Accessibility for Students Taking
Assessment Consortia Tests
National Conference on Student Assessment
June 19-22, 2011
www.PARCConline.org
The PARCC Vision
• 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.
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
Membership as of 6/16/11
Participating States
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 State
Florida
US Education Department award is to Florida on behalf of 25 states to
oversee budget, procurement, and reporting functions
Achieve
Project Management Partner
Membership as of 6/16/11
Achieve 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
PARCC Governance Structure
Governing Board
Deals with major policy issues
Steering Committee
Technical Advisory Committee
(TAC)
Responsible for technical and research
work
Technical
Advisors
Specific technical
advisors appointed
as needed
Technical
Working Groups
(TWG)
Domain-specific
technical advisors,
appointed by TAC
and Leadership
Advisory Committee on
College Readiness
(ACCR)
Advises Governing Board on
postsecondary issues
Postsecondary
Leadership Team
Leadership Team (LT)
Responsible for operation and
management
Operational
Working Groups
(OWG)
Responsible for day-today-aspects of specific
areas
Responsible for
postsecondary
engagement to
advance college
readiness
Content Leads
Groups responsible for
aspects of contentspecific areas
PARCC
Technical Advisory Committee
Henry Braun
Boston College
Bob Brennan
University of Iowa
Derek Briggs
University of Colorado at Boulder
Wayne Camara
College Board
Linda Cook
Retired, ETS
Ronald Hambleton
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Gerunda Hughes
Howard University
Huynh Huynh
University of South Carolina
Michael Kolen
University of Iowa
Suzanne Lane
University of Pittsburgh
Richard Luecht
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Jim Pellegrino
University of Illinois at Chicago
Barbara Plake
University of Nebraska- Lincoln
Rachel Quenemoen
National Center on Educational Outcomes
Laurie Wise
Human Resources Research Organization,
HumRRO
PARCC
Technical Working Groups (TWG)
Leadership
Team (LT)
Operational
Working
Groups
(OWG)
Technical
Working
Groups
(TWG)
Technical
Advisory
Committee
(TAC)
• 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
Accessibility, Accommodations, and
Fairness TWG Invited Members
Diane August
Center for Applied Linguistics (ELL)
David Edyburn
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
(SWD)
Claudia Flowers
University of North Carolina –
Charlotte (SWD)
Dianne Piche
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
Charlene Rivera
George Washington University (ELL)
Diane Spence
Region 4 Education Service Center, Braille
Services (Braille)
Martha Thurlow
National Center on Educational Outcomes
(SWD)
Dan Wiener
Massachusetts 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
Leadership
Team (LT)
Operational
Working
Groups
(OWG)
Technical
Working
Groups
(TWG)
Technical
Advisory
Committee
(TAC)
• 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.
PARCC Operational Working
Groups (OWG)
 Design
 Research
 Communications
 Data, Technology, and Innovation
 Accessibility, Accommodations, and Fairness
 CCSS Implementation and Educator Engagement
Accessibility, Accommodations,
and Fairness OWG Members
Roberta Alley (Chair)
Interim Associate Superintendent,
Standards & Assessments
Arizona Department of Education
Trinell Bowman
Project Manager for Assessments for
Students with Disabilities
Maryland State Board of Education
Melissa Fincher
Associate Superintendent of Assessment and
Accountability
Georgia Department of Education
Charity Flores
Assistant Director, Office of Student Assessment
Indiana Department of Education
Andrew Hinkle
Educational Consultant
Ohio Department of Education
Bambi Lockman
Chief, Bureau of Exceptional Education and
Student Services
Florida Department of Education
Phyllis Lynch
Director, Office of Instruction,
Assessment and Curriculum
Rhode Island Department of Education
Michael Reid
Director, Academic Performance Index
Oklahoma State Department of Education
Lori Rodriguez
Bureau Chief, Student Achievement through
Language Acquisition
Florida Department of Education
Accessibility and Accommodations
Working 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:
Operational
Working
Groups
(OWG)
Technical
Working
Groups
(TWG)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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.
Accessibility and Accommodations
Working Groups – Overview
The Working Groups will be responsible for (continued):
 Identifying challenges.
 Proposing research relating to accommodations.
Adopting key policies and definitions that will include:
Operational
Working
Groups
(OWG)
Technical
Working
Groups
(TWG)
• 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
Working Groups – Overview
Accessibility and Accommodations as a part of the
development process
Operational
Working
Groups
(OWG)
Technical
Working
Groups
(TWG)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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
Accessibility and Accommodations
Working Groups – Overview
• Build accessibility throughout the test itself with
no trade-off between accessibility and validity
Operational
Working
Groups
(OWG)
Technical
Working
Groups
(TWG)
• 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 Assessment
June 19-22, 2011
www.PARCConline.org