June 2008

ICI and States Study Alternate Assessments Based on Modified Achievement Standards

Students who receive special education services can participate in statewide assessments used for accountability purposes in several different ways. Most participate in the regular assessment, with or without accommodations. A few participate in an alternate assessment based on alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS). However, there may be some students with disabilities whose knowledge and skills are not well assessed with these options. To address this issue the Federal government finalized regulations in April 2007 that gave states flexibility to offer another assessment option: an alternate assessment based on modified achievement standards (AA-MAS).

The Institute’s National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) is partnering with the Departments of Education in five states (Alabama, Hawaii, South Dakota, Tennessee, Wisconsin) for a three-year project titled Multi-State GSEG Consortium Toward a Defensible AA-MAS. The overall goals of the project, which began in October 2007, are to explore: (1) How student data can be used to improve student assessment and instruction, and (2) The intended and unintended consequences of various assessment options. Among the activities of the project are the following:

• During the project’s first year researchers have been analyzing state data to identify the characteristics of students who may qualify for an AA-MAS. After the analyses of the state data sets are completed, the results will be summarized and reviewed to develop a better understanding of what these students can do, issues in appropriate assessment for these students, and the assessment options.
  
  
• In the second and third years of the project, the consortium will explore how the instruction and assessment of students who may qualify for an AA-MAS may need to be changed to ensure that there are high expectations for learning and that the students will have the opportunity to demonstrate what they know. The state members of the consortium will explore ways to change an existing assessment or develop a new assessment to better assess targeted students. Each state in the consortium will select one or more options to investigate further. It is anticipated that different states will select different options and that collectively the members of this consortium will be able to investigate more options than any one state could do.

NCEO’s director Martha Thurlow observes, “This project seeks to find instructional and assessment solutions that may serve as national models and that will be defensible against the most rigorous technical adequacy standards, while maintaining high learning expectations for students who may qualify for the AA-MAS.”

The Multi-State GSEG Consortium Toward a Defensible AA-MAS is funded by a $3.8 million General Supervision Enhancement Grant (GSEG) from the Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education. FFI contact the project’s co-investigator at NCEO, Sheryl Lazarus, at (612) 625-6032 or laza0019@umn.edu.