MCAS-Alt News
Late Fall Edition 2015
www.doe.mass.edu/mcas/alt/
This newsletter is published by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and will provide Massachusetts
educators with information, advice, and support to teach the Massachusetts learning standards to students with significant disabilities,
and to conduct the MCAS Alternate Assessment.
"Plan to be better today, but don’t ever plan to be finished"
--Carol Ann Tomlinson
In This Issue
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Thank you for attending Fall Training
New site for ELA-Writing Questions
Early registration for Portfolios-in-Progress
Administrators’ Corner
Thank you for attending the MCAS-Alt Fall Training
Thanks to the nearly 3,000 teachers and administrators who attended the recent Fall 2015 MCAS-Alt
Educator and Administrator training sessions. It was wonderful to see so many of you.
ELAWriting Questions? Answers to your questions will be posted to our new
Web page
The new, MCAS-Alt ELAWriting strand has generated many questions. If you have a question, and
would like us to post a response, please click here.
We will post the following to this site in early December:

Answers to the most frequently asked ELAWriting questions;
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A series of final writing samples, with completed scoring rubrics; and
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Draft/baseline writing samples
We will notify you through this newsletter when the site is launched. Meanwhile, your MCAS-Alt
questions that are not related to ELAWriting should continue to be sent to mcas@doe.mass.edu.
Clarification of MCAS-Alt ELAWriting strand requirements:

3 final writing samples in any combination of text types. For example, you may submit one
sample in each of three text types; one sample in one text type and two samples in another; or
all three samples in a single text type.
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3 completed scoring rubrics attached to each of the final writing samples. Rubrics are
available either in the 2016 Educator’s Manual for MCAS-Alt, within the Online Forms and
Graphs application.
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One draft/baseline sample for each different text type being submitted. If all three writing
samples are in the same text type, then only one draft/baseline will be required.
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Writing may be based either on a text or a topic; if a text is used as the basis for the writing
sample, it is not necessary to cite the name of the text for the ELAWriting strand. (You must
continue to provide the name of the text used for the ELAReading strand, however.)
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Students working at a pre-symbolic language level should be assessed using the access
skills listed in the Writing strand of the ELA Resource Guide.
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All writing should be generated using the student’s primary mode of communication. All
samples should be generated as independently as possible by the student, but may be scribed
verbatim by the teacher if self-generation is not possible. Samples should demonstrate the
student’s expressive communication and choice-making abilities to the extent possible.
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Work description labels should be used to distinguish between draft/baseline and final
writing samples.
Refer to the 2016 Educator’s Manual for MCAS-Alt (pages 2025) for additional details on the
ELAWriting requirements.
The writing samples presented at the Fall 2015 educator training sessions, and the scores given
by content experts, are posted here. Compare the scores you gave with the posted scores to
assist in calibrating your scores with those of experts on these writing samples.
Registration now available for January Portfolios-in-Progress
Portfolios-in-Progress review sessions will be held in January 2016. Educators can bring their
portfolios and questions, receive feedback from MCAS-Alt training specialists, and continue working
on their students’ portfolios.
Registration is available online. Each school, district, and educational collaborative will be faxed
registration information on November 9. Plan to attend one of the regional sessions listed below.
Portfolio review session dates and locations are as follows:
Wednesday,
January 6, 2016
Thursday,
January 7
Wednesday,
January 13
Thursday,
January 14
Doubletree,
Danvers
Best Western,
Marlborough
Marriott,
Springfield
Holiday Inn,
Taunton
The Introduction to MCAS-Alt training session will be presented at only two locations for educators
who were unable to attend in October and who are conducting the MCAS-Alt for the first time.
Introduction to MCAS-Alt dates and locations are as follows:
Thursday,
January 7, 2016
Tuesday,
*January 12
Best Western,
Marlborough
Doubletree,
Leominister
(*Note: Introduction to MCAS-Alt will be the only
session on January 12)
Administrator’s Corner
Mark your calendar for ordering MCAS-Alt materials January 4–15, 2016.
Supporting Teachers Who Conduct the MCAS-Alt
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Please ensure that teachers conducting the MCAS-Alt in your school or program have started
organizing their students’ portfolios and have begun collecting evidence, if they have not done
so already.
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Check in with teachers periodically to help them organize their time to complete their students’
portfolios. Determine a feasible strategy to continue this work throughout the year.
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Encourage teachers who are compiling portfolios to attend the January Portfolios-in-Progress
review sessions. Training specialists will answer their questions and provide feedback on their
portfolios.
We'd love to hear from you.
Please let us know if there is a topic you’d like us to address in a future MCAS-Alt newsletter.
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Published during the school year by the
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
www.doe.mass.edu/mcas/alt