WSAS (WKCE and WAA-SwD) Combined Data 2008

The Wisconsin Student Assessment System (WSAS) consists of the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examinations (WKCE) and The Wisconsin Alternate Assessment for Students with Disabilities (WAA-SwD). For the 2008 academic year only, these assessments were administered at different times of the year, and were reported to schools and districts separately. The WKCE was administered in November 2007 and individual and summary reports for WKCE were created based on test results and data collected at that time. The data collected at the time of WKCE testing included a way to indicate that a student would be tested on the WAA-SwD later in the year. The WAA-SwD assessments were administered in January 2008 and individual and summary reports were created based on test results and data collected in January. The WSAS test contractor (CTB McGraw-Hill) was unable to combine the data from the WKCE and the WAA-SwD due to the separate test windows. However, in an effort to provide a reporting structure that is consistent with prior years WSAS data, DPI has combined the WKCE and WAA-SwD for public reporting on WINSS and other data sites linked to the DPI web page. When combining the data the following steps were taken to create a data file and reporting structure that is consistent with reporting for prior years:

Data Combination

1. The number of students “expected to take WAA-SwD” as noted on the WKCE test books was subtracted from the enrollment counts in the WKCE summary file, and cleared from the “WAA-SwD Total” field.
2. The WAA-SwD enrollment was added to the WKCE summary file enrollment.
3. The WAA-SwD totals by proficiency level were added to the WKCE summary file.
4. The “Not Tested on WSAS” columns were adjusted to account for differences between the number of students actually tested on WAA-SwD, and the number whose WKCE book indicated that they intended to take WAA-SwD.

As was the case in previous years, some data are suppressed to protect student privacy. In the combined data file the following steps were taken to protect student privacy:

Data Suppression

1. Suppression from the “public” (suppressed) version of the WKCE data file was applied to the combined WSAS data file. (53.8% of record). This is the standard suppression and the percent of records suppressed in this manner is consistent with prior years.
2. In small number of cases the enrollment adjustment resulted in a negative n-count in one field in the summary data files. These records were suppressed (0.1% of records).
3. In cases where student group 20 (combined race/eth small number) included WAA-SwD results the records were suppressed (0.8% of records).
4. Additional small groups (fewer than 6 students) created by combining the data were suppressed. (0.3% of records).

For questions about this information, contact oealistl@dpi.listserv.wi.gov (608) 267-1072

Last updated on 6/2/2008 11:17:39 AM