Essential TELPA Updates for 2016-17 Provided by Department of Ed

Dr. Jobi Lawrence and Colleen Anderson from the Iowa Department of Education asked the Title III Consultants to share the following information with districts related to TELPA Training, ordering of TELPA materials and TELPA Administration for the 2016-17 school year.

TELPA Training for 2016-17
Please ensure that anyone administering the TELPA for the upcoming academic year certifies on the training system on AEA PD Online, as the training has been updated to reflect changes in ordering and submitting scores due to the change in vendor. Iowa Testing Programs is no longer able to serve as our vendor for TELPA, and this has precipitated these changes.

From: Dr. Jobi B. Lawrence, Director, Title III, Iowa Department of Education, (515) 281-3805.

TELPA Assessment Administrators Must Recertify
Anyone administering the Tennessee English Language Placement Assessment (TELPA) assessment during the 2016-17 academic year must recertify through training on AEA PD Online. Even if a certificate states it is valid for three years, there have been changes to TELPA ordering and data reporting and everyone must recertify this year to ensure that the program remains in compliance with federal requirements. Visit the Heartland AEA website for more information about TELPA.

Ordering the TELPA
Dr. Lawrence states to please see the message below from Colleen Anderson related to changes in the TELPA for the upcoming administration year. PLEASE broadly distribute the information below to your schools and colleagues.

• Beginning July 1, 2016, any districts wishing to order the TELPA screener should place the order directly with Measurement Incorporated (MI) instead of going through IA Testing Programs.
• TELPA can only be ordered online. It is sold in packs of 10 and includes all the support materials needed.
• If you would like to place an order or have any other questions, please contact the TELPA Helpline at (888) 612-0180 or elda@measinc.com. MI will provide you with the credentials for your district as well as directions on how to place an order on the TELPA website

TELPA Administration

1. Download the correct bubble answer sheet (BAS).
TELPA K-2 Answer Sheet
TELPA 3-12 Answer Sheet

2. Score the screeners locally

3. Complete the Score Reporting Template to enter student information and TELPA scores. Save each file with a standard name (e.g. Ames_072716 (District name_Date)).

4. Log into the State of Iowa Secure email (https://securemail.iowa.gov/). Your name will be your email associated with your EdPortal A&A account (not your Account ID), your password is your A&A account password. Not sure of your A&A email, login to the portal (https://portal.ed.iowa.gov), click on ‘My Profile’ in the upper right-hand corner and review your email in the center of the screen. If you receive an error, when logging in please contact the EdPortal help desk at (515) 725-2040 or by email ated.portal@iowa.gov.

5. After logging in to Secure Email, click on ‘Compose Mail’ in the upper left corner. Enter Ed.portal@iowa.gov in the ‘To’ field, in the Subject field enter your district name and the word TELPA (e. g. Ames TELPA).

6. Click on ‘Attach’ and ‘choose file’ to select the file created in step one. Click on Upload.

7. Click on ‘Send’ to send your email.

From: Colleen Anderson, Student Assessment, Iowa Department of Education, (515) 281-3249.

The information below has also been updated on the DE website and is reflected in the updated TELPA training module. The link to the DE website for all of this information is: https://www.educateiowa.gov/english-language-proficiency-assessment-21st-century-elpa-21 

Conditional Exiting of English Learners and How to Order the TELPA Screener
The Iowa Department of Education has released a webinar with timely guidance for districts on ordering the TELPA screener and the conditional exiting of students. Share this webinar widely with those who will depend on accurate information in your district.