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KELPA Assessments

KELPA Assessments Resources

Resources marked with a star symbol are unique to the KELPA Assessment.

  • The Kansas State Department of Education complies with the requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which require the participation of all students in assessments used for accountability purposes.

    Students with disabilities are included to the extent possible in grade- and age-appropriate instruction on the content standards; however, assessments must provide adaptations to provide all students the opportunity to show what they have learned. These adaptations are called accommodations.

    Accommodations for students with disabilities are tools or procedures that mediate a student’s disability to permit valid assessment without changing what is being measured. For example, a student with low vision may need accommodations for the test to be accessible. In a test of reading, having reading passages read aloud would change what is being measured, so reading passages aloud to a student is not a valid accommodation. The use of a magnifying tool or a large-print version of a test, however, would be an acceptable accommodation.

    The Kansas Assessment Program provides numerous accommodations for students with disabilities:

    • • Accommodations are available for students who are not yet proficient in English.
    • • The Dynamic Learning Maps® (DLM®) Alternate Assessment System is available for students with significant cognitive disabilities.

     

    Kite Educator Portal allows educators and test administrators to identify supports that are used in the classroom on a regular basis and enter them into a Personal Needs Profile (PNP). Students’ PNPs should be well thought out and created before beginning any type of assessment. For additional information on completing a student's PNP, refer to the Kite Educator Portal Manual for Test Coordinators.

  • Kansas Accessibility Manual

About the Kansas English Language Proficiency Assessment (KELPA)

The Kansas English Language Proficiency Assessment (KELPA) measures the English language proficiency of English learners (EL) and evaluates student progress toward such proficiency based on Kansas standards. These standards were strategically designed to streamline the process of learning in English and to meet Kansas standards in academic subject areas by allowing students to gain English proficiency and to learn other subjects simultaneously. Students are assessed across four domains: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. 

All students who are identified as ELs must take KELPA, whether they are receiving English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) services or not. The assessment is delivered through Kite Student Portal, except for a small number of paper-based writing items given only to kindergarten and first grade students.