Assessment of Special Populations Students

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Assessment of Special Populations Students

• Edynn Sato, Ph.D.
• WestEd
• CRESST Conference
• January 22-23, 2007

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Comprehensive Centers

• Five Content Comprehensive Centers
• Assessment and Accountability
• High Schools
• Innovation and Improvement
• Instruction
• Teacher Quality
• Sixteen Regional Comprehensive Centers
• Dissemination through Regional Comprehensive
  Centers and States
• No direct contact with schools

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Assessment and Accountability Comprehensive
Center (AACC) Strands Key Areas of Focus

• Special Populations
• Data Use
• Support for Quality State Assessment and
  Accountability Systems

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• Objectives
• Challenges
• General Methods
• Work Description and Examples

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Why a Special Populations focus?

• Evidence of national need
• Some unique population characteristics
• Lack of (complete) transfer
• NCLB assessment and accountability expectations

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Strand Objective

• Special Populations
• To provide information and resources to Regional
  Comprehensive Centers (RCCs), and through the
  RCCs to state education agencies (SEAs),
  regarding the assessment and accountability of
  their special student populations (i.e., English
  language learners ELLs and students with
  disabilities SWDs, including students with the
  most significant cognitive disabilities) with
  respect to the requirements of NCLB (i.e., Title
  I, Title III, alternate assessments, modified
  assessments).

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Our Charge Our Challenge
Build capacity (of RCCs and SEAs) to achieve NCLB goals Communicating technical and complex information in a manner that is understandable, meaningful, and usable Readiness
Share expertise across the network Widely varying needs and stages of development or implementation Widely varying contexts and resources Communication, coordination, and collaboration
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Our Methods

• Expertise and experience in state, regional,
  national assessment and accountability
• Expertise and experience in special populations
  (SWDs, ELLs)
• Systematic and deep examination and evaluation
• Translate technical into practicable
• Examples (best/promising practices, models,
  strategies)
• Explanations/considerations
• Indicators of success/evaluation
• Models for communication, collaboration,
  cooperation, dissemination

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• Work Example 1Guidelines (refer to handout)
• Focus on technical quality of assessment for
  special student populations
• Law and regulations (Title I and Title III)
• Define key terms
• Highlight critical requirements
• Peer review Technical Quality Critical Elements
  (Section 4)
• Evidence
• Examples
• Specific information regarding
• Accommodations
• Comparability (Linking/Equating)
• Standard setting
• Annual Measurement Achievement Objectives (AMAOs)
  for ELLs

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• Work Example 2Evaluation of technical
  evidence (refer to handout)
• Evidence of technical quality of assessments for
  special student populations
• Review criteria for evidence of validity,
  reliability, freedom from bias
• Summary of evaluation for body of evidence
  related to an assessment
• Test developers have the opportunity to provide
  additional information/evidence for inclusion in
  the review

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• For more information
• Edynn Sato, Ph.D.
  esato_at_wested.org
• or
• www.aacompcenter.org