The WAEA calculation for the English Language Proficiency Indicator will be updated for the 2024-25 School Performance determinations. This change will impact students with a gap in their ACCESS testing data.
Previously, students missing a year of ACCESS testing had the expected year of English proficiency recalculated based on the new year-one test. Starting with the 2024-25 administration, these students will be expected to maintain the original English proficiency year based on the baseline year. Students who do not test are still counted in the participation rate but not the overall school-level percentage of students meeting the annual progress target.
This change will be reflected in the 2025 School Performance Rating Model Implementation Manual, which will be added to the WDE Resource site in the fall. The new language in the manual will read as follows:
English Language Proficiency Indicator
For accountability, year-one students are those identified as EL for the first time in the current school year. The year that an EL student is expected to become English proficient shall be no later than year six, regardless of the number of years an EL student is not tested. Based upon a 95% participation requirement, not testing on the ACCESS test may affect the denominator when the school score for the percent of EL students meeting expected progress in learning English is computed (see the Participation Rate section above).
When developing annual targets for the progress an EL student is expected to make in a given year, the years to become English proficient will be based upon the ACCESS CPL from the student’s first ACCESS test. When year-one students’ test and score as English proficient, they are counted as a student meeting their improvement target. When year-one students’ test and do not score as English proficient, they are not included for accountability during their year-one (i.e., they are not included in the denominator or numerator when computing a school ELP score). When year-one students do not test in year one, but do not test as English proficient during the first year they test, the school ELP score (i.e., for school accountability) for that year is affected by including the student in the in the denominator but not in the numerator when computing the school ELP score. This affects the school score but does not affect the student in any way.
In addition, year one students are those who did not have an ACCESS test in the prior school year but do have an ACCESS test in the current school year. Year one students are only included for school accountability when they meet the requirements to be considered English proficient. For year one students who do not meet the definition of English proficient, year one is the baseline year for computing their expected progress target for the following school year.
For more information, contact Jennifer Lahiff, Accountability Supervisor, at 307-777-8752 or jennifer.lahiff@wyo.gov or Colton Zier, Principal Statistician, at 307-777-8757 or colton.zier1@wyo.gov.
