Accessibility for Students Taking Assessment Consortia Tests National Conference on Student Assessment June 19-22, 2011

Accessibility for Students Taking Assessment Consortia Tests

National Conference on Student AssessmentJune 19-22, 2011www.PARCConline.org

• Create high-quality assessments that measure the full range of the Common Core State Standards

• Build a pathway to college and career readiness for all students and make accurate and reliable determinations as to whether students are “on track” or “ready” for college and careers

• Provide information that supports various accountability uses (e.g., school, educator, student)

• Provide timely and actionable information that supports continuous improvements in curriculum and instruction that inform effective classroom instruction and assessment practices

• Leverage technology for a variety of uses: innovative items, accommodations, administration, and scoring and reporting.

• Report results that allow for comparability across all PARCC states, across consortia, and to national and international assessments.

The PARCC Vision

PARCC Accessibility Goals

The Partnership will:•Work to minimize/eliminate features that are irrelevant to what is being measured and measure the range of complexity of the standards so that students can demonstrate their knowledge;•Design each component in a manner that allows ELL students and students with identified needs to demonstrate what they know and can do;•Apply principles of universal design for accessible assessments throughout every stage of developing assessment components, items, and performance tasks;•Leverage technology for delivering assessment components as widely accessible as possible; and•Establish a Committee on Accessibility and Accommodations comprised of knowledgeable testing officials from member states (OWG).

Partnership States

Governing Board States Participating StatesMembership as of 6/16/11

PARCC Governance

Governing Board States (15) AZ, AR, DC, FL, GA, IL, IN, LA, MD, MA, NJ, NY, OK, RI, TN

Governing Board Chair Massachusetts Commissioner Mitchell Chester

Participating States (9) AL, CO, DE, KY, MS, ND, OH, PA, SC

Fiscal Agent StateFlorida

US Education Department award is to Florida on behalf of 25 states to oversee budget, procurement, and reporting functions

Project Management Partner

AchieveAchieve is a bipartisan, non-profit organization that helps states raise academic standards, improve assessments, and strengthen accountability to prepare all young people for postsecondary education, work, and citizenship

Membership as of 6/16/11

PARCC Governance Structure

Steering Committee

Henry BraunBoston College

Bob BrennanUniversity of Iowa

Derek BriggsUniversity of Colorado at Boulder

Wayne CamaraCollege Board

Linda CookRetired, ETS

Ronald HambletonUniversity of Massachusetts, Amherst

Gerunda HughesHoward University

Huynh HuynhUniversity of South Carolina

PARCC Technical Advisory Committee

Michael KolenUniversity of Iowa

Suzanne LaneUniversity of Pittsburgh

Richard LuechtUniversity of North Carolina at Greensboro

Jim PellegrinoUniversity of Illinois at Chicago

Barbara PlakeUniversity of Nebraska- Lincoln

Rachel QuenemoenNational Center on Educational Outcomes

Laurie WiseHuman Resources Research Organization, HumRRO

PARCC Technical Working Groups (TWG)

• Limited number of groups convened by the TAC to address high priority topics that would benefit from collective problem-solving by leading experts

• Comprised of domain-specific technical advisors who interact with leadership and working groups and report to the TAC

Accessibility, Accommodations, and Fairness TWG: • Committee members represent a range of expertise

in accessibility and accommodations• Role is to help guide the efforts of working groups in

designing accessible assessments that remain true to the intended constructs

Technical Advisory

Committee (TAC)

Technical Working Groups (TWG)

Operational Working Groups (OWG)

Leadership Team (LT)

Accessibility, Accommodations, and Fairness TWG Invited Members

Diane August Center for Applied Linguistics (ELL)

David EdyburnUniversity of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (SWD)

Claudia FlowersUniversity of North Carolina – Charlotte (SWD)

Dianne PicheLeadership Conference on Civil Rights

Charlene RiveraGeorge Washington University (ELL)

Diane SpenceRegion 4 Education Service Center, Braille Services (Braille)

Martha ThurlowNational Center on Educational Outcomes (SWD)

Dan WienerMassachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (accommodations for state assessments)

Gerunda Hughes will serve as the liaison to the PARCC Technical Advisory Committee (TAC).

PARCC Operational Working Groups (OWG)

• Who: Comprised of state representatives, Achieve staff members, and eventually vendor representatives

• What: Responsible for the day-to-day aspects of work of key components of work

• Why: To ensure efficient and effective collaboration among PARCC members to meet PARCC goals.

Technical Advisory

Committee (TAC)



Leadership Team (LT)

Design

Research

Communications

Data, Technology, and Innovation

Accessibility, Accommodations, and Fairness

CCSS Implementation and Educator Engagement

PARCC Operational Working Groups (OWG)

Accessibility, Accommodations, and Fairness OWG Members

Roberta Alley (Chair)Interim Associate Superintendent, Standards & AssessmentsArizona Department of Education

Trinell BowmanProject Manager for Assessments forStudents with DisabilitiesMaryland State Board of Education

Melissa FincherAssociate Superintendent of Assessment and AccountabilityGeorgia Department of Education

Charity FloresAssistant Director, Office of Student AssessmentIndiana Department of Education

Andrew HinkleEducational ConsultantOhio Department of Education

Bambi LockmanChief, Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student ServicesFlorida Department of Education

Phyllis LynchDirector, Office of Instruction, Assessment and CurriculumRhode Island Department of Education

Michael ReidDirector, Academic Performance IndexOklahoma State Department of Education

Lori RodriguezBureau Chief, Student Achievement through Language AcquisitionFlorida Department of Education

Accessibility and AccommodationsWorking Groups – Overview

The Working Groups will be responsible for: Drafting a set of Partnership-wide policies in a Partnership

Accommodations Manual to be adopted by each member state for identifying eligible students, selecting allowable accommodations, and administering accommodations. That process will include:

• Analyzing extant state accommodation policies,• Building a list of recommended standard accommodations,• Identifying constructs and research on possible new accommodations,• Recommending a set of proposed accommodation policies for the

assessment,• Drafting a common Partnership Accommodations Manual,• Ensuring comparability in assessment administrations,• Monitoring ongoing refinements of accommodations, and • Developing training modules for IEP teams.




The Working Groups will be responsible for (continued): Identifying challenges. Proposing research relating to accommodations.

Adopting key policies and definitions that will include:• a common definition of “English Learner”;• a common set of policies and procedures for providing assessment

accommodations for English learners and students with identified needs; and

• a common set of policies and procedures for participation of English learners and students with identified needs in the assessment system.




Accessibility and Accommodations as a part of the development process

• Design review and feedback• Test blueprint development• Technology development and selection• Passage and media review committee involvement• Item review committee involvement• Bias and sensitivity committee involvement• Testing the efficacy of assessment items with accommodations with

the intended groups of students in pilot and field testing• Including sufficient number of students with identified needs (across

sub-categories) in pilot and field testing• Data review committee involvement




• Build accessibility throughout the test itself with no trade-off between accessibility and validity

• Use a combination of ‘accessible’-authoring and accessible technologies from the inception of items and tasks

• Establish and maintain a close working connection with the Data, Technology, and Innovation OWG



Accessibility for Students Taking Assessment Consortia Tests

National Conference on Student AssessmentJune 19-22, 2011www.PARCConline.org

Documents

Accessibility for Students Taking Assessment Consortia Tests National Conference on Student Assessment June 19-22, 2011