Waterford Institute

Waterford Assessments of Core Skills™ (WACS) is more comprehensive than most other tests. It assesses 11 reading skills, while many other tests only assess 4–7 skill areas.

WACS includes an adaptive sequencer that precisely assesses student abilities. The sequencer first presents a question to the student. If the student answers incorrectly, the student receives an easier question. If the student answers correctly, the student receives a harder question.

Also, WACS is Web-based, which has the following benefits:

• It saves significant teacher time over one-to-one, paper-based assessment instruments
• It requires minimal training for the person administering the test
• It removes discrepancies due to examiner variance
• It has fun and engaging graphics and audio for young learners, which reduces student anxieties and gives a clearer picture of student abilities
• It has immediate web-based reporting

WACS has been aligned to all state standards. It includes the most important reading skills for preschool to second grade students.

Yes, WACS will be aligned to the National Common Core Standards.

Yes. Norms are in development for EFL or ESL students. Today, the assessments can be used to compare your student’s abilities with the abilities of native English-speaking students.

Yes, Waterford offers professional development to support WACS implementation. For more details please contact user support at support@waterford.org or 1-800-669-4533.

WACS has gone through an extensive validation testing process which included item validation using Item Response Theory, an examination of content, construct, and criterion validity, and test retest and internal consistency reliability. For details please contact user support at support@waterford.org or 1-800-669-4533.

As students answer questions in WACS, the difficulty adapts to performance, quickly focusing in on each student’s ability level. Five years of research and validation have gone into ensuring WACS accuracy.

After the student receives a brief introduction to the mouse and the computer, the average assessment time for a student near grade level is 20 minutes. Students significantly above or below grade level will take longer.

WACS is designed to be given at least three times per year: fall, winter, and spring. WACS can also be used for progress monitoring every four to six weeks throughout the school year.

No, WACS has been carefully designed and validated to give students the most appropriate skills and questions based on their ability level.

WACS reports provide an overall score as well as scores for each skill the student completed. Additionally, individual student reports provide recommendations for individual skills that can be used to guide instruction and decision making.

Testing students who are outside the ages of three and nine is not recommended. Assessment items are developed to be age specific.

In order for assessment results to accurately reflect student abilities, it is important that students complete the test independently. Test navigation and instructions are carefully designed to ensure young students’ success. However, you can assist students in certain situations. For example, help could be provided to a student who knows the answer but has a physical limitation that impedes his ability to control a mouse.

Test administrators can pause, stop, and resume individual students or whole classes at any time during test administration.

It’s easy to generate WACS reports on an individual, class, school, and district level. Scores on 11 possible skills are reported: letter recognition, letter sound, initial sound, blending, segmenting, real words, nonsense words, sight words, vocabulary, listening, and reading comprehension. Scores can be displayed in multiple ways. They are available as raw numerical scores, grade level scores, normal curve equivalents (NCE), and proficiency levels. For each skill, minimum, maximum, and expected scores are displayed based on students’ grade level.

Yes, student characteristics are included as part of the set up for WACS. These characteristics can later be used to generate reports on specific student groups.

Yes, historical data can be generated into a report at any time for an individual student, class, school, and district.

Yes, WACS data can be exported to a simple Excel file that can then be used with any external data management system.

Class rosters can be loaded at the beginning of the year using the import feature. For an additional fee, Waterford will preload class rosters to your account.

WACS is an Internet-enabled application that can be hosted centrally at a district or directly by Waterford Institute. The WACS manager allows users to launch, manage, and monitor assessments across many computers from a single location.

To view the system requirements for WACS or any other Waterford product, visit the System Requirements page.

Waterford Institute spent five years of research and development towards the creation of WACS.

Waterford Institute is a research facility dedicated to providing children the finest education possible, through the development of high-quality educational models, programs, and software. To learn more about Waterford Institute, visit the Waterford Institute FAQ page.

If you forget your username, contact user support at support@waterford.org or 1-877-499-7997.

If you forget your password, follow these steps:

• In the WACS Log in / Register window, click Forgot Your Password.
• In the Forgot Password window, enter your WACS login e-mail and click Enter.

A new password is sent to you.