Use of Alternate Assessment Results in Reporting and Accountability Systems: Conditions for Use Based on Research and Practice (NCEO Synthesis Report)
TITLE Use of Alternate Assessment Results in Reporting and Accountability Systems: Conditions for Use Based on Research and Practice. Synthesis Report. INSTITUTION National Center on Educational Outcomes, Minneapolis, MN. SPONS AGENCY Special Education Programs (ED/OSERS), Washington, DC. REPORT NO NCEO-43 PUB DATE 2002-05-00 NOTE 37p.; In collaboration with: the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE). CONTRACT H326G000001 AVAILABLE FROM National Center on Educational Outcomes, University of Minnesota, 350 Elliott Hall, 75 East River Rd., Minneapolis, MN 55455. For full text: http://education.umn.edu/NCEO/OnlinePubs/ Synthesis43.html. PUB TYPE Guides Non-Classroom (055) EDRS PRICE EDRS Price MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Accountability; *Disabilities; Educational Assessment; *Educational Testing; Elementary Secondary Education; *Evaluation Methods; Program Development; Scoring; Standards; Student Evaluation; Student Participation; Testing Accommodations IDENTIFIERS Kentucky; North Carolina; Wyoming
Assessment of Progress in the General Curriculum for Students With Disabilities
Legislative initiatives and federal regulations require states to provide students with disabilities access to the general curriculum and to include all students in state assessment systems. Assessing the progress in the general curriculum for students with disabilities challenges states to determine how academic standards apply to all students and to create universally designed assessments. Decisions regarding the use of accommodations, alternate assessments, and out-of-level testing continue to be discussed and debated. Implications for research include the continued development and use of universally designed assessments and instruction, the alignment of alternate assessments to state standards, an increase in the scope of progress monitoring to include students with significant disabilities, and the promotion of state standard attainment by students through effective teacher practices.
The Impact of Alternate Assessments
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Amendments of 1997 require that all states, by July 2000, will have developed and implemented alternate assessment methods for those students with disabilities who cannot be included within regular state and local district educational assessment and accountability measures. A statewide survey of teachers involved in the nation's first alternate assessment and accountability system for students with moderate and severe disabilities was conducted to determine the extent to which these teachers perceived benefits of including their students in state and school accountability measures, as well as their perceptions of the instructional impact of the alternate system upon student outcomes. The results of this survey indicated that teachers did realize such benefits, and perceived positive changes in both instructional programming (e.g., students' learning to follow their own individualized schedules, students' learning to assess their own performance) and enhanced student outcomes (an increased percentage of students having functional augmentative communication systems). However, teachers also expressed frustration with the amount of time required to complete student assessment portfolios, and concern over scoring reliability and the extent to which the alternate assessment was more of a teacher assessment than a student assessment.