Out of State Waiver

Every student enrolled in Washington state schools during the federal accountability administration of the Mathematics and/or ELA Smarter Balanced assessment, (or, if applicable, WA-AIM), are expected to participate in those assessments. This ALSO applied to transfer students. If a student entered a Washington state school in the 10th grade with passing Out of State (OOS) test scores, that student must have still participated in the 10th grade Mathematics and ELA Smarter Balanced assessment federal accountability administrations to utilize the out-of-state scores.

Eligibility

The OOS Waiver, like all assessment graduation alternatives, required a student to be eligible prior to submission. NOT ALL transfer students were eligible for this waiver. Any student wishing to apply passing scores from an approved OOS test must have first met the same Eligibility Criteria that applied to other graduation pathways.

Depending upon when a student transferred into Washington State schools for the first time, they may have been eligible for the Out of State Waiver.

• Only students through the graduating class of 2019 were eligible.
• A student who transferred into a Washington public school in the 11th or 12th grade from out of state, out of country or from an in-state non-public school setting (private or home school) was eligible to access the graduation pathways in all content areas without taking a state exam first.
• Only those students who transferred into Washington public school so late in 10th grade that they missed the spring accountability testing administration were granted eligibility to submit graduation pathways without taking the state assessment first.
• Otherwise, a student who transferred into a Washington public school in the 10th grade from out of state, out of country or from an in-state non-public school setting must have participated in the accountability testing in spring of 10th grade.

Expanded OOS Waiver For transfer students with IEPs

Eligible transfer students who also received special education services have additional means for applying for an OOS waiver. They may have pursued an Expanded OOS waiver if:

• They enrolled in a school with another state's approved assessment (eligible for use in accountability or exit exam purposes), having met or exceeded that state's comparable performance level to Washington's CIA cut score
• They enrolled in a school having met or exceeded the CIA cut score set by Washington on a common assessment (Smarter Balanced assessment in ELA or Math)
• *For students with significant cognitive challenges* they met standard in another state's Alternate Assessment used for that state's federal accountability assessment

OOS Tests Approved by OSPI

Out of State tests were not simply approved based upon their role or validity in the student’s former state of residence; they were approved based upon evaluation and comparison with the skills and knowledge currently required to earn a diploma in the state of Washington.

OOS tests were reviewed by a panel that evaluates each test for its level of similarity, in content and rigor, to Washington State’s current graduation-level tests: The English Language Arts Smarter Balanced assessment, Mathematics Smarter Balanced assessment, Algebra 1 EOC, and Geometry EOC. You view the approved “OOS Test List” in the Graduation Alternatives Application (in EDS).

Required Documentation

To submit an OOS waiver using scores on an approved test, documentation is required to verify the scores entered into the digital OOS Waiver form in Graduation Alternatives Application. This documentation must also be uploaded in the Graduation Alternatives Application.
Documentation MUST clearly display the following information:

1. Student name
2. Test name
3. Date of testing
4. Exact (numerical) student test score (designations of “met standard,” “passed,” etc. are not acceptable)

Types of applicable documents (which must include the above information) include:

• Student test score report (actual copy of individual test score report)
• Test score history report (list of all tests, test dates, and scores of the student while in a given school, district, or state)
• Student transcript that includes test information (an academic transcript from a previous out of state school which includes the above required information)

Submitting the Assessment Graduation Alternative

This assessment graduation alternative is submitted in the Graduation Alternatives Application in EDS.

To submit, the student must:

• Be in the class of 2019 or earlier
• Been enrolled in 11th or 12th grade (as determined by the student's graduation requirement year in CEDARS)**
• Met or exceeded the cut score indicated for an approved Out of State test for the respective content area, as indicated in the Graduation Alternatives Application Out of State Waiver form.
• Provide acceptable documentation for the approved out of state test(s) and score to their counselor to be uploaded within the Graduation Alternatives Application