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Practices in Support of the Transition to Next Generation Alternate
Assessments Based on Alternate Achievement Standards
Session Participants
Susan Weigert, Moderator Sharon Hall, edCount (NCSC), Presenter Meagan Karvonen, Center for Educational Testing and Evaluation (DLM), Presenter
Panelists: State Partners
• Gretchen Cagle, Mississippi Department of Education [email protected]
• Melissa Gholson, West Virginia Department of Education [email protected]
• Toni Wheeler, Idaho State Department of Education [email protected]
• Leila Williams, Arizona Department of Education [email protected]
U.S. Department of Education
Susan Weigert, Ph.D. Office of Special Education Programs
General Supervision Enhancement Grants to Support State Assessments
History of AA-AAS
• First required in 2001 • Shift from functional to academics (aligned to
grade level) • Alternate achievement standards • Often portfolio, performance assessment, or
rater checklist approach • May be based on grade-level or extended
academic content standards • Some advances in AA-AAS quality, but still gaps
and limitations
Next Generation Alternate Assessments
• Equality of opportunity is a core American value.
• Inclusion of all Students in Educational
Reforms is an Equity and Civil Rights Issue
• Education can and must provide a path to a better life for all children.
Next Generation Alternate Assessments
• Young people must have equal opportunity to learn and demonstrate their achievements
• States and districts can become models of
educational assurance
• Students with the most complex support needs should have access to next generation alternate assessments
GSEG Consortia Membership
• DLM – 20 States (confirmations expected by July 31)
• NCSC – 24 States (confirmations expected by July 1)
• Several states not committed to either alternate assessment
Next Generation Alternate Assessments
• Fit coherently with the Race to the Top Assessment
(RTTA) program; • Full performance range of eligible students; • Measure knowledge and skills against a common set
of college and career-ready standards • Elicit complex demonstrations of knowledge and
skills • Provide a valid measure of student growth
Next Generation Alternate Assessments
• Validly, reliably, and accurately measure student achievement
• Result in high-quality data for use in evaluating the performance of schools, districts, and States.
• Produce data (including achievement and growth data) that can be used to inform – school effectiveness – principal and teacher effectiveness – determinations of principal and teacher professional
development needs; – teaching, learning, and program improvement.
Other GSEG Program Requirements
• Develop a strategy to make student-level data available on an ongoing basis for research;
• Help prepare States to implement the alternate assessments in the 2014-2015 school year;
• Maximize the interoperability of assessments
across technology platforms
Teacher Reactions to Field Testing
DLM: • "I have to say, I really wasn't expecting it” • "She was able to feel successful and not
pressured” • A classroom of 4th through 6th graders with SCD
were able to take the computerized test alongside their peers.
Teacher Reactions
NCSC: • “A non-verbal freshman student came to
us with functional goals: • Answered all of the questions with 80-100%
accuracy • I have never been so happy to rewrite an IEP
in my life”.
Next Generation Alternate Assessments
• Accurate measurement is a responsibility
• Target Instruction appropriately
• Ensure technical adequacy
• Scaling and Equating
• Valid measure of growth
Next Generation Alternate Assessments
• Valid and reliable • Support the measurement of growth • Cost-effective, easy to administer • Appropriate, accessible, and engaging for
students • Technically sound
NCSA 2014
The National Center and State Collaborative Alternate Assessment System: Transforming Assessment
and Instruction
Theory of Action Long-term goal: To ensure that students with the most significant cognitive disabilities achieve increasingly higher academic outcomes and leave high school ready for post-secondary options (college, career, community).
A well-designed summative assessment alone is insufficient.
To achieve this goal, an AA-AAS system also requires:
Curricular & instructional frameworks Teacher resources and professional development
NCSC GSEG 6/29/2014 17
A Comprehensive System
1) Incorporating evidence-based instruction and curriculum models;
2) Developing comprehensive approaches to professional development delivered through state-level Communities of Practice; and
3) Producing technically defensible summative assessments.
Professional Development Framework
NCSC Summative Assessments
Technology-based System Test administrator training, assessment administration, documentation, and reporting Accessible Items and Form Mathematics and ELA (Reading and Writing) • SR items, system scored • CR/OE items, TA scored using rubric; entered into system as
correct/not correct Writing Student products centrally scored
Transformative Practices • Online assessment system • CCSS/CCC aligned mathematics, reading and
writing Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment • Accessible items and forms • Stakeholder involvement
– State partners involved in every component of assessment system development
– state stakeholder involvement – parent information – Transition plan
The Dynamic Learning Maps Alternate Assessment System: Transforming Assessment and
Instruction Meagan Karvonen
WHAT IS TRANSFORMATIVE FOR STUDENTS?
Large, Fine-Grained Learning Maps
Support student learning Multiple pathways toward targets
Assessments Instructionally embedded Technology-based
Access to Content at Different Levels
Initial Precursor
Target
Successors
Connect the map…
Behavior Testlet a
…to the items developed.
Distal Precursor
Proximal Precursor
Behavior
Behavior
Behavior
Behavior
Testlet b
Testlet c
Testlet d
Testlet e
Other Transformative Experiences for Students
• Expect independent responses • Customized accessibility
WHAT IS TRANSFORMATIVE FOR TEACHERS?
Professional Development
• Integral to the system • Multiple approaches
Instruction & Assessment Integrated Choice and flexibility*
Dashboard: Educator Portal
Choice of content Information to support instruction Information about testlet administration Managing student records & accessibility info Managing PD
Other Transformative Experiences for Teachers
• On-demand reports show progress on Essential Elements
• Decisions about accessibility • Expect student independence
STATE PANEL DISCUSSION: NCSC AND DLM PARTNERS
1. What is transformative? (Leila)
• For Arizona there are 2 big shifts – NCSC will be assessing writing – A big shift to focus more on instruction or
academics vs functional skills
1. What is transformative? (Melissa)
• Paper-based performance task assessment versus online assessment
• Computer adaptive items • Multiple item types • Rigor of the Common Core State
Standards • Emphasis on academic content • Higher expectations • Opportunity to measure growth
1. What is transformative? (Toni)
• Teachers reported the presentation of the items was appropriate: “I thought the way it was presented was good. My students had no problems.” Southwest Idaho Extended Resource Room Teacher
• Teachers reported looking into current instructional practices:“…this experience has allowed me to reflect how I am currently teaching in the classroom and how I can improve and enhance the learning in the classroom to help students prepare for the future.” Idaho Extended Resource Room Teacher
• Teachers have used their experience in the assessment to consider how they can use technology during instruction.
1. What is transformative? (Gretchen)
• Moving from a portfolio based assessment to computer based
• Essential Elements give stronger correlation to general education standards
• Professional Development online • Teacher attitudes!
2. What state level changes are needed? (Melissa)
• ESEA waiver language included the adoption of the standards in policy and provided a professional development outline of activities for transitioning to the DLM
• Joint responsibility of OAA, Federal Programs & OSP
• Specific professional development moving students towards using technology, recognizing how to teach to multiple item type assessments and more rigorous standards
2. What state level changes are needed? (Toni)
• Shift from Extended Content Standards to the same standards as general education: “Idaho Core is for all students”
• Leveraging resources from assessment, content and special education divisions
• ESEA flexibility from double testing and accountability allowed districts and schools to fully test their capacities and troubleshoot before assessments are operational
2. What state level changes are needed? (Gretchen)
• Continued professional development surrounding the standards and the assessment tool
• Face to face trainings to be offered • Changes in the way teachers write
and implement IEPs • Data file done at the state level
2. What state level changes are needed? (Leila)
• ADE is working more collaboratively between units (i.e. Accountability, Special Education, Highly Effective Teachers, etc) – PD – IEP decisions – Teacher evaluations – Growth Model
3. Transformations at the District Level (Toni)
• Professional development typically comes from the state
• Current shift is to regional instructional coaches for ELA, Math and special education
• Regional coaches work with districts, schools and teams for ongoing facilitation of improvement to instructional practices
• Local districts banding together for instructional, curricular and material development
3. Transformations at the District Level (Gretchen)
• Teachers will not be expected to create the assessments
• Professional learning communities started just for teachers of students with a SCD
• Greater emphasis on test security issues
3. Transformations at the District Level (Leila)
• Helping teachers see that many times they are already teaching academics but now we have to make tighter connections between grade level academic content
• Writing as a permanent product (many districts have to move beyond “copying words” to students generating their own thoughts
• Including teachers in all content professional development training and collaboration efforts
3. Transformations at the District Level (Melissa)
• Regional professional development, webinars and monthly updates across stakeholder groups
• Mapping out the changes of our current system to the Dynamic Learning Maps
• Responding to the need for uniform resources and classroom models for teachers aligned to the CCEE.
• Supporting the creation of model instructional units across programmatic levels aligned to the CCEE’s
• Unit based diagnostic assessment to assess where to begin instruction, aligned to the CCEE and how to support progress monitoring using the standards and providing instructional scaffolding.
4. Preparing Teachers for the Shift (Gretchen)
• Monthly webinars to review online professional development and provide updates and reminders
• Online professional development as well as face to face
• Focus on instruction using the Essential Elements
• Communication, communication, communication
4. Preparing Teachers for the Shift (Leila)
• Showing examples of other teachers utilizing materials
• Showing actual students using materials or success stories
• Rolling out NCSC materials in sections or pieces
• Utilizing and expanding CoPs
4. Preparing Teachers for the Shift (Melissa)
• Alternate Assessment Practice Test Project
• Professional development around research strategies, unit based instruction around the academic standards
• Multiple items types and transitioning students to technology
• Focus on instruction 2012-2014 • Focus on connecting instruction to
assessment
4. Preparing Teachers for the Shift (Toni)
• Grounding in Idaho Core • 1-day regional workshops with follow-up
webinars throughout the year • Embed NCSC instructional and curricular
materials into the work of regional content coaches with special education regional instructional coaches to support work
• Early and frequent communication to the field
5. Lessons Learned from 2013-14 (Toni)
• Provide the item data which shows our kids can be held to high academic standards
• Use feedback from pilot to plan professional development around communicative competence
• Use the data from Idaho’s Learner Characteristics Inventory to paint the picture of students who take alternate assessments in Idaho – Currently collaborating with University of Idaho
5. Lessons Learned from 2013-14 (Leila)
• Take teachers where they are • Make connections for them (i.e. you are
already teaching some academics, you already administer the alternate online)
• Training (for NCSC Pilot) need to have time set aside. Test administrators really struggled with finding time outside of school day to complete training
• Posing opportunities rather than make requirements
5. Lessons Learned from 2013-14 (Melissa)
• Conducted focus groups from pilot and field tests to identify areas of success and challenge
• Success in the area of collaboration of school district, regional and state agencies to support the transition
• Success in meeting the minimum platform requirements • Challenge moving from our current assessment which allows
prompting support across items. • Challenge in supporting teachers to understand how to teach
students at individual levels in ways that simulate multiple item type assessment aligned to the new standards
• Challenge in readiness, time spent assessing for the year end summative versus embedded assessment
• Challenges continue for professional development needs in the areas of technology, assistive technology and models for standards based instruction for students with significant intellectual disabilities
5. Lessons Learned from 2013-14 (Gretchen)
Mississippi Department of Education Perspective
AUDIENCE Q&A
Thank You!
For more information: National Center and State Collaborative: http://ncscpartners.org/ Dynamic Learning Maps: http://dynamiclearningmaps.org/
