Accessibility for Students Taking Assessment Consortia Tests

1. Accessibility for Students Taking Assessment Consortia Tests National Conference on Student Assessment June 19-22, 2011 www.PARCConline.org

2. The PARCC Vision • Create high-quality assessments that measure the full range of the Common Core State Standards • Build a pathway to college and career readiness for all students and make accurate and reliable determinations as to whether students are “on track” or “ready” for college and careers • Provide information that supports various accountability uses (e.g., school, educator, student) • Provide timely and actionable information that supports continuous improvements in curriculum and instruction that inform effective classroom instruction and assessment practices • Leverage technology for a variety of uses: innovative items, accommodations, administration, and scoring and reporting. • Report results that allow for comparability across all PARCC states, across consortia, and to national and international assessments.

3. PARCC Accessibility Goals The Partnership will: Work to minimize/eliminate features that are irrelevant to what is being measured and measure the range of complexity of the standards so that students can demonstrate their knowledge; Design each component in a manner that allows ELL students and students with identified needs to demonstrate what they know and can do; Apply principles of universal design for accessible assessments throughout every stage of developing assessment components, items, and performance tasks; Leverage technology for delivering assessment components as widely accessible as possible; and Establish a Committee on Accessibility and Accommodations comprised of knowledgeable testing officials from member states (OWG).

4. Partnership States Governing Board States Participating States Membership as of 6/16/11

5. PARCC Governance Membership as of 6/16/11

6. PARCC Governance Structure Steering Committee

7. PARCC Technical Advisory Committee Henry Braun Boston College Bob Brennan University of Iowa Derek Briggs University of Colorado at Boulder Wayne Camara College Board Linda Cook Retired, ETS Ronald Hambleton University of Massachusetts, Amherst Gerunda Hughes Howard University Huynh Huynh University of South Carolina Michael Kolen University of Iowa Suzanne Lane University of Pittsburgh Richard Luecht University of North Carolina at Greensboro Jim Pellegrino University of Illinois at Chicago Barbara Plake University of Nebraska- Lincoln Rachel Quenemoen National Center on Educational Outcomes Laurie Wise Human Resources Research Organization, HumRRO

8. PARCC Technical Working Groups (TWG) Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) Leadership Team (LT) Technical Working Groups (TWG) Operational Working Groups (OWG) Limited number of groups convened by the TAC to address high priority topics that would benefit from collective problem-solving by leading experts Comprised of domain-specific technical advisors who interact with leadership and working groups and report to the TAC Accessibility, Accommodations, and Fairness TWG: Committee members represent a range of expertise in accessibility and accommodations Role is to help guide the efforts of working groups in designing accessible assessments that remain true to the intended constructs

9. Diane August Center for Applied Linguistics (ELL) David Edyburn University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (SWD) Claudia Flowers University of North Carolina – Charlotte (SWD) Dianne Piche Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Charlene Rivera George Washington University (ELL) Diane Spence Region 4 Education Service Center, Braille Services (Braille) Martha Thurlow National Center on Educational Outcomes (SWD) Dan Wiener Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (accommodations for state assessments) Gerunda Hughes will serve as the liaison to the PARCC Technical Advisory Committee (TAC). Accessibility, Accommodations, and Fairness TWG Invited Members

10. PARCC Operational Working Groups (OWG) Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) Leadership Team (LT) • Who: Comprised of state representatives, Achieve staff members, and eventually vendor representatives • What: Responsible for the day-to-day aspects of work of key components of work • Why: To ensure efficient and effective collaboration among PARCC members to meet PARCC goals. Technical Working Groups (TWG) Operational Working Groups (OWG)

11. PARCC Operational Working Groups (OWG) • Design • Research • Communications • Data, Technology, and Innovation • Accessibility, Accommodations, and Fairness • CCSS Implementation and Educator Engagement

12. Roberta Alley (Chair) Interim Associate Superintendent, Standards & Assessments Arizona Department of Education Trinell Bowman Project Manager for Assessments for Students with Disabilities Maryland State Board of Education Melissa Fincher Associate Superintendent of Assessment and Accountability Georgia Department of Education Charity Flores Assistant Director, Office of Student Assessment Indiana Department of Education Andrew Hinkle Educational Consultant Ohio Department of Education Bambi Lockman Chief, Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services Florida Department of Education Phyllis Lynch Director, Office of Instruction, Assessment and Curriculum Rhode Island Department of Education Michael Reid Director, Academic Performance Index Oklahoma State Department of Education Lori Rodriguez Bureau Chief, Student Achievement through Language Acquisition Florida Department of Education Accessibility, Accommodations, and Fairness OWG Members

13. Accessibility and AccommodationsWorking Groups – Overview The Working Groups will be responsible for: • Drafting a set of Partnership-wide policies in a Partnership Accommodations Manual to be adopted by each member state for identifying eligible students, selecting allowable accommodations, and administering accommodations. That process will include: • Analyzing extant state accommodation policies, • Building a list of recommended standard accommodations, • Identifying constructs and research on possible new accommodations, • Recommending a set of proposed accommodation policies for the assessment, • Drafting a common Partnership Accommodations Manual, • Ensuring comparability in assessment administrations, • Monitoring ongoing refinements of accommodations, and • Developing training modules for IEP teams. Technical Working Groups (TWG) Operational Working Groups (OWG)

14. Accessibility and AccommodationsWorking Groups – Overview Technical Working Groups (TWG) Operational Working Groups (OWG) The Working Groups will be responsible for (continued): • Identifying challenges. • Proposing research relating to accommodations. Adopting key policies and definitions that will include: • a common definition of “English Learner”; • a common set of policies and procedures for providing assessment accommodations for English learners and students with identified needs; and • a common set of policies and procedures for participation of English learners and students with identified needs in the assessment system.

15. Accessibility and AccommodationsWorking Groups – Overview Technical Working Groups (TWG) Operational Working Groups (OWG) Accessibility and Accommodations as a part of the development process • Design review and feedback • Test blueprint development • Technology development and selection • Passage and media review committee involvement • Item review committee involvement • Bias and sensitivity committee involvement • Testing the efficacy of assessment items with accommodations with the intended groups of students in pilot and field testing • Including sufficient number of students with identified needs (across sub-categories) in pilot and field testing • Data review committee involvement

16. Accessibility and AccommodationsWorking Groups – Overview Technical Working Groups (TWG) Operational Working Groups (OWG) • Build accessibility throughout the test itself with no trade-off between accessibility and validity • Use a combination of ‘accessible’-authoring and accessible technologies from the inception of items and tasks • Establish and maintain a close working connection with the Data, Technology, and Innovation OWG

17. Accessibility for Students Taking Assessment Consortia Tests National Conference on Student Assessment June 19-22, 2011 www.PARCConline.org