Who is the Pearson contact to answer questions about Spanish administration that are not in the Spanish administration and scoring guides?
- The WI Assessment Matrix--Spanish will provide further information in this area, and our standard contact information can be used for any further questions.
Will there be a Spanish 4K assessment option?
Measure-Specific Questions
Where can I find detailed Administration and Scoring information?
- The following Administration and Scoring Guides for Spanish measures can be found in the Wisconsin Act 20 Reading Screener Files section of the aimswebPlus Help library. (How can we help? > Manuals & Training > Additional Research and State Resources > Wisconsin Act 20 Reading Screener Files)
- Spanish Early Literacy Administration and Scoring Guide
- aimswebPlus Comprehensive Manual (Chapter 6: Reading: Administration and Scoring) (includes Spanish Oral Reading Fluency)
- Wisconsin Spanish Listening Comprehension Guide
- Additional information on Spanish assessments in aimswebPlus is available in the Help library.
- Spanish Reading Development and Technical Guide (Help > Manuals & Training > aimswebPlus Comprehensive Manual (Chapter 9: Content Development)
On the Spanish Letter Sounds Fluency (SLSF) it says: "The student must provide the most common sound of the letter." (pg. 11 of administration guide) It gives the example for the letter C (casa) but what is the "most common letter" sound for the G?
- This letter creates two sounds and it varies depending on the vowel that follows. If used with vowels /a/ /o/ /u/, then it has the "g" sound, but if the vowels are /e/ or /i/, the sound is like a "j." The word "gato" has a high frequency rate and is our example in the guide, and that is what we consider the "most common sound" (not letter).
On the Spanish Letter Sounds Fluency (SLSF) it says: "Do not penalize for...second language interference (based on student's responses any prior knowledge of his or her speech patterns)." (pg. 11 of administration guide) Our students are within a dual language program therefore, sometimes they produce an English sound instead of a Spanish sound. Does that mean we don't mark it wrong?
- The note on Page 8 is found within the Scoring Rules for "Spanish Letter Naming Fluency" and it shows up again on page 11 for "Spanish Letter Sounds Fluency".
To understand why this note is added, it helps to start thinking about the measurement goal of these measures. We want to know if young students who are English Language Learners know the names of letters and if they know their common sounds. It is not the primary purpose of these measures to test if students know the difference between the English and the Spanish letter names or pronunciation.
If a student is completing Spanish Letter Naming Fluency and says "Bee" instead of "Beh" it still provides evidence that the student does know that letter name. If the student is in a dual immersion learning program, and it is important to the customer that students be able to accurately to identify the letter names when told to focus on Spanish or English, they can always make a qualitative note to inform future educational support, but to keep scores and interpretation of national percentiles valid, this 2nd language interference should not be marked as an error on the DRF.
It's a similar situation for Spanish Letter Sound Fluency. The test is designed to not include most of the letters that have significant Spanish/English differences in letter sounds (vowels mostly). Still, some letters on the Spanish forms do have known differences, like the letter 'j'. For students who are in a school that primarily teaches English letter sounds, it's a big challenge to ask a kindergartener to not offer an English pronunciation of 'j' during a speeded test. Again, providing the correct sound of a soft English 'j' demonstrates that the student recognizes the letter correctly and has provided evidence that they know one of the sounds that letter makes.
For Spanish Oral Reading Fluency (SORF): When a student is reading, if they don't pronounce a word following the rules of accentuation, is that word wrong? For example, they read papá as papa. Does that apply anytime a student uses an incorrect accent?
- If the accent changes the meaning of the word, mark it wrong. If the accent is a dialectical variation and still understood as the word/concept, it is correct. The flexibility allowed in scoring for Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) and Spanish Oral Reading Fluency is intended to not penalize students who are known to pronounce things differently because their accent or dialect leads to mispronunciations that you would expect.
This letter creates two sounds and it varies depending on the vowel that follows. If used with vowels /a/ /o/ /u/, then it has the "g" sound, but if the vowels are /e/ or /i/, the sound is like a "j." The word "gato" has a high frequency rate and is our example in the guide, and that is what we consider the "most common sound" (not letter).
General Questions
Does aimswebPlus offers reports or resources in Spanish?
- aimswebPlus offers reports for students’ performance with Spanish measures, but these reports are not translated into Spanish at this time. Existing reports that are parent-friendly include the Individual Monitoring Report and the Individual Scores Snapshot. Samples of those reports are in our standard Reports packet on our website, pages 15 and 21. Help > Manuals & Training > aimswebPlus Comprehensive Manual > Chapter 11: Score Interpretation and Reports (Sample Report). aimswebPlus does offer the Shaywitz DyslexiaScreenTM Strategies for Families and Caregivers in both English and Spanish. This document presents activities and recommendations to support students identified with reading difficulties, and is available to all customers even without purchasing the add-on Shaywitz DyslexiaScreen.
Can Spanish and English aimswebPlus measures be used with the same student?
- Yes. Best practice in assessment of bilingual learners encourages assessment in both languages. As such, aimswebPlus allows this. For Act 20 risk status, DPI and Pearson will work together on a methodology for determining at-risk status if/when the English and Spanish ratings don’t match.
If students have a score from both Spanish and English measures, what does this look like in aimswebPlus Reports?
- The Spanish and English measures are separate assessments in aimswebPlus. Scores from either set of measures are reported separately. Assessing a student in either language does not replace or affect how scores from measures in the other language are saved or presented in reporting. For example, administering a measure a second time in English does not preclude viewing results for the first administration done in Spanish, and vice versa.
Specifically, the Scores Snapshot and Individual Benchmark reports can be run for either language's score and presents the scores of the language selected.
Can a district/school choose whether to report a student’s risk status in either language when they have taken both Spanish and English screening measures?
- aimswebPlus can support the reporting of results from measures in English and Spanish. Specific guidance defined by WI DPI regarding Act 20 requirements deciding which must be reported is forthcoming. In general, decisions about whether schools will use the results of English or Spanish measures for identifying a student as “at risk” should be made prior to testing. This decision for a student cannot change throughout the school year. Districts should establish consistent protocols for determining risk that align with best practice for Spanish speaking students. Details regarding how customers will indicate the decision for a student are still being determined.
Can we provide heritage language support (translated & interpreted instructions) when giving the assessment as means to provide equal access if the student doesn't understand the instruction in English?
- Yes, task instructions may be translated into a student’s primary language when there are concerns about a student’s ability to follow instructions presented in English. Translated instructions must not include changes to the content the student is being tested on. For example, when administering Phoneme Segmentation, students must isolate the sounds of target words, and students needs to hear the target word said aloud in English to provide a valid response. Translations of the instructions should be done prior to testing to ensure that all details of the English instructions are accurately included, and no additional details are added. This effort will create a script that can be consistently presented each time translated instructions are needed with different students and across testing periods.
