Assessing Achievement, Adapting Tests to Accommodate Students with Disabilities, and Assessment of C

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Assessing Achievement, Adapting Tests to
Accommodate Students with Disabilities, and
Assessment of Culturally/Linguistically Diverse
Students

• Week 8

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Assessing Achievement

• Screening
• Evaluation/Eligibility
• Usually group tests are not used, UNLESS groups
  tests contains a more complete behavior sample
• Progress Evaluation
• Provide communities, parents, schools with
  quality of school
• Relative Effectiveness of Alternative Curricula
• Compare different programs (e.g., Mathland vs.
  Mathland plus Mountain Math

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Multiple Skill Achievement Measures

• Most frequently used tests in education
• Not great for not for monitoring individual
  student progress or planning interventions
• Either group or individually administered
• GROUP screening decisions
• INDIVIDUAL eligibility/entitlement decisions
• Usually Measure Basic Skill Areas
• - Math, Reading, Writing

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Multiple Skill Achievement Measures

• Classified by several dimensions
• Density (more items)
• Specificity (finer analysis)
• Group/ Individual
• You can use group assessment for individual, NOT
  vice versa
• Individual administration allows for observation
  of problem solving skills

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Considerations

• Achievement tests should correspond to what has
  been taught.
• Content validity is a primary concern for all
  decisions.
• Norms reliability are important for making
  decisions about students.

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• Historically, there has been widespread
  exclusion of students with disabilities from
  state and national testing and this continues
  today (McGrew, Thurlow, Shriner, Speigal,
  1992).

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Why have students been excluded?

• Some believe that
• Including students with disabilities will lower
  the scores
• We already know how they would perform
• The student should not be subjected to the pain
  of participation
• They could not possibly respond correctly to the
  test items

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Why have students been excluded?

• Why is this a problem?
• DATA on which policy decision are made
• does not represent all students
• Therefore, decisions about instruction are not
  made for all students
• Inflation of scores
• Inappropriate norms

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Laws and Reform on Including Students with
Disabilities

• Goals 2000 The Education American Act
• Focused on including students with disabilities
  in testing used for accountability
• Improving Americas Schools Act (1995) and IDEA
  (1999)
• Focused on school districts reporting on the
  progress of ALL students

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Laws and Reform on Including Students with
Disabilities

• NCLB
• All students must participate in state-wide
  assessments
• 95 participation for all subcategories
• 1 of students can participate in alternative
  assessment (most severe students

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Accommodations vs. Modifications

• Accommodations
• Adapting the structure of the test/curriculum to
  enable students with disabilities to have access
  to the material
• Presentation
• Response
• Setting
• Timing or schedule
• DOES NOT CHANGE THE CONTENT

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Accommodations vs. Modifications

• Modifications
• Changing the content of the test/curriculum to
  allow students with disabilities to participate
• DOES CHANGE THE CONTENT

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Accommodation or Modification?

• Large print
• Calculator for math problems
• Reading math problems
• Extended time or reading fluency test
• Small group setting for test administration
• Pointing to answer (alternate response method)
• Reader for written passages
• Eliminating word problems on math test
• Paraphrase directions
• Off-level testing
• Repeating items on a listening or memory test

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5 Factors Affecting Accurate Assessment

• 1) Student understanding of assessment
• 2) Students ability to respond to the task
• 3) Norm group
• 4) Appropriateness and level of items
• 5) Students exposure to the curriculum

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Student understanding of assessment

• Assessments are unfair if the test questions are
  in a format that the student does not understand
• Example Printed tests for students who are
  blind. Oral tests for students who are deaf.
• Note Students must be assessed in their primary
  language.

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Students ability to respond to the task

• Assessments are unfair if the student cannot
  produce the required response
• For example, written responses for students with
  some physical disabilities. Verbal responses for
  someone with a severe speech disability

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Norm group

• Assessments are unfair if they are administered
  to the student differently than it was for the
  norm group.
• Cannot compare scores
• Qualitative comparison can be made
• Remember accommodations do not change the content
  and modifications do change the content.

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Appropriateness and level of items

• Assessments are unfair if the material does not
  have enough easy or hard items.
• Basal (easier items)
• Ceiling (harder items)
• For example, the items may not be appropriate for
  that student because they are either too easy or
  too difficult. A third grader who cannot yet read
  would not be expected to take a third grade
  reading test.

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Students exposure to the curriculum

• Assessments are unfair if the student has not had
  the opportunity to learn it.
• For example, students who have not attended
  school regularly do to health issues would not be
  expected to know the same amount of
  material.

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Including Students in Large-Scale Assessment

• Decisions about including students should be
• Made by people who know the student
• Based on students current level of performance
  (NOT program setting, disability, of time in
  general ed)
• Documented on their IEP

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• Students must participate if they receive any
  instruction on the content
• Some students should be allowed to participate
  either in an alternate assessment or part of an
  assessment
• Only a small percentage of students should take
  alternate assessments (1/2 to 2)

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Definitions

• Acculturation describes the phenomena that
  results when groups of individuals have different
  cultures come into continuous firsthand contact,
  with subsequent change in the original pattern of
  either or both groups.
• Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students
  Students who function in two cultural contexts
  that of the dominant society and that of their
  own ethnic group.
• English Language Learner students whose primary
  language is not English but are in the process of
  learning English
• Limited English Proficiency Students of
  non-English background whose comprehension,
  speaking, reading, or writing in English is below
  the average English proficiency of the same
  age/grade

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Second-Language Acquisition Process

• Preproduction
• Developing comprehension/receptive skills, not
  expression
• Early Production
• Comprehension and word usage developing
• One and two word utterances
• Speech Emergence
• Using longer, complex sentences
• Generates own sentences, retells stories

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Second Language Acquisition Process cont.

• Intermediate Fluency
• Production of connected narratives
• Interacts more with native speakers
• Processes information slower in second language
• Advanced Fluency
• Advanced receptive and expressive skills
• Still processes information slower in second
  language

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Two Facets of Language Proficiency

• Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS)
• Language used during everyday personal/social
  interactions
• 2 to 3 years to develop
• Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP)
• Language necessary for academic achievement in
  subject matter
• 5 to 7 years to develop

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Effective Ways to Learn About Different Cultures

• Acquiring knowledge about another culture through
  reading and studying
• Interacting with individuals from another culture
  who can serve as guides or mentors
• Engaging in activities of other cultures
• Learning the language of another culture
• Others?

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Best Practice in Working with Families from
Diverse Cultures

• Awareness of mainstream culture/values
• Individualism - Materialism
• Independence - Progress
• Autonomy - Future Orientation
• Interpersonal competition
• Mastery
• Punctuality - Equality
• Knowledge and Awareness of different cultures
• Knowledge of second-language acquisition process

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Using Interpreters

• Interpreters
• Trained in professional and ethical practices
• Knows educational field and terminology
• Must have knowledge of culture
• Mastery of both languages
• Understanding dialectical variations in language
• Avoid using family members

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Assessment

• Review of Records
• School
• Number of years attended school in U.S.
• Attendance at previous school
• Language of instruction
• Frequency of school changes
• Support services received (Title I, ESL, Migrant
  Education)
• Language spoken in the home
• Most districts have this on file for all students
• Previous Interventions

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Review of Records cont.

• Permanent products
• Math sheets, spelling tests, written reports
• Curriculum used
• Whole language vs. Direct Instruction
• Hearing and vision
• Past screening on tests

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Interviews

• Parents, Extended Family Student
• Cultural and Environmental Influences
• Attitudes toward education
• Child rearing practices
• Response to problem behavior
• Attitudes toward disability
• Teacher interview

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Observations

• Teacher expectations and strategies
• Students language use in structured and
  unstructured settings
• Compare performance to peers that have similar
  language and levels of acculturation

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Testing

• Language Proficiency
• Must test language before any other formal
  testing can occur. Usually done by a language
  specialist.
• Picture naming fluency
• Word use fluency
• Story re-telling
• Cloze procedure
• Dictation

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Testing Cont.

• Collect data in areas of difficulty using
  Curriculum-Based Measurement
• Compare to typical peers
• Compare to peers with similar language and
  acculturation (this may require some leg work)
• Is there a discrepancy?
• Does level of acculturation account for the
  discrepancy?

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Optimal Language Learning Conditions in the
Classroom for English Language Learners(Paredes
Scribner, 2001)

• Constant opportunity to use and practice the new
  language
• Oral language development as an added dimension
  of instruction
• Planned daily instruction to develop critical
  thinking skills in English
• Balanced program components so that curriculum is
  integrated
• Structured language learning for success in
  literacy skills

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Week 9

• Topic Assessment of Reading and Math, Outcome
  Measures vs. Specific Subskill Mastery
• Readings S Y Chapters 21 20, also Marston,
  and, Fuchs Deno (On Reserve)
• Learning Check 3 on Weeks 8 9
• Assignments Graduate Paper Outline Due