OSLA Team Newsletter
February 19, 2016
Scholarship Opportunity for Senior Student Athletes
Attention seniors! Chinedum Ndukwe, a former player with the Cincinnati Bengals, announced a $10,000 scholarship for the 2016-17 academic school year for student athletes in Cincinnati Public Schools. To be eligible, students must be enrolled as a senior in Cincinnati Public Schools, be a current athlete, have a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or higher, and plan to attend a two- or four-year college institution in the fall of 2016. For more eligibility requirements or to apply, visit http://www.ndukwe.org/
ODE is Recruiting New Fairness Members for Ohio's State Tests
Would you consider serving as a representative for the ELL population?
http://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/OHED/bulletins/1374adf
OELPA Updates
OELPA Accessibility Manual Released
This Ohio version IS different from the ELPA21 version. Please check it out!
We are still anxiously awaiting release of the Test Administration Manual, but some critical information about OELPA that has been pieced together can be found on this Google doc:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gXmqCw4eKAfBeV-EQpUQMzCYyfBeABttAjb0MMk-jn8/edit?usp=sharing
OELPA Headset Requests
Students must have headsets with microphones for the speaking assessment. Please use this Google spreadsheet to request additional headsets for OELPA. All computers purchased through Future CLASS should already have Rosetta Stone headphones, but district computers were not equipped.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TO1WOxjt1Y8tkIBW1v4ont1GGLjdcY7D6gVV6eFOWao/edit?usp=sharing
If the building has headsets that were NOT provided by Rosetta Stone, please check the operation of those headsets using the practice tests. We have found headsets in the district that DO NOT WORK with the testing platform. Practice Test site here:
https://login1.cloud2.tds.airast.org/student/V145/Pages/LoginShell.aspx?c=Ohio_PT
OELPA Time Estimates
From ODE:
"All four tests combined per grade band should take approximately one hour to administer for lower grade bands (K, 1, and 2-3), and up to two hours for the highest grade bands (9-12). These approximate times are for student work time only. Therefore, allow an additional 15–20 minutes to pass out test tickets, set up headphones, read directions, and perform other testing activities.”
OELPA student lists and Students With Disabilities
In prior years, staff members have inadvertently used lists of exited ELLs or students who took the IPT but never qualified for services, but we know that these students SHOULD NOT take the OELPA. Please work with your BTC to ensure that only students who are currently identified as LEP take the assessments. Currently identified LEP students were submitted to the district testing office for uploading into the system.
The accessibility manual does not address any exemptions for SWD, so we can only assume the testing expectations remain the same. In the past, we've been told that students with severe disabilities should at least ATTEMPT each test. On the OTELA, they would receive a score for attempting a certain percentage of the questions. We're not sure if OELPA will be the same. There are new accommodations available that were NOT available for OTELA, so please check out the Accessibility Manual.