timeline for the virginia wrs model

Research & Revision

Instruction & Resources

Assessment & Reporting

Credential & Verified Credit

Timeline for the Virginia WRS Model

Virginia Springs Forward The new list was completed…and then Virginia

• Introduced to the CTE Advisory Committee and CTE administrators across the state, April 2010

• Converted skills list into appropriate format for Virginia’s CTE curriculum, Spring 2010

(Skills became “tasks” with task definitions to amplify and describe the skills.)

• Researched and developed instructional resources to complement all WRS tasks, Spring 2010• Introduced in a Verso email message, June

1, 2010, for implementation 2010-11.

WRS Are FlexibleExample:

Sustainability

Teaching the WRS

WRS Technical tasks Full course

The WRS can be infused throughout the course or

taught as an instructional unit.

Use WRS to Complement and Reinforce Technical Competencies

WRS resources provided within each course framework include

background information instructional activities lesson plans Web sites.

Evaluation and Reporting

Virginia CTE teachers can evaluate student achievement of the WRS in two ways:

Student Competency Record (rating classroom performance)

WRS Assessment—developed and released in April 2011.

Timeline for the New Industry Credential for the New WRS

Virginia and CTECS worked to identify and develop test items, to conduct an assessment

pilot, and to launch this stand-alone credential.

Sept 2010: Experts’ meeting to ID test items

March 2011: Pilot successfully completed; cut score determined

April 2011: Full implementation of assessment

Graduation Requirements

How do schools and students benefit from the new credential?

Graduation requirements and student-selected verified credit

Credentialing requirements

• This new assessment replaces other tests that were used in the past to assess WRS

• 100-item multiple-choice test

• 60-minute timed test

• 75% cut score

• Reasonable price ($9.00)

• Pretest ($6.00)

• Certificate of successful completion provided and can be used for verified graduation credit

The CTECS-ProvidedVirginia WRS Assessment

Initial Statistics onthe WRS Assessment• April−June 2011• 3,693 students tested• 2,400 students passed (65% pass

rate)• 75.41 mean score

Latest Statistics onthe WRS Assessment• April 2011−January 24, 2012• 9135 students tested, 6061

passed• 66% pass rate• 76.20 mean score• 2019 pre-tests

The Stakeholders and Their Roles

VDOE Weldon Cooper

CTECSCTE Resource

Center

Administration

Research

Assessment

Curriculum

In SummaryThe New Workplace Readiness Skills for the

Commonwealth• are well researched and up to date• are reflective of Virginia employer

needs• are incorporated into all CTE courses• come with many teaching resources

• are being assessed• are leading to an industry-

acknowledged and respected credential and are earning student-selected verified credit.

A Final NoteWhy do we want you to adopt our state

model, skills, & curriculum resources?• WRS education is a crucial national need.• Your implementation further validates our

product.• Developed curriculum resources should be

shared between schools and states.• It would be wasteful to reinvent the wheel.• Assessment data on a broader scale will

inevitably trigger new improvement strategies for the test, teaching, and learning experience.

Questions?

Achsah CarrierDemographics & Workforce Group

Weldon Cooper Center for Public ServiceUniversity of Virginia

434-982-5582Achsah.Carrier@virginia.edu

www.coopercenter.org/demographics

Darren MorrisCTE Resource Center

804-673-3778info@cteresource.org

http://cteresource.org

Ken PotthoffCTECS

800-248-7701 ext. 3579kpotthoff@ctecs.org

http://www.ctecs.org