall WALA Workshops (ALE focus) October/November 2019, throughout WA state. For more information, visit the WALA website
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iNACOL Symposium October 28-31, 2019, Palm Springs, CA. For more information, visit the iNACOL website
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NAEA Conference October 28-30, 2019, Tampa, FL. For more information, visit the NAEA website
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NYEC Annual Forum November 11-12, 2019, Washington DC. For more information, visit the NYEC website.
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Alternative Accountability Forum November 13-15, 2019, San Diego. For more information, visit the Alternative Accountability website.
Compliance Reviews
OSPI is required to provide compliance reviews to support new and existing reengagement programs, and so we have developed a schedule to review 20-25 programs this year. The general geographic distribution for these visits is below.
- August: Central Puget Sound
- September: S Puget Sound, Central WA
- October: Central Puget Sound
- November: Kitsap/Olympic Peninsulas
- December: S Puget Sound
- January: SW WA
- February: NW WA
- March: S Central WA, SE WA
- April: E Central WA
- May: NE WA
If you would like to request a compliance review, contact Liz Quayle, via email or phone, 360-688-8104.
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