Before testing with WebXam, it is important to become familiar with the system and make sure your school district is ready to test. This section of the WebXam User’s Guide provides information on these topics.
WebXam testing follows the academic school year (each school year begins July 1 and ends June 30). In the late summer, a school district’s DTC should start planning for the year’s testing.
Recommended start of school-year tasks for WebXam administrators:
Archive student accounts who have graduated
To archive student accounts who have since graduated go to “Secondary Student” > “List”, filter the student list to show only last year’s graduating students by selecting the previous graduation year in the “Grade/Graduation Year” filter. Choose the “Show All” option just below the student list to show all graduated students. Click the first checkbox to select all student accounts. Verify that all of the select students have graduated, then choose the “Archive” option from the “Bulk Actions” and click “Apply”. You may want to filter by additional previous graduation years to find additional accounts that have not been archived.
Create Accounts For New Teachers
WebXam requires that new teacher accounts be created before student rostering can occur. Without the teacher accounts and their associated teacher IDs, students can not be linked to teachers. If a new teacher has replaced an old teacher who no longer needs a WebXam account you can archive the old account and choose to migrate those students to the new teacher using the account archiving instructions.
Upload the student roster for the current year
Prepare your student roster to upload for the current year. Detailed instructions can be found in the Student Roster Uploads section. We recommend including all students enrolled in your CTE or FCS programs in the roster file. When processed, the student roster file will provide WebXam with each student’s unique SSID and current information that may change from year-to-year (e.g., teacher, grade level). Rostering all students ensures WebXam accurate up-to-date information. If a student already has an account in WebXam their information will be updated and if no account is found we will create a new account. Additionally, if an account was archived but then rostered again, we will unarchive the account automatically.
Assign Student Accommodations
Although student accommodations can be included in the roster upload file, often districts may not have student accommodation data until later in the year. In such cases, districts will need to review and update the student accommodations before testing.
Preparing Teachers
To fully prepare students for WebXam testing we recommend districts encourage teachers to review ODE’s approved course outlines for any CTE of FCS course they are assigned to teaching. WebXam’s About the Tests page provides links to ODE’s course outline and WebXam’s blueprint files. The course outlines define what content should be covered in the course and the blueprints give insight into the content included in the test.
Review Student Reports
WebXam administrators can run testing reports at the start of the year to determine if any student may benefit from retesting. By reviewing past test scores early in the year student interventions can be planned and retesting dates scheduled to maximize a student’s potential to improve their scores.