Professional Development Guide: ACCOMMODATIONS MANUAL

1. Professional Development Guide: ACCOMMODATIONS MANUAL How to Select, Administer, and Evaluate the Use of Accommodations for Instruction and Assessment of Students with Disabilities Department of Education & Early Development February 2010 - DTC Training Aran Felix and Grace Gray

2. Objectives of Session • Become familiar with an important training tool to help IEP teams assign appropriate accommodations to students • Become knowledgeable about the new Science SBA monitoring forms and demographic page • Exchange ideas for monitoring and evaluating use of accommodations DTC Training, February 2010

3. Purpose of Guide The Professional Development Guide was developed to support the use of the Accommodations Manual: How to select, administer, and evaluate use of accommodations for instruction and assessment of students with disabilities • Identifies 5 steps and the objectives to reach each • Provides activities and templates for professional development DTC Training, February 2010

4. Work the Steps…. • Materials: Professional Development Guide, Accommodations Manual, Participations Guidelines, SBA Monitoring Tool, and Demographic Page, Discussion Activity • Group Configuration: DTC and Spec Ed Director, minimum 2 districts per table. • Select a timekeeper and reporter. 8 minutes per step, 1 minute to report to all. DTC Training, February 2010

5. Step 1: Expect Students with Disabilities To Achieve Grade-level Academic Content Standards Objective: The purpose of this activity is to provide a foundation for the use of accommodations in the context of the expectation that students with disabilities can achieve grade level academic content standards. Key Learning Outcomes • At the conclusion of this activity, participants will • expect the participation of students with disabilities in standards-based assessments and be aware of the laws that require participation, • understand the importance of collaboration between general and special educators, • become familiar with state academic content standards, and • list conditions needed for students with disabilities to achieve grade-level content standards. DTC Training, February 2010

6. Examine Step 1 • Open Guide and Manual to Step 1 • Work in table groups • Take 8 minutes and orient yourself to Step 1. Tab and highlight. • Question: What is important for your teachers to know in this section? DTC Training, February 2010

7. Step 2: Learn About Accommodations for Instruction and Assessment Objective: The purpose of this activity is to define “accommodations” and to describe specific instructional and assessment accommodations. Key Learning Outcomes • At the conclusion of this activity, participants will • define accommodations, • understand the link between instructional and assessment accommodations, and • identify key accommodation categories (Presentation, Response, Setting, and Timing/Scheduling) and provide examples. DTC Training, February 2010

8. Examine Step 2 • Open Guide and Manual to Step 2 • Work in table groups • Take 8 minutes and orient yourself to Step 2. Tab and highlight. • Discussion: Does your district conduct accommodations training? If not, consider how you might incorporate this into staff development. DTC Training, February 2010

9. Step 3: Select Accommodations forInstruction and Assessment ofIndividual Students Objective: The purpose of this activity is to introduce practical strategies to use in determining appropriate instructional and assessment accommodations for students with disabilities. Key Learning Outcomes • At the conclusion of this activity, participants will • list approaches to the selection of accommodations, • list questions to consider when selecting accommodations, • know how to review and evaluate accommodations a student has used previously, • know how to choose new accommodations based on a student’s access needs, • understand how students can play a significant role, with the support of their IEP team, in selecting and using accommodations, and • know where to document accommodations use on a student’s IEP and provide examples. DTC Training, February 2010

10. Examine Step 3 • Open Guide and Manual to Step 3 • Work in table groups • Take 8 minutes and orient yourself to Step 3. Tab and highlight. • Discussion: Review Teacher Tools 1 & 2, Fact Sheets 5 & 6 in Manual. Valuable? Could you use with your staff? DTC Training, February 2010

11. Step 4: Administer Accommodationsduring Instruction and Assessment Objective: The purpose of this activity is to provide an overview of the logistics involved in providing accommodations during assessments and procedures for standardizing the administration of accommodations during assessment. The importance of test security is emphasized. Key Learning Outcomes • At the conclusion of this activity, participants will • understand the logistics involved in the appropriate administration of accommodations during assessment, • have tools to use in planning for the provision of accommodations on test day, and • understand the practices necessary to maintain test security and validity of test scores. DTC Training, February 2010

12. Examine Step 4 • Open Guide and Manual to Step 4 • Work in table groups • Take 8 minutes and orient yourself to Step 4. Tab and highlight. • Question: How do you currently monitor accommodations used on test day in your district? DTC Training, February 2010

13. Step 5: Evaluate and ImproveAccommodations Use Objective: The purpose of this activity is to provide information about evaluating and improving the use of assessment accommodations. Key Learning Outcomes • At the conclusion of this activity, participants will • understand the need to collect information on the use and appropriate administration of accommodations, • be familiar with different ways of collecting information on accommodations using formative evaluation, and • understand the type of questions that can be used to guide evaluation of accommodations use. DTC Training, February 2010

14. Examine Step 5 • Open Guide and Manual to Step 5 • Work in table groups • Take 8 minutes and orient yourself to Step 5. Tab and highlight. • Think About: Questions to Guide Evaluation at the School/District Level (next slide) as you work through Step 5 DTC Training, February 2010

15. Questions to Guide Evaluation at the School or District Level • How many students are receiving accommodations? • What types of accommodations are provided and are some used more that others? • What are the results for students when accommodations are used? • If students are not demonstrating expected level of performance, did students have access to instruction in assessed content? • Was the accommodation effective? • How do you currently evaluate an accommodation’s effectiveness and who conducts this evaluation? • What assurances does the district have to show the IEP accommodations align with actually used assessment accommodations? DTC Training, February 2010

16. Adequate Evaluation Requires Documentation and Data • Tools for Tracking by Districts • In-District accommodations tracking form based on IEP • Used in preparation of the assessment date DTC Training, February 2010

17. Adequate Evaluation Requires Documentation and Data Tools for Tracking by State • Demographic page on the Science SBA, spring 2010, used for collecting accommodations actually used DTC Training, February 2010

18. Group Activity • Take a look at the Discussion Activity • Share responses within your group • Plan to share your response to question #4 to the whole group DTC Training, February 2010

19. Accommodations Resources • Location of Guide, Manual, Power-Point: and other resources: • http://www.eed.state.ak.us/tls/assessment/accommodations.html • Grace Gray, Alternative Assessment • Grace.Gray@alaska.gov, #465-8432 • Aran Felix, Alternate Assessment • Aran.Felix@alaska.gov , #465-8437 DTC Training, February 2010

20. Resources • Location of Guide, Manual, and power-point: • http://www.eed.state.ak.us/tls/assessment/accommodations.html DTC Training, February 2010