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General FAQs
NOTE: Testing is something in life everyone must do in some form or another, whether it be a college exam, CPR training, or a professional certification exam. The child's attitude and the attitude of those around the child will determine a great deal about how they may perform on the test that day. Encouraging a child to do their best to show their knowledge and skill will aid them in doing well and forming good testing habits as they grow into adults.
A. A parent should submit a written request for student opt-out to the principal or the school board. Per Wis. Stats. 118.30(2)(b)3., if the student is in grades 4, 8, and 9-11 the request must be granted. However, if the student is not in the above mentioned grade levels, the decision to grant the request is at the discretion of the school board. Districts/schools should maintain records of parent opt-out requests.
A. DPI does not provide a form. Some districts choose to create a parent opt-out form in order to collect the same information for every family. The method by which you choose to collect the written request is a local decision.
Q. How will participation affect our accountability (i.e., report cards) this year?
ESSA requires Academic Achievement calculations to be based upon the greater of 95% of students enrolled for the full academic year or the actual number of students tested. Hence, schools that have student groups with lower than a 95% test participation rate are penalized. Wisconsin’s ESSA system applies this requirement by adjusting the denominator of the points-based proficiency rate calculation to the 95% tested level for schools testing below the required 95% rate. For example, if a middle school serving students in grades 6-8 had 100 full academic year students, but only 90 of these students participated in state assessments, the schools points-based proficiency rate is calculated by dividing the number of points by 95 (minimum participation required by ESSA) rather than 90 (the actual number of students tested). This results in a lowered achievement score for that school.
DPI publishes school and district test participation on school and district report cards for informational purposes only. That is, test participation has no impact on report card scoring. This rule has been effective since the 2016-17 report cards. Please note that a minimum two years of 20 full academic year tested students are required to generate a report card score.
A. Individual Student Reports (ISRs) should be shared with families as soon as possible after receipt in the District.
DACs should work with district and school staff to ensure assessment results are shared internally for program planning and professional development. DPI publicly releases summary test score data for the WSAS in the fall. As such, DPI strongly recommends that districts coordinate their own public release with the DPI public release. After the secure release of results to districts and prior to the public release, DPI performs additional quality assurance, data validation, and data redaction when needed to protect student privacy.
Districts may share their summary assessment results with their school boards prior to the DPI public release. Districts may not publicly share personally identifiable information and therefore would be responsible to ensure shared results are redacted to comply with data security and student privacy requirements, as outlined in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and state law. More information about maintaining student data privacy is available on the Student Data Privacy webpage.
District summary data may be shared with district and school staff who understand the data security and student privacy requirements outlined in FERPA and state law. This allows district staff to use the data for professional development, continuous improvement efforts, and other planning purposes. Districts may share individual student reports with parents or guardians, teachers, school leaders, and others with a legitimate interest.
Districts should not share the statewide data reported in the vendor portals. This data has not yet been through DPI’s quality assurance and validation process and is therefore subject to change. Final statewide results, which are used in accountability calculations, will be released in WISEdash in the fall.