Martha Thurlow
March 17, 2014
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Background
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New Assessments
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Smarter Balanced Approach for Students
with Disabilities
What Needs to Happen to Instruction and
Educator Training?
What Needs to Happen to Policy?
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Most states did not include students with disabilities
in their assessment systems
Students with disabilities (all disabilities) were held
to different expectations – we worked hard to make
sure that they felt good about themselves, but we
did not necessarily attend to their academic needs
Little thought was given to accommodations that
students might need in instruction to access the
curriculum, much less how to use universal design
principles for instruction and assessment
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10.6%
California
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0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Specific learning disability
Speech/language impairment
Autism
Other health impairment
Intellectual disability
Emotional disturbance
Deaf/Hard of hearing
Orthopedic impairment
From CA Dept of Ed Data Quest
Note: Multiple disability (0.9%), visual
impairment (0.6%), traumatic brain
injury (0.2%) and deaf-blindness
(0.0%) are not shown because they
account for less than 1%.
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California*
55.3%
21.4%
23.3%
*California data from data.gov
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California
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California
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Six Assessment Consortia
• Race-to-the-Top Regular Assessment Consortia
 Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and
Careers (PARCC)
 Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter
Balanced)**
• GSEG Alternate Assessment Consortia
 Dynamic Learning Maps (DLM)
 National Center and State Collaborative (NCSC)*
• ELP Assessment Consortium
 ASSETS: Assessment Services Supporting ELs through
Technology Systems
 ELPA21: English Language Proficiency for the 21st Century
** California belongs to this consortium
* California is in Tier II of this consortium
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Smarter Balanced Must Include All
Students with Disabilities Except
Those Who Participate in the AAAAS (California Alternate
Performance Assessment - CAPA)
• No Alternate Assessment Based on Modified
Achievement Standards (AA-MAS) – the
California Modified Assessment (CMA)
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AA-AAS Consortia Participation:
Three Basic Criteria
1. The student has a significant cognitive disability.
Review of student records indicate a disability or multiple
disabilities that significantly impact intellectual functioning
and adaptive behavior essential for someone to live
independently and to function safely in daily life.
2. The student is learning content linked to (derived
from) the Common Core State Standards
Goals and instruction listed in the IEP for this student are
linked to the enrolled grade-level CCSS and address
knowledge and skills that are appropriate and challenging
for this student.
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AA-AAS Consortia Participation:
Three Basic Criteria
3. The student requires extensive direct individualized
instruction and substantial supports to achieve
measurable gains in the grade and age-appropriate
curriculum.
The student
(a) requires extensive, repeated, individualized
instruction and support that is not of a temporary or
transient nature, and
(b) uses substantially adapted materials and
individualized methods of accessing information in
alternative ways to acquire, maintain, generalize,
demonstrate and transfer skills across multiple settings.
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Use of Individual Student
Accessible Assessment
Profile (ISAAP), or similar
local process, as the avenue
to ensure individualized
accessibility
“New” terminology about
accessibility and
accommodations – universal
tools, designated supports,
and accommodations
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Universal Tools
(For All Students)
• Embedded: Breaks, Calculator, Digital
Notepad, English Dictionary, English Glossary,
Expandable Passages, Global Notes,
Highlighter, Keyboard Navigation, Mark for
Review, Math Tools, Spell Check, Strikethrough,
Writing Tools, Zoom
• Non-Embedded: Breaks, English Dictionary,
Scratch Paper, Thesaurus
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Designated Supports
(For All Students with Documentation)
• Embedded: Color Contrast, Masking, Text-toSpeech, Translated Test Directions, Translations
(Glossary), Translations (Stacked), Turn Off Any
Universal Tools
• Non-Embedded: Bilingual Dictionary, Color
Contrast, Color Overlay, Magnification, Read
Aloud, Scribe, Separate Setting, Translations
(Glossary)
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Accommodations
(For Students with Disabilities)
• Embedded: American Sign Language, Braille,
Closed Captioning, Text-to-Speech
• Non-Embedded: Abacus, Alternate Response
Options, Calculator, Multiplication Table, Print on
Demand, Read Aloud, Scribe, Speech-to-Text
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Supports for
Implementation . . .
• Practice and Pilot Tests (with
accessibility features)
• Sample Items and Performance
Tasks
• Frequently Asked Questions (for
Usability, Accessibility, and
Accommodations Guidelines)
• Webinars on Accessibility and
Accommodations
Implementation Guide for
Usability, Accessibility, and
Accommodations
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Some Basics…..
• Standards-based IEPs
• Accommodations during
instruction (and assessment)
• Grade-level instruction and
strategies for scaffolding to it
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Standards-Based IEPs
• Where is the student with respect to
standards for enrolled grade?
• Which standards warrant attention?
• What goals are needed to designate the
“necessary learning –the specially designed
instruction” – that will lead the student’s
program toward achievement of standards?
Source: Project Forum at NASDSE, 2010
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Standards-Based IEPs
Standards-based,
not
Standards-bound.
Access Skills
The IEP is the
boundary,
not the
standards
General
Curriculum
Standards
Transition Skills
Source: Jim Shriner,
U of Illinois
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Standards-Based IEPs

What standards? (CCSS +)
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Not all standards are “equal”
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Match to needs/deficit areas
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Match to Present Levels of Academic
Achievement and Functional Performance
– (PLAAFP)
Source: Jim Shriner,
U of Illinois
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Source: Jim
Shriner, U of
Illinois
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Accommodations
(During Instruction)
• Accommodations mediate the impact of
students’ characteristics to:
 Support learning of the content
 Reduce construct irrelevant variance
• Assumes an accurate alignment between
students’ needs and access barriers that
need to be mediated [Good decisionmaking is essential]
Source: Leanne Ketterlin-Geller,
Southern Methodist University
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Accommodations
(During Instruction)
• Check out resources for decision makers,
such as:
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Accommodations
(During Assessment)
• Plan for transition from CA accommodation
policies to Smarter Balanced usability,
accessibility, and accommodations policies
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Crosswalk Format to Compare New Terminology
to Old Terminology
Smarter Balanced Terminology
Universal Tools – access features of the
assessment; these are available to all
students based on student preference and
selection
State’s Previous
Terminology
[example entries]
Differences to
Note
[e.g., Best Practices
(provide state
definition)]
Designated Supports – features that are
[e.g., Accommodations
available for use by any student for whom the (provide state
need has been indicated by an educator (or
definition)]
team of educators with parent/guardian and
student)
Accommodations – changes in procedures or [e.g., Accommodations
materials that increase equitable access
(provide state
during the assessment for students who need definition)]
them and for whom there is documentation
on an IEP or 504 accommodations plan
[no similar term in Smarter Balanced
Usability, Accessibility, and Accommodations
Guidelines]
[e.g., Modifications
(provide state
definition)]
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Grade-Level Instruction
and Strategies for
Scaffolding to It
Look to technical assistance resources, such as:
 IRIS Center: iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu
 National Center for Intensive
Intervention: www.intensiveintervention.org
 Center on Instruction:
http://www.centeroninstruction.org/
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Educator Training
• Address low expectations!
• Focus on what adults can do,
and less on what students do
not do.
• Break down silos
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Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
is Alive and Well
Famous 1960s Rosenthal & Jacobson study
 More recent contributions
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Sorhagen (2013): First-grade teachers’ expectations are
significant predictors of the achievement of high school
students. Expectations not explicitly influenced by
exogenous characteristics.
Kalifa (2011): Some teachers bargain with students to
lower expectations in exchange for compliant behavior.
Harris (2012): Deficit beliefs tend to lower teachers’
expectations for the performance of some of their
students.
Source: Aimee Howley , Ohio
University
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•
•
•
Focused on what adults do –
intentionally and collectively – to
include and assist all students in
learning at higher levels
Highlighted 10 districts in 9 states
across the US (existence
proofs)
Looked at the role of higher ed,
SEA, regional providers, parents
www.movingyournumbers.org
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Essential Areas of Practice
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Use data well
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Focus your goals
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Big Things:
Select and implement
shared instructional
practices
1.
FOCUS
2.
STRENGTHEN
Implement deeply
Monitor and provide
feedback and support
3.
COLLABORATIVE
INQUIRY
McNulty, 2014
Inquire and learn
Source: Deb Telfer, University of
Dayton (Ohio)
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Disciplinary specialties produce silos.
 General educators are not well prepared
to provide interventions.
 Special educators and general educators
are not typically taught how to co-teach
effectively.
 Few programs offer dual licensure
(general and special education).
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Support Educator Preparation for
New Standards and Assessments
• Require adequate preparation in
content for all teachers
• Require adequate preparation in
specially designed instruction for
special educators
• Require adequate preparation of all
school personnel in Multi-Tiered
Systems of Support
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Review Policies That Might be
Inconsistent with College and
Career Readiness
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Graduation policies?
Promotion policies?
Credit requirements?
Others?
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