Better Assessment of Student Outcomes Through Technology

1
Better Assessment of Student Outcomes Through
Technology
What State Policy Allows
Martha Thurlow www.nceo.info thurl001.umn.edu
2
Overview of Topics

• Current context of state assessments
• Policy Reality
• Construct Challenges

3
Full array of assessment options includes

• Assessment without accommodations
• Assessment with accommodations
• Alternate assessment

All of these options can involve technology
4
Accommodations
Accommodations are changes in instructional and
assessment materials or procedures that allow the
students knowledge and skills to be developed
and assessed.
While accepted, they are challenging for several
reasons . . . .
5
Accommodated Assessments

• Questions about validity accompany some
  accommodations
• Making decisions about accommodations needed is
  still difficult
• Keeping track of accommodations use is
  challenging and beyond the capacity of some
  systems

6
Accommodated Assessments

• Many implementation issues have arisen

• Students usually need more than one accommodation
  at a time
• Students in elementary school are accommodated
  more than students in secondary school
• Accommodations listed in the IEP are not used
  during testing or accommodations used in testing
  are not listed on the IEP

7
Technology Accommodations
Low Tech
Use of pictures with text Talking electronic
device to say challenging words Single word
scanner Scanner with Optical Character
Recognition and talking word processor Electronic
books
High Tech
8
Despite all the reasons to use technology and all
the interest in it, what happens when it comes
down to the state assessment, which counts for
NCLB and other purposes?
9
All states have written policies on which
assessment accommodations are

• Allowed
• Allowed in certain circumstances
• Allowed with implications for scoring or
  aggregation of scores
• Prohibited

10
Text to Speech Technology
Five states specifically mention text to speech
technology/converters. Nineteen states have a
generic communication device listed. Ten list
speech/voice recognition devices/software.
11
Read Aloud Questions
Four states did not specifically list this
accommodation. In 14 states, both certain
circumstances and implications for scoring were
indicated for Read Aloud Questions.
12
Moving policy along for technology involves
clarifying the constructs

• What is mathematics today?
• What is writing today?
• What is reading today?
• And so on . . . . .