¶ … structure of standardized testing in K-12 education. As Wisconsin and the federal government need some manner to gauge teacher performance and student progress it falls on educators to find effective means of testing special education students. The WKCE system is discussed with a special emphasis on the alternate testing pathway.
This paper will focus on my experiences dealing with special education testing through the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examination. All students are intended to take the WKCE which is created by the Department of Public Instruction and Wisconsin teachers. Students take the test starting in grades 3, 5, 6, and 7. Subject matters includes Reading and Mathematics. In alternating years, students in grades 4, 8, and 10 take tests in Reading, Mathematics, Science, Language Arts, Writing, and Social Studies. WKCE is administered to all the students enrolled in public schools during the fall of each year and determines competency (WDPI, 2011).
The purpose of the WKCE is to provide information about student attainment of subject-area proficiency to students, parents, and teachers, information to support curriculum...
The results of the WKCE are used as an accountability measure for
school improvement to meet its requirement of identifying low-performing schools and meet the federal Title I requirement to determine how well
children are learning, and determine the extent to which schools and districts across the state are meeting state proficiency standards. WKCE scores are used as one of several criteria for advancing students from fourth to fifth grade and from eighth to ninth grade. The other criteria are
academic performance, teacher recommendations based on
academic performance, and any other academic criteria specified by the local school board.
For students with
disabilities, there exists the WKCE with accommodations, which is intended to reduce or eliminate the effects of a student's
disability or level of
language acquisition; they do not reduce
learning expectations. The accommodations provided to a student must be the same for classroom instruction, classroom assessments, and district and state assessments. Although some accommodations may be appropriate for instructional…
