Virginia Workplace Readiness Skills Assessment

CTECS is excited to start the new 2023-2024 school year with you and accommodate your Workplace Readiness Skills Assessment© (WRS) needs.

About the WRS

WRS Instructional Modules

Workplace Readiness Skills instructional modules that correspond to skills/standards, are available here for students who are learning the skills.

The Testing Process Summary

Follow the steps below to prepare to administer the Workplace Readiness Skills Assessment©.

Use the menu options in the left column to access forms, policies, testing materials, support information and more.

Step 1: A Purchaser’s Contract number must be obtained at the beginning of each school year.

Step 2: Each Test Site Administrator must complete registration forms to obtain access to E-SESS, the online testing program.

Step 3: Register the students for the WRS assessment.

Step 4: Use E-SESS to generate test tickets for the students, manage demographic data, and access a variety of useful reports. 

Important Dates

• Testing for the new school year can begin as early as August 21, 2023. The summer testing for SY2023-24 ends July 31, 2024. All results between these dates will be reported for SY2023-24 only.
• A new contract number is assigned each year. The appropriate person should complete the Virginia Purchaser’s form to set up the 2023-24 account. Or, if necessary, the PO option is still available. See Option 2 under the Virginia Purchase-Order page. Note that credit card payments are accepted.
• Use your new contract number to complete your new Test Site Administrator (TSA) Registration and Agreement form, which also must be submitted every year. Multiple TSAs can sign up under the same contract number.
• Enroll students on your own, using the instant registration process. For important registration information, refer to the Virginia Student Registration page. Remember to identify students who require accommodations. Follow the steps to set up your new account, register students, and test.
• If you are seeking state funding reimbursement in order to comply with the May 17, 2024, Virginia Department of Education submission deadline (please note that the pertinent Superintendent’s memorandums have yet to be released, and CTECS will link them on our website once they are).
  • All WRS purchaser’s contracts or purchase orders must be submitted to CTECS by May 5, 2023.
  • You must be finished with all CTECS testing by May 3, 2024.
• If you are seeking 2022-23 federal Perkins funding reimbursement, please check the relevant Superintendent’s Memorandum once released. It will also be posted on the CTECS website.
  • You must purchase or encumber all CTECS testing requests by June 30, 2024.
  • You must submit all reimbursement requests to the Virginia Department of Education via OMEGA by September 29, 2024.

Please share this message with teachers who are interested in the CTECS Workplace Readiness Skills (WRS) Assessment_© and our new, improved online curricula. We will post a link to this welcome back letter on the Virginia Overview page. If you have any questions, please contact us. Feedback is encouraged.

As always, thank you for testing with CTECS, and have a wonderful school year.

Reminders for SY2023-24

• Returning test site administrators have access to student testing data from previous school years. Just log into E-SESS and follow instructions to “Change Organizations.” Forgot your password? Request a password reset from rmarshall@ctecs.org
• When new test site administrators are added to E-SESS, they are sent an email message with a temporary password and instructions to create a new one.
• Sample questions are available here: Sample “retired” Test Questions, but also linked interactively through the “Practice” portion of the WRS site along with many extra teaching resources.
• The new WRS site continues to evolve, and we welcome your interaction and feedback. Send us your success stories and your lessons, activities, and ideas that work. You can do this directly through the comments section on the “Teach” portion of the site.  

Virginia is a charter member of CTECS and CTECS is proud to serve as the assessment provider for the CTECS Workplace Readiness Skills Assessment© (also referred to as the WRS Assessment©, the WRS Test©, or the WRS Retakes©), our most popular assessment, created under the strong leadership and vision of the Department of Career and Technical Education Services, Virginia Department of Education. Read about CTECS’ role in the creation of these skills as part of the 2010 Workplace Readiness Skills initiative in Virginia.  Assessment

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CTECS Online Privacy Policy on:

• what data we collect for the purpose of curricular instruction and testing AND how we collect it;
• how we use the data we collect;
• and finally, how we share AND protect personally identifiable information (PII) within the education testing environment involving students. (PII, as described in US privacy law and information security, is information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person, or to identify an individual in context).