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FromVandeven, MargieDate  Tuesday, September 26, 2017 11:14 AM
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Vandeven, Margie
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TO:  School Administrators

FROM: ?

SUBJECTS: LS-17-001

DATE:  September 26, 2017

I. Algebra I AND English II Verification Process

In accordance with Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) procedures, information related to the administration of Algebra I and English II will be provided to school districts and charter LEAs. Districts and charter LEAs will have an opportunity to make corrections to the 2017 Algebra I and English II data. Please remember that the Department will not report nor use Algebra I and English II data in the calculations of the 2017 APR.

The following data were available for school districts and charter LEAs beginning September 22, 2017:

II. APR Release Schedule

DateDescriptionMode
September 29 (5:00)Algebra I and English II corrections deadline COBSecure
October 4Public hearing – changes to the Comprehensive Guide for the Missouri School Improvement ProgramFace to face – provide location
October 6 (5:00 p.m.)Data freeze for APR preview??
October 20APR preview (excluding Algebra I and English II)Secure
October 20 – October 27

Appeals Window

  
October 27 (5:00 p.m.)Data freeze for final APRFreeze
November 8Final APR (Excluding Algebra I and English II) behind secure loginSecure
November 13Embargoed data available to press 
November 15Final APR release (Excluding Algebra I and English II)Public

III. Modifications to the 2017 APR

The adjustments outlined below will be incorporated into the 2017 APR. Due to the removal of the Algebra I and English II data, Standard 1 Academic Achievement, Standard 2 Subgroup Achievement and Standard 3 High School Readiness will be calculated in the following manner:

A. English Language Arts and Mathematics Assessment Hold Harmless

Standard Applicable: Standards 1 and 2 – English language arts (ELA) and Mathematics

Updated Policy due to exclusion of Algebra I and English II data: The 2017 APR will be calculated using existing 2015 and 2016 data plus 2017 data with Algebra I and English II removed. The points earned in Standard 1 and 2 using this mythology will be compared to the points earned in 2016. The district will receive the higher of 2016 or 2017 points for the APR. The same calculation process will be followed for Standard 1 Academic Achievement and Standard 2 Subgroup Achievement.

Example - An LEA receives 12 points in Standard 1 ELA in 2016, but earns 16 points in 2017 (with Algebra I and English II data excluded). The 16 points for 2017 would be used in the APR calculation. The opposite is also true; if a district earned 16 points in 2016, but only 12 in 2017, 16 points from 2016 would be used for the APR calculation.

Participation in Algebra I and English II during the 2017 administration window satisfies the participation rate requirement. Districts will not receive an LND for students who took the Algebra I and English II assessments in SY 2016-17.

B. High School Readiness – Removal of Algebra I Scores

Standard Applicable: Standard 3 High School Readiness (HSR)

Updated Policy: The results from the 2017 EOCs in Algebra I and English II do not produce year-to-year comparable results. For purposes of the 2017 APR, if a student scored proficient or advanced on the Algebra I assessment, DESE will count the a student’s proficient or advanced score on the 7th grade mathematics assessment in its place. 

 

If you have any additional questions or need additional information, please contact staff in our School Improvement unit:

NameEmailTelephone
Jocelyn Strandjocelyn.strand@dese.mo.gov573-751-4104
Kevin Freemankevin.freeman@dese.mo.gov573-751-4426
Amanda Cashamanda.cash@dese.mo.gov573-526-4886

IV. 2017-18 End-of-Course Assessments

For the remainder of the contract year, DESE has set the following expectations regarding the 2017-18 EOCs, and Questar has agreed to fulfill these obligations:

  1. Engage the psychometrics services of its parent company, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) to review the preliminary aggregate analysis, provide consultative services to the Missouri Assessment Technical Advisory Committee on the program status, and perform a psychometric quality audit of the overall program.
  2. Establish a process to verify bandwidth requirements and the allocation of bandwidth for as many as 50,000 users prior to the beginning of each assessment window.
  3. Perform preliminary aggregate analysis
  4. Provide daily reports to DESE during each assessment window which include the number of students tested that day in each course, cumulative test totals, cumulative percent of the number of students anticipated during the test window, a brief narrative summary of test issues encountered during the day, and available test administration analytics. 
  5. Provide preliminary reports to DESE when test completion reaches 60 percent, 75 percent, 90 percent and 100 percent of anticipated participation in each assessment window.
  6. Provide DESE with a detailed resource allocation plan and a detailed quality assurance/continued quality improvement plan.
  7. Deliver statewide results earlier. 
  8. What about reimbursement to districts for prior year tests?
  9. Acknowledge seeking damages…or appropriate language.

V. Sunshine Law request

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has received a Sunshine Law request regarding the 2017 End-of-Course results in Algebra I and English II. We must honor this request.

The data will be provided with the following caveats:

  1. A Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) made up of nationally recognized assessment experts recommended that the data not be reported.
  2. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) agreed with the TAC recommendation and will not report the data for these two tests.
  3. Districts and charter schools are provided time to verify data sets (i.e., to make any needed corrections to the data and to appeal test scores). Since these data were not to be reported by DESE, local districts and charter schools may not have certified the data for these two tests. This means that, aside from the year-to-year comparability issues, the data could inaccurately reflect the performance of a particular district or school in other capacities as well.

In short, we believe that it would be irresponsible to publicly report data obtained by DESE in its current form. Should someone contact you about these data, please refer to the above caveats.