Spring 2024 Statewide Assessments

Dear District Administrators,

Test windows for the Wisconsin Student Assessment System will open soon. These assessments are required by state and federal law. Participation of all enrolled students ensures the validity of test results used for state and federal accountability determinations, public reporting, and continuous improvement.

Statewide assessments include:

• Forward Exam for students in grades 3-8, and 10
• Dynamic Learning Maps (DLM) assessment for students with significant cognitive disabilities in grades 3-11
• PreACT Secure for students in grades 9 and 10
• ACT with writing for 11th grade students

Please work with Principals, District Assessment Coordinators (DACs), and other staff to plan for successful test administrations by:

• Scheduling time for make-up assessments to ensure completion within the windows.
• Planning your testing schedule around local cultural events, holidays, and activities to allow students to do their best.
• Regularly monitoring test participation within each assessment’s administrative platform to ensure greater than 95 percent participation for all students and student groups.
• Working with your virtual schools to ensure they are testing all students enrolled in tested grades.

Please plan to administer the English Language Arts (ELA) portion of the Forward Exam early in the test window. Students will be taking an updated Forward Exam in ELA and Mathematics. New writing questions on the ELA test require a rangefinding process with educator panels to establish scoring guides. The rangefinding process requires that a large sample of student responses be available to ensure timely scoring.

In addition, educator panels will participate in standard settings to establish new cut scores for the Forward Exam and the ACT. Please refer to the Forward Educator Involvement webpage and the ACT Educator Involvement webpage for information on how educators from your district can participate in these events.

Additional time is required for these important events, and for DPI to perform quality assurance on assessment data and results before they are released. As a result, WISEdash for Districts reports will be available after August. Release dates will be communicated with your DAC through the DAC Digest as soon as they are available.

Visit the Assessment in Wisconsin website for testing dates, information on each assessment, and resources including brochures for families and parent letter templates. Please direct assessment related questions to osamail@dpi.wi.gov and accountability questions to oeamail@dpi.wi.gov.