NCSC
Instructional Supports and Resources:
Transition to NCSC
Severo Martinez
Education Administrator
New Mexico Public Education Department
Session Overview
• Introductions
– Severo Martinez
• Overview of National Center and State Collaborative
(NCSC) Support and Instructional Supports
• Overview of New Alternate Assessment (ELA and
Mathematics only)
• 2014 Pilot Information and Sign-up
Alternate Assessment Background
• States are required to have assessments to
measure student performance for accountability
purposes in Math and English Language Arts for
grades 3-8 and once in high school
• There are alternate assessments for students who
have the most significant cognitive disabilities
• NCSC and NMAPA
• These assessments are linked to grade level
content but have different expectations for
achievement
• They are referred to as alternate assessments on
alternate academic achievement standards (AAAAS)
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Who will take the NCSC Test?
NCSC Background
• In 2010, the U.S. Department of Education
awarded the National Center and State
Collaborative (NCSC) a grant to develop a new
AA-AAS in Math and English Language Arts by
the 2014-15 school year
• 24 states and five national organizations are
working together in NCSC
http://www.ncscpartners.org
• NCSC is also developing
curriculum/instructional resources based on
Common Core State Standards (CCSS) that
can be used in any state
https://wiki.ncscpartners.org
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National Center and State Collaborative (NCSC)
Alternate Assessment Consortia
To develop a system of assessments
supported by curriculum, instruction, and
professional development to ensure that
students with the most significant
cognitive disabilities achieve increasingly
higher academic outcomes and leave
high school ready for post-secondary
options.
What does College and Career
Readiness Mean for Students with
Significant Cognitive Disabilities?
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Which Skills Promote College and Career
Readiness?
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Communicative competence
Social skills to function well in small groups
Independent work skills
Problem Solving
Reading/writing/math
Knowing when and how to seek assistance
The NCSC model includes community readiness in
its definition of college and career
readiness.
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Working towards College and Career
Readiness in English Language Arts is
Important for ….
• Communicating with family, friends, support
staff, medical personnel, co-workers, etc.
• Comparing information to make decisions
(including voting)
• Self-determination and self-advocacy
• Traveling in the community
• Understanding books, movies, TV shows and
songs
• Attending college
• Finding and maintaining employment
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Working towards College and Career
Readiness in Math is Important for…
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Telling time
Making and following a schedule
Managing money
Arranging and using transportation
Taking medication
Planning and making meals
Shopping
Attending college
Finding and maintaining employment
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Career
College
Community
Curriculum
Common Core Standards
Learning Progressions
Core Content Connectors
Instruction
Assessment
Grade-level Lessons
Accommodations
Systematic Instruction
Formative, Interim
Communicative Competence
Summative
NCSC Communication Beliefs
• All individuals communicate regardless of age OR disability.
All output (gestures, cries, noises) can be communicative.
Communication at some level is possible and identifiable for all students regardless of
functional “level.”
Every step toward improved communication, attention and interaction leads to enriched
quality of life and independence
Students with significant cognitive disabilities can improve their skills with appropriate
communication interventions and instruction linked to grade-level standards.
Communication programming goals should improve students’ opportunities for
increased integration and interactions with peers and the community in general.
Students with the most significant disabilities benefit from interactions with typical
peers.
Typical peers benefit from interactions with students with the most significant
disabilities!
No more fundamental outcome of education exists than the right and the ability to
communicate.
Common Core State Standards (CCSS)
• Define what students are expected to know and do
for each grade level in math and English language
arts (ELA)
• Focus on what is most essential, not all that can or
should be taught or “how” to teach
• Are linked to expectations for college and career
success
• Most states have adopted the CCSS and must
provide instruction and assessments for ALL
students based on these standards.
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Core Content Connectors (CCCs)
• Identify the most salient grade-level, core academic content
in ELA and mathematics found in both the Common Core
State Standards (CCSS) and the Learning Progression
Framework (LPF);
• Illustrate the necessary knowledge and skills in order to
reach the learning targets within the LPF and the CCSS;
• Focus on the core content, knowledge and skills needed at
each grade to promote success at the next; and
• Identify priorities in each content area to guide the instruction
for students in this population and for the alternate
assessment.
Graduated
Understandings
• Utilized by teachers to:
– Share a common language;
– Plan multi-grade instruction for students who
participate in the AA-AAS with a wide range of abilities
and challenges;
– Support developed instructional units that will include
all students and will promote the use of Universal
Design of Learning; and
– Engage in collaborative discussion and delivery of
instruction.
• Include Instructional Families and Element Cards.
GUs: Instructional
Families
• Articulate the big ideas and related instructional
content;
• Provide a structure/schema for teachers that
articulates emphasized content within and across
grades;
• Reference the related CCSS for each CCC; and
• Organized by domain:
– By grade, learning targets, and instructional families
– By grade, instructional family, and CCCs
– By instructional family and CCCs by grades.
Grade-span
Learning Target
from the Learning
Progression
Frameworks
Instructional Families for Data Analysis I (K-4)
Distribution of
CCCs by
Instructional
Families and
grade
Reference to
related CCSS
Element Cards
• Assist educators to target instruction in multiple
settings by promoting teacher understanding of and
student movement towards the Common Core State
Standards Contain one (or more) CCCs from a
specific Instructional Family;
• Include the related Progress Indicator from the LPF;
• Provide essential understandings that include
challenging and attainable content that is measureable
and observable for use in instruction and in
assessment;
• Provide suggested instructional strategies to teach the
specific concepts and skills of the CCC; and
• Provide suggested supports and scaffolds for students
to be able to demonstrate what they know and can do.
Element Cards
Element Cards
Nomenclature used to identify the CCC and
statement of the grade-specific CCC
CCSS Topic
Big ideas and related
instructional concepts
denoting a curricular
emphasis
Specific skills and
concepts related to the
Learning Targets in the
LPF
The Common Core
Standard to which the
CCC is based
Necessary to engage
successfully with the
content identified in
the CCC
Suggested tools and
materials to promote
understanding of and
engagement with the
concepts
Concepts and skills
essential to entering
the content described
in the CCC at grade
level.
Suggested evidencedbased strategies
supporting instruction
are varying levels of
challenge
Representational-based
learning of concepts
and skills using symbols
Element Card
ELA
Learning Progressions
Framework (LPF)
• Shows the steps students typically take to
progress through a content area (e.g. math) to
get deeper, broader, more sophisticated
understanding,
• Represents the essential core concepts and
processes learned in a content area
(sometimes called the “big ideas”);
• Provides a map to IEP teams for what should
come next as students continue to move through
the grades; and
• Contains progress indicators
Hess, Karin K., (December 2011). Learning Progressions Frameworks Designed for
Use with the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts & Literacy K-12.
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All curriculum and instructional resources
available at https://wiki.ncscpartners.org
NCSC Assessment
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Assessment Participation
Guidelines
• There will be a NCSC AA-AAS in math and one
in ELA, which includes both reading and writing,
for grades 3-8 and 11
• The IEP team will determine, on an individual
basis, whether a student will take the NCSC AAAAS
• If a student doesn’t meet the AA-AAS criteria for
both math and ELA, he/she may not be eligible
for either AA-AAS
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Format
• Approximately 30 items for each subject.
• These 30 items will cover approximately 10
CCCs
• Most of the assessment items ask the student to
select the correct response (e.g. multiple
choice).
• Some items will require the student to construct
a response (e.g. write a short answer or use an
alternate way to respond e.g. picture symbols)
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Technology
• This will be an online testing program.
• Some students will use the online testing
program directly on the computer.
• For other students, the teacher may print out
testing materials and enter student responses
into the computer.
• The assessment will have built-in supports to
provide students with the opportunity to respond
independently
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Length of Assessment
• Expected testing time will be approximately 1.5 –
2 hours for each assessment (math and ELA)
• Each student’s assessment can be completed in
multiple smaller time slots over a 2 month period
to meet the student’s needs
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Relationship of Items to
Grade Level Content
• About 75% of the assessment items are closely
linked to the grade-level content
• About 25% are a farther link to the grade-level
content to allow students who are just beginning
to work with the academic content show what
they know and can do
• In the first years of the new assessment many
students will likely answer questions and do
tasks that are less complex, but increase
complexity as instruction improves
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Levels of Complexity
• Multiple items were then developed for each
standard at four increasing levels of complexity,
along with accommodations, to allow for
measurement across the performance
continuum
• 4 Tiers
• Varying in complexity and embedded supports
– Visual support, simplified sentences or language
– “Remember statements” or prompts
Exceptional Circumstances
• There will be policies and criteria for dealing with
rare situations where it may not be appropriate
to administer or continue an assessment
• When these policies are used there will be
requirements for data collection in order to flag
the need for interventions to address unmet
instructional needs (e.g., related services or
instructional supports)
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Procedures for Assessing Students Who are Blind, Deaf,
Additional procedures will be provided for students Students will be identified and will be provid
who are blind, deaf, or deaf/blind. These include:
and when appropriate, the foundational wo
A student can use this test form if a student
• Items in which significant effort has been made following conditions:
to reduce barriers for vision and hearing;
• A protocol that provides guidance for
The student has
developing tactile symbols; using object
• has low vision; uses vision for some activ
replacements; and guidelines for sign language
• has no functional use of vision for activiti
interpreting.
determine functional use of vision;
• Foundational items (grades 3 and 4 only)
• has a profound hearing loss, even with ai
provided in braille for students who use braille. • undetermined functional use of hearing.
• Additional alternative text, applied using APIP
• The student uses Braille (contracted or un
standards, will be read to a student who has a
vision impairment. As an example, for an item
If you have any questions about whether or n
that contains a bar chart, a verbal description of criteria, please contact your state NCSC coor
the bar chart is embedded in the item for a
student who has difficulty visually perceiving the The TA will be directed to the document tha
bar chart.
guidance for students who meet the criteria
The foundational words (grades 3 and 4 only
the school of students who are identified as
Assessment
• Summative Assessment ( Testing Window
late spring 2015)
• Math and ELA including Writing
– Grades 3-8 and GRADE 11
• Computer Based (Online)
– selected response
– some constructed response (Math and
Writing)
Assessment Features
• Online Platform
• Each of the two content area assessments,
mathematics and ELA
• Selected response and constructed response
• Math constructed response at various grade levels
• Writing both selected and constructed response
• Tiered items of varying complexity
Call for Participants: NCSC Pilot 2
• During the NCSC Pilot 2 Test students and test
administrators will have the opportunity to try out items
and interact with a computer based test administration
platform in reading, mathematics, and writing. The Pilot 2
Test will supplement the work from the Pilot 1 Test,
providing additional information on the functionality of
items, test forms, platform performance, and the overall
user experience. Pilot 2 will be administered to students
in grades 4–9 and 12. If your school district is interested
in participating in the test pilot email
severo.martinez@state.nm.us
Pilot 2
• October 20 through November 14
• All test administrators will participate in
required training modules
• Your last opportunity to get experience and
knowledge of the new NCSC Alternate
Assessment
Parent Resources
• Additional materials designed to help
inform parents about NCSC’s work and
related issues can be found at
http://www.ncscpartners.org/resources
• Other topics are:
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A summary of the project
The NCSC curriculum/ instructional resources
College and career readiness
Communicative competence
Research on instruction/ assessment of students with
significant cognitive disabilities
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Questions ???
NMPED Contact:
Severo Martinez
Education Administrator
505.827.6553
severo.martinez@state.nm.us