Little research has precisely defined the population of students participating in alternate assessments based on alternate academic achievement standards (AA-AAAS). Therefore, the purpose of this article is twofold: (a) explicate the findings of a multistate study examining the characteristics of the population of students participating in AA-AAAS, and (b) discuss the implications of those findings for instruction and assessment that move us closer to understanding what these students know and can do. The article discusses the results of our study within and across these seven states, implications for practitioners, and future research directions that should be considered for both instruction and assessment.
One of the keys to ensuring high expectations for all students is the requirement for inclusive measures of educational accountability. Recognizing this need, Congress enacted Title II, National Education Reform Leadership, Standards, and Assessments, calling for the development of state assessment systems that fully include all students, as a major component of the 1994 Goals 2000: Educate America Act. At present, Kentucky is the only state in the nation that fully includes all students within a statewide educational assessment and accountability system. Students with moderate and severe cognitive disabilities participate in Kentucky's assessment system via the Alternate Portfolio. This article describes the development of Kentucky's alternate assessment, including the content and scoring standards for the Alternate Portfolio. Specific examples of entries at each grade level (4th, 8th, and 12th) are given as well. Initial implementation data, including reliability, validity, and instructional impact measures, are presented. Finally, critical issues in the development of alternate statewide assessments are discussed, with recommendations for future research efforts in this area.
This study examined the learner characteristics of students in alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards in three geographically and demographically different states. On the basis of the results, it can be argued that students in alternate assessments fall into at least two distinct subgroups. The first set of learners have either symbolic or emerging symbolic levels of communication, evidence social engagement, and possess at least some level of functional reading and math skills. The second set of students have not yet acquired formal, symbolic communication systems; may not initiate, maintain, or respond to social interactions consistently; and have no awareness of print, Braille, or numbers. The authors provide implications and considerations of the findings of the Learner Characteristics Inventory for states and practitioners in developing alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards.
In the current study, 206 special education teachers in Kentucky completed a one-page survey examining the amount of time and effort required on that state's alternate assessment. Additional questions on the survey addressed teaching experience, score, student involvement, and other factors relating to the Alternate Portfolio. The results of this research revealed that teachers spend a significant number of hours outside of class time completing one portfolio. However, teacher hours are only minimally related to students' scores on the portfolio. Instead, instructional variables (student involvement, extent to which portfolio items are embedded into instruction, and teacher's perceived benefit of the portfolio to the student) are strongly related to student scores. Finally, we present implications of these findings for practice and teacher preparation.
This article is based on a study that investigated the extent to which scores in Kentucky's statewide alternate assessment program for students with severe disabilities correlated with measures of program quality and overall school effectiveness. Across 36 schools, 60 students were observed in their classroom environments, and the resulting measures of overall program quality (i.e., observed indicators of best practices for students with moderate and severe disabilities) and Individualized Education Program (IEP) quality were correlated with the students' alternate assessment scores. Results indicated a significant relationship between overall program quality and the resulting Alternate Portfolio scores, but not between assessment scores and IEP quality. Finally, for these 60 students, Alternate Portfolio scores were positively related to the school's educational accountability index for all students and with the percentage improvement within each school's overall accountability index over the previous 2-year reporting cycle.
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