Helen Dennis – Office of Assessment Sarah Celestin – Exceptional Children (Special Education)

1. DeSSA Accessibility Guidelines Online Training, 2014-2015General Education Students With Supports Helen Dennis – Office of Assessment Sarah Celestin – Exceptional Children (Special Education) Terry Richard – Exceptional Children (ELL/Migrant) October2014

2. Purpose of this Training Session Become familiar with: • Identification of “General Ed with Supports” students, or “GWS” • Smarter Designated Supports, or “Supports” • Selection of Supports for GWS • Identifying a school’s decision makers for GWS • Expected school level documentation for GWS • Forms and Databases

3. DeSSA Accessibility Guidelines This document provides guidelines for making decisions about the inclusion in assessments of • students with disabilities (SWD), • English language learners (ELL), • students who are classified as both (SWD/ELL); • “General Ed Students With Supports,” (students not identified as SWD or ELL that may be provided supports during assessments)

4. What is DeSSA? • Delaware • System of • Student • Assessments • Includes Smarter, DCAS, DCAS ALT 1, SAT/PSAT, ACCESS/ALT ACCESS, NAEP

5. Smarter • Content Areas: • ELA: Items measuring reading, listening, writing, research • Mathematics • Accommodations and Supports for SWDs • Supports for ELLs and Gen Ed students receiving supports • Universal tools for all

6. Smarter

7. What are Smarter “Designated Supports?” • Another name for an accessibility feature of the test that is available to selected groups • Available to more student-types than Smarter Accommodations • Might be called accommodations on another test (i.e. DCAS) • Might be called universal tools on another test

8. What are the Available Supports? Embedded • 3.01 Color contrast (on- screen) • 3.02 Masking • 3.03 Text-to-speech for items • 3.04 Translated test directions • 3.05 Translations (glossaries) • 3.06 Spanish Translations (stacked) • 3.07 Turn off any universal tools Non-Embedded • 4.01 Bilingual dictionary • 4.02 Color Contrast (printed) • 4.03 Color overlays • 4.04 Magnification • 4.05 Human Reader - items • 4.06 Scribe • 4.07 Separate Setting • 4.08 Translations (glossaries) • 4.09 Translated test directions • 4.10 Paper/Pencil • 4.11 Noise Buffers

9. What are Universal Tools? • Accessibility feature available to all students • No need to select prior to test • Student selects independently/spontaneously during the test • Smarter Balanced Module on Embedded Universal Tools and Online Features : • Narrated module: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9nrTDov_T0zaTUtLXhrYnRLZWs/edit?pli=1 • Non-narrated module: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9nrTDov_T0zcXAxQWs5T29iZms/edit?pli=1

10. Embedded vs. Non Embedded Supports • Embedded*: delivered online via the browser • Non-Embedded: provided in the classroom by staff

11. Relationship Between Designated Supports in the Classroom and in Assessment Classroom Supports Smarter Supports

12. Identifying GWS Students • NON-ELL, NON-SWD • If a student is ELL=Y or SWD=Y, then they are not permitted to be GWS=Y. • Exited ELLs can become GWS=Y after exiting • Students must be identified as GWS and supports selected prior to test administration • Embedded supports must be entered into Assessment Accommodations Database (IMS) at least 3 days prior to test administration

13. Identifying GWS Students, Cont’d • Consider the following students: • Struggling and at-risk students • Students receiving RTI interventions • Students referred to the school’s problem-solving team • Students with physical injuries • Supports should be identified by a team: • RTI Committee/PLC • Problem Solving Team (IST/ICT/SIT) • English Language Acquisition Committee (ELAC)

14. Within-District Process and Structures for GWS • Recommended that more than one educator participate in the • identification of students • selection of supports for individuals • District- or School- Specific—State does not dictate • Depends on your building’s structure and existing mechanisms • Documentation should be clear and present but is not required to be the same as required for students with IEPs. • Use the existing forms provide in Accessibility Guidelines.

15. How to Flag Student as Gen Ed w/Supports Follow these steps after identifying a student to receive supports on the Smarter assessments as a general education student: • Log in to ESchool • Go to the Accountability screen. • Flag the student “Y” as a general education student receiving supports. • Wait overnight for the student’s data to “roll up” to DELSIS. • Enter the student’s supports in the Assessment Accommodations database. Please contact your Eschool support contact with any questions regarding data entry.

16. Eschool Accountability Screen How to Formally Document a General Education Student Receiving Supports in the Pupil Accounting and Accommodations Systems Page 36 of Guidelines .

17. Designated Supports: Selecting Supports • Based on student’s documented needs • Consider data about student performance with and without the support • Compare observational data or curriculum-based measures with and without the support to select • Must be used during classroom instruction • Familiar to the student • Try out different supports during the practice test • More Supports are not necessarily BETTER for the student! • Selection should be customized for student needs

18. What are the Available Supports? Embedded • 3.01 Color contrast (on- screen) • 3.02 Masking • 3.03 Text-to-speech for items • 3.04 Translated test directions • 3.05 Translations (glossaries) • 3.06 Spanish Translations (stacked) • 3.07 Turn off any universal tools Non-Embedded • 4.01 Bilingual dictionary • 4.02 Color Contrast (printed) • 4.03 Color overlays • 4.04 Magnification • 4.05 Human Reader - items • 4.06 Scribe • 4.07 Separate Setting • 4.08 Translations (glossaries) • 4.09 Translated test directions • 4.10 Paper/Pencil • 4.11 Noise Buffers

19. Text-to-Speech (TTS) andHuman Reader Questions Smarter is expected to announce that TTS will be available in Spanish, as well as English, as a support for spring 2015.

20. Language Translation Supports

21. Translated Glossaries & Full Translations (Supports) • Following languages are listed in the Smarter Accommodation & Supports “Frequently Asked Questions” • Full translation for Spanish (“stacked” with English ) • Math only (not ELA) • Vietnamese • Arabic • Tagalog • Ilokano • Cantonese • Mandarin • Korean • Punjabi • Russian • Ukrainian

22. Do’s and Don’ts for Selecting Supports Do’s Don’ts Don’t…make support decisions based on whatever is easiest to do Don’t…check every support possible on a checklist simply to be “safe” Don’t…assume the same supports remain appropriate year after year Don’t…provide an assessment support for the first time on the day of a test Don’t…assume certain supports, such as text-to-speech for test questions, are appropriate for every student in every content area Don’t…use a support that is not related to a documented need • Do…make support decisions based on individualized needs (e.g., the student’s amount of time in the country, disability needs) • Do…be specific about the content area test on which the support is needed • Do…evaluate supports used by the student • Do…get input about supports from teachers and students, and use it to make decisions • Do…select supports that have been routinely used during instruction • Do…select supports based on documented student learning needs Adapted from the CCSSO Accommodations Manual, 2013

23. Designated Supports Timeline • When can I plan supports? • Any time before the assessment. • When can I enter supports into the Assessment Accommodations Database? • Between test windows • during the planned test window, prior to testing • With 3 days prior to testing, (number specified in DeSSA Test Administrator Training) • Do not enter accommodations for 2015-16 before spring 2015 window closes (June 4). • When should the student start using the supports? • In the classroom – as soon as it can benefit the student • On the test – • after the student becomes proficient in the support • after it is showing in the TIDE database

24. Accommodations Form

25. Accommodations Listings/Forms • Smarter Example

26. Documenting Supports in the Assessment Accommodations Database • Access Via IMS • Contains Accommodations and Supports for • Students with Disabilities (IEP, 504) • ELLs • Gen Ed with Supports • Enter, List, or Report Accommodations and Supports • Data for AIR TIDE (Test Information Distribution Engine) is extracted from it

27. Opening Screen (“Search” Screen)  Students with IEP’s

28. Search Results Screen Edit, View

29. Student-Related Reports Currently-DCAS only

30. Report Results Screen Save, Print

31. Steps to Flag Student as Gen Ed w/Supports Follow these steps after identifying a student to receive supports on the Smarter assessments as a general education student: • Log in to ESchool • Go to the Accountability screen. • Flag the student “Y” as a general education student receiving supports. • Wait overnight for the student’s data to “roll up” to DELSIS. • Enter the student’s supports in the Assessment Accommodations database. Please contact your Eschool support contact with any questions regarding data entry.

32. Eschool Accountability Screen How to Formally Document a General Education Student Receiving Supports in the Pupil Accounting and Accommodations Systems Page 36 of Guidelines .

33. Smarter Reset Policy • Wrong Accoms the most frequent reason for reset request on DCAS • Different from previous DCAS Reset Policy • If student answered 5 or more items, no reset will be granted. • If the test was administered incorrectly (i.e., the wrong accommodations were provided), the test will be invalidated, and the student will not get another opportunity to test. • If the student answered fewer than 5 items, a reset can be granted. • If the test was administered incorrectly, the test reset will give you another chance to administer the test correctly. • DCAS/EOC will adopt the new Smarter reset policy.

34. AIR TIDE • In 2014-15,TIDE will contain all information related to • Smarter ELA/Math • DCAS Science/Social Studies • EOC Alg II/IM III, US History • DCAS ALT 1 ELA/Math/Science/Social Studies • Student will have one record in TIDE that has the info for all his/her tests

35. Future Updates to 2014-15 Accessibility Guidelines • Additional updates and clarifications are likely between now and spring 2015 testing • Look out on DOE website and DCAS Portal • Updates memo • Updated Accommodations form • Expected future updates • Announcement regarding Spanish TTS

36. Upcoming Training • DOE Training on how to use the Assessment Accommodations Database • Smarter module on universal tools

37. Questions • Sarah Celestin – Students with Disabilities • 302-735-4210 • Sarah.Celestin@doe.k12.de.us • Terry Richard – English Language Learners • 302-735-4210 • Terry.Richard@doe.k12.de.us • Helen Dennis – Office of Assessment • 302-735-4090 • Helen.Dennis@doe.k12.de.us