Common Core State
Standards and Students with
Disabilities
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Elizabeth Jankowski
Western Regional
Resource Center
University of Oregon

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
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
Former Special
Education Teacher
Special Education
Consultant
TA Provider
Family Member of
Person with a Disability

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Technical Assistance and
Dissemination Projects funded by the U.S. Dept. of Ed
Regional Resource Center Programs

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1.
CCSS – A Review of the Basics
2.
CCSS and Students with Disabilities
3.
CCSS – Benefits and Challenges for
Students with Disabilities
4.
Overcoming Challenges
5.
Standards-Based IEPs
6.
CCSS Assessments

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A coherent progression of learning expectations in English
Language Arts and Mathematics designed to prepare K – 12 students for college and career success.

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The goal of the CCSS is to make sure that all students are well prepared for college, technical education, or the workplace after high school graduation.

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
Labor Force Statistics 2012
Across the U.S., 17.8% of working-age adults with disabilities were
employed compared with 63.9% of people without disabilities
A large proportion of persons with a disability--about 8 in 10--were not in
the labor force in 2012, compared with about 3 in 10 persons with no disability. We want to improve this.

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Prepare students with the knowledge
for postsecondary success.
Help ensure our
competitive.
Create a foundation to work collaboratively
resources and expertise.

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CCSS Coincides with Other
Changes in Special Education at the National Level
Transition From
Compliance Focus to Results-Driven
Accountability

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CCSS Application to Students with Disabilities

Supports and related services designed to meet students’ unique needs and enable their access to the general education
curriculum;
(IDEA 34 CFR §300.34, 2004)
CCSS
Language

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CCSS Application to Students with Disabilities

An IEP that includes annual goals
aligned with and chosen to facilitate their attainment of grade-level academic standards;
CCSS
Language

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CCSS Application to Students with Disabilities

Teachers and specialized instructional support staff who are prepared and qualified to delivery high-quality, evidencebased, individualized instruction and support services.
CCSS
Language

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CCSS Application to Students with Disabilities
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Additionally:
Instructional strategies based on the principles of Universal Design for
Learning (UDL)
Accommodations, including changes in materials and/or procedures
CCSS
Language

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CCSS –
“The Standards should also be read as allowing for the widest possible range of students to participate fully
from the outset and as permitting appropriate accommodations to ensure maximum participation of students with special education
CCSS
Language needs.”

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Benefit

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Research on the Influence of Teacher
Expectations: Expectations
Matter
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Teachers’ expectations had a significant impact on the educational achievement
of the students.
Low expectations for certain cohorts of students were a major factor in their poor academic achievement
Students from marginalized groups are more susceptible to teachers’ low expectations and this may serve to further
widen the achievement gap when such students accept and confirm teachers’ negative expectations

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Research on the Influence of Teacher
Expectations: Expectations
Matter

The Pygmalian Effect:
The greater the expectation placed upon people (children), the better they perform.

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“Assume that they (students with significant disabilities) are competent
and able to learn, because to do
otherwise would result in harm such as fewer educational opportunities, inferior literacy instruction, a segregated education, and fewer choices as an adult.”
Benefit

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With clear, well-defined content standards, it is possible to better identify appropriate Universal
Design for Learning (UDL) tools and accommodations for students with
disabilities, both for instruction and for assessments.
Benefit

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Parents will have a clear and consistent understanding of what their children are expected to know and be able to do.
Benefit

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Students with Disabilities will be
Better Prepared for Career or
College Readiness
“Students with disabilities…must be challenged to excel within the general curriculum and be prepared for success in their post-school lives, including college and/or careers.”
Source: CCSS ELA Introduction page Benefit

Defining “College and Career Readiness”
The acquisition of the knowledge and skills a student needs to enroll and succeed in credit-bearing, first-year courses at a postsecondary institution
(such as a two- or four-year college, trade school, or technical school) without the need for remediation.
- ACT and adopted by the CCSS Initiative
Caution

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K
Grade
1
Grade
2
Grade
3
Grade
4
Foundational Reading Skills
(Appendix A)
Grade
5
Reading Literature
Grade
6
Grade
7
Grade
8
High
School
Challeng e
Reading Informational Text
Writing
Speaking and Listening
Language

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
Term to
Know:


Challenges

New Term:
Lexiles
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English Language Arts Standards:
Literacy in the Content Areas
History/Social
Studies
Understanding texts in each of these subject areas requires a unique
Technical
Subjects set of knowledge and skills
Science
Challeng e

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“Students who struggle greatly to read texts within (or even below) their text complexity grade band must be given the support needed to enable them to read at a gradeappropriate level of complexity.”
- CCSS Standards Appendix A

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English Language Arts Standards:
Writing o o
Emphasis on argument as a type of writing
Self-Regulated
Strategies
Research writing as a focus research
Many years of research in writing instruction have provided useful writing strategies students can be taught to meet these writing challenges head on!
Challeng e

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K
Grade
1
Grade
2
Grade
3
Counting/C ardinality
Numbers and Operations in Base 10
Grade
4
Grade
5
Numbers and
Operations in
Base 10 and
Fractions
Grade
6
Grade
7
Number System
Operations and Algebraic Thinking
Ratio and
Proportional
Relationships
Expressions and
Equations
Grade
8
Functions
High
School
Number and
Quantity
Algebra
Measurement and Data
Geometry
Statistics and Probability

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o The Language of Mathematics o Demonstrating mathematical understanding including creating a viable argument and critiquing the reasoning of others o Procedural skill proficiency
Challenges

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CCSS
Getting from here
Access,
Differentiation and EBP
All students leaving high school college and/or career ready to here.

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Standards [and assessments] do not guarantee improved results or increased access and instruction . . . It assumes that assessments and accountability promote interventions and improvements in the quality of instruction, which in turn will produce higher performance.
Martha Thurlow, Ph.D.
Director, NCEO
Testimony before the Unites States Senate, 2010

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Balancing the increased proficiency standards with the need for individualized instruction
Providing means for students to access
the text in the general curriculum
Professional knowledge/development for general and special education teachers to meet the needs of students with disabilities

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How can you help your child overcome these challenges?
 Ask school and teachers about
Universal Design for Learning

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• Provide multiple means of representation
• Provide multiple means of action and expression
• Provide multiple means of engagement

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For more information on UDL and
Accessible Materials: http://www.udlcenter.org/ aim.cast.org
http://udltechtoolkit.wikispaces.com/

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Curriculum and assessments designed using the principles of UDL can reduce the need for accommodations.
Provision of accommodations is dependent on school personnel
Such dependence reduces the
likelihood that accommodations will be provided consistently and in accordance with a student’s IEP
A Parent’s Guide to UDL – National Center for Learning Disabilities

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
Based
Ask about the use of Evidence-
Based Practices with your child : o The quality of access to and instruction of the CCSS comes down to the teacher in the classroom and the system in which he or she teaches.

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 Ask how the special education teacher and regular education teachers are collaborating around the needs of your child in regard to the CCSS.

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“Standards-Based IEP”
An IEP that is framed by the state standards and contains annual goals aligned with, and chosen to facilitate the student’s achievement of, state grade-level academic standards.

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Standards-based IEPs have been required for more than 10 years.
CCSS is expected to accelerate this movement.
The real issue is how to meld special education’s promise of individualized instruction with the
common standards that all students should strive to meet.

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Develop
Annual
Goals
Assess the
Student
Determine
Needs and
PLAAFP
Modified from Bar-Lev & Van
Haren, UW Oshkosh Planting the Seeds of Inclusion
Conference

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Develop annual goals to meet these needs.
Identify
Standards for
ALL students at student’s grade level.
Determine disabilityrelated needs that prevent success.
Assess where student is functioning with regard to standards.
Modified from Bar-Lev &
Van Haren, UW Oshkosh
Planting the Seeds of
Inclusion Conference

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The Paradigm Shift
When IEPs are connected to the standards, the focal point of the IEP team discussion changes to:
1. Identifying the standards that ALL students at a specific grade or age level should
“know and be able to do.”
2. Assessing where the student is functioning with regard to the above standards.
3. Determining disability related needs that prevent the student from being proficient on these standards.
4. Developing an Annual Goal to address these needs.

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Standards-based IEPs are not intended to cover every possible educational
goal for a student or eliminate any functional training students may require
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The team picks the “biggies” – powerful enough to cover a range of skills.
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Goals should be individualized relative to a student’s specific strengths and needs as demonstrated by student data

One
Example of
Alignment for IEP
Goals
3.NBT: Use place value understanding and properties of operations to perform multidigit arithmetic
3.NBT: Multiply 1-digit whole numbers by multiples of 10
3.NBT: Fluently add and subtract within 1000
3.OA:
Multiply and divide within 100
2.Work with equal groups to understand multiplication
1.NBT &
2.NBT: Use place value to add and subtract
3.NBT: Use place value to round whole numbers to nearest
10 or 100
1.NBT &
2.NBT:
Understan d place value
1.NBT:
Extend the counting sequence
1.OA &
2.OA: Add and subtract within 20
2.OA:
Represent and solve problems using addition and subtraction
Powell, Fuchs, & Fuchs, 2013

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
-Aligned
1.
PARCC (Partnership for
Assessment of Readiness for
College and Careers)
2.
Smarter Balanced Assessment
Consortium

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English Language
Arts
# Subject Area
3
4
1
2
Reading
Writing
Speaking/Listenin g
Research
Total Composite
2
3
#
1
Mathematics
Subject Area
Concepts &
Procedures
Problem Solving
& Data Analysis
Communicating
Reasoning
Total Composite

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Uses Computer-Adaptive Testing
Typical Testing Approach
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Curriculum Adaptive Testing
Start
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

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Reading Language Arts

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Reading Language Arts

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Mathematics

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Mathematics

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Performance tasks measure a student’s ability to integrate knowledge and skills across multiple standards—a key component of college and career readiness. Performance tasks will be used to better measure capacities such as depth of understanding, research skills, and complex analysis.

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Key Point: o A state can only make available to
students the universal tools, designated supports, and accommodations that are included in the Smarter Balanced Guidelines.

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Language from
Smarter-
Balanced
• States may issue temporary approvals for individual unique student accommodations.
• State leads will evaluate formal requests for unique accommodations and determine whether or not the request poses a “threat” to the measurement of the construct.
• State will send documentation of the approval to the Consortium.

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
Universal Tools 69
Language from
Smarter-
Balanced
Designated Supports
Embedded
Color Contrast,
Masking,
Text-to-speech,
Translated Test
Directions, Translations
(Glossary), Translations
(Stacked), Turn off Any
Universal Tools
Accommodations
Embedded
American Sign Language, Braille,
Closed Captioning, Text-to-Speech
Non-embedded
Breaks,
English Dictionary,
Scratch Paper,
Thesaurus
Non-embedded
Bilingual Dictionary,
Color Contrast, Color
Overlay,
Magnification, Read
Aloud, Scribe,
Separate Setting,
Translation (Glossary)
Non-embedded
Abacus, Alternate Response Options,
Calculator, Multiplication Table,
Print on Demand, Read Aloud,
Scribe, Speech-to-text

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Language from
Smarter-
Balanced
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Note that . . .
“A student’s parent/guardian should know about the availability of specific accommodations through a parent/guardian report. This would ensure that parents/guardians are aware of the conditions under which their child participated in the assessment.”

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Alternate Assessments
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Dynamic Learning Maps
Alternate Assessment
National Center and State
Collaborative Partnership

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Other Potential Questions for Parents to
Ask IEP Team Members at the School Level
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Have all of your staff members had the opportunity to become knowledgeable about the CCSS?
Has your staff received professional development on
Universal Design for Learning?
Does the staff have time for collaboration around
UDL and how to plan access for my child (planning access during lesson design rather than relying simply on accommodations and modifications after the fact)?
What type of technology would be beneficial for my child accessing the CCSS?

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Elizabeth Jankowski, M.S. Ed.
Western Regional Resource Center
University of Oregon
541-346-9392 eaj@uoregon.edu