Session Overview

1. NCSC Instructional Supports and Resources: Transition to NCSC Severo MartinezEducation AdministratorNew Mexico Public Education Department

2. Session Overview • Introductions • Severo Martinez • Overview of National Center and State Collaborative (NCSC) Support and Instructional Supports • Overview of New Alternate Assessment (ELA and Mathematics only) • 2014 Pilot Information and Sign-up

3. Alternate Assessment Background • States are required to have assessments to measure student performance for accountability purposes in Math and English Language Arts for grades 3-8 and once in high school • There are alternate assessments for students who have the most significant cognitive disabilities • NCSC and NMAPA • These assessments are linked to grade level content but have different expectations for achievement • They are referred to as alternate assessments on alternate academic achievement standards (AA-AAS)

5. Who will take the NCSC Test?

6. NCSC Background • In 2010, the U.S. Department of Education awarded the National Center and State Collaborative (NCSC) a grant to develop a new AA-AAS in Math and English Language Arts by the 2014-15 school year • 24 states and five national organizations are working together in NCSC http://www.ncscpartners.org • NCSC is also developing curriculum/instructional resources based on Common Core State Standards (CCSS) that can be used in any state https://wiki.ncscpartners.org

7. National Center and State Collaborative (NCSC)Alternate Assessment Consortia To develop a system of assessments supported by curriculum, instruction, and professional development to ensure that students with the most significant cognitive disabilities achieve increasingly higher academic outcomes and leave high school ready for post-secondary options.

8. What does College and Career Readiness Mean for Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities?

9. Which Skills Promote College and Career Readiness? • Communicative competence • Social skills to function well in small groups • Independent work skills • Problem Solving • Reading/writing/math • Knowing when and how to seek assistance The NCSC model includes community readiness in its definition of college and career readiness.

10. Working towards College and Career Readiness in English Language Arts is Important for …. • Communicating with family, friends, support staff, medical personnel, co-workers, etc. • Comparing information to make decisions (including voting) • Self-determination and self-advocacy • Traveling in the community • Understanding books, movies, TV shows and songs • Attending college • Finding and maintaining employment

11. Working towards College and Career Readiness in Math is Important for… • Telling time • Making and following a schedule • Managing money • Arranging and using transportation • Taking medication • Planning and making meals • Shopping • Attending college • Finding and maintaining employment

12. Career College Community Curriculum Common Core Standards Learning Progressions Core Content Connectors Instruction Grade-level Lessons Accommodations Systematic Instruction Assessment Formative, Interim Summative Communicative Competence

13. NCSC Communication Beliefs • All individuals communicate regardless of age OR disability. All output (gestures, cries, noises) can be communicative. Communication at some level is possible and identifiable for all students regardless of functional “level.” Every step toward improved communication, attention and interaction leads to enriched quality of life and independence Students with significant cognitive disabilities can improve their skills with appropriate communication interventions and instruction linked to grade-level standards. Communication programming goals should improve students’ opportunities for increased integration and interactions with peers and the community in general. Students with the most significant disabilities benefit from interactions with typical peers. Typical peers benefit from interactions with students with the most significant disabilities! No more fundamental outcome of education exists than the right and the ability to communicate.

15. Common Core State Standards (CCSS) • Define what students are expected to know and do for each grade level in math and English language arts (ELA) • Focus on what is most essential, not all that can or should be taught or “how” to teach • Are linked to expectations for college and career success • Most states have adopted the CCSS and must provide instruction and assessments for ALL students based on these standards.

16. Core Content Connectors (CCCs) • Identify the most salient grade-level, core academic content in ELA and mathematics found in both the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the Learning Progression Framework (LPF); • Illustrate the necessary knowledge and skills in order to reach the learning targets within the LPF and the CCSS; • Focus on the core content, knowledge and skills needed at each grade to promote success at the next; and • Identify priorities in each content area to guide the instruction for students in this population and for the alternate assessment.

17. Graduated Understandings • Utilized by teachers to: • Share a common language;  • Plan multi-grade instruction for students who participate in the AA-AAS with a wide range of abilities and challenges; • Support developed instructional units that will include all students and will promote the use of Universal Design of Learning; and • Engage in collaborative discussion and delivery of instruction. • Include Instructional Families and Element Cards.

18. GUs: Instructional Families • Articulate the big ideas and related instructional content; • Provide a structure/schema for teachers that articulates emphasized content within and across grades; • Reference the related CCSS for each CCC; and • Organized by domain: • By grade, learning targets, and instructional families • By grade, instructional family, and CCCs • By instructional family and CCCs by grades.

19. Grade-span Learning Target from the Learning Progression Frameworks Instructional Families for Data Analysis I (K-4) Distribution of CCCs by Instructional Families and grade Reference to related CCSS

20. Element Cards • Assist educators to target instruction in multiple settings by promoting teacher understanding of and student movement towards the Common Core State Standards Contain one (or more) CCCs from a specific Instructional Family; • Include the related Progress Indicator from the LPF; • Provide essential understandings that include challenging and attainable content that is measureable and observable for use in instruction and in assessment; • Provide suggested instructional strategies to teach the specific concepts and skills of the CCC; and • Provide suggested supports and scaffolds for students to be able to demonstrate what they know and can do.

21. Element Cards

22. Element Cards Nomenclature used to identify the CCC and statement of the grade-specific CCC CCSS Topic Specific skills and concepts related to the Learning Targets in the LPF Big ideas and related instructional concepts denoting a curricular emphasis The Common Core Standard to which the CCC is based • Concepts and skills essential to entering the content described in the CCC at grade level. Representational-based learning of concepts and skills using symbols Necessary to engage successfully with the content identified in the CCC Suggested evidenced-based strategies supporting instruction are varying levels of challenge Suggested tools and materials to promote understanding of and engagement with the concepts

23. Element CardELA

24. Learning Progressions Framework (LPF) • Shows the steps students typically take to progress through a content area (e.g. math) to get deeper, broader, more sophisticated understanding, • Represents the essential core concepts and processes learned in a content area (sometimes called the “big ideas”); • Provides a map to IEP teams for what should come next as students continue to move through the grades; and • Contains progress indicators Hess, Karin K., (December 2011). Learning Progressions Frameworks Designed for Use with the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts & Literacy K-12.

25. All curriculum and instructional resources available at https://wiki.ncscpartners.org

26. NCSC Assessment

27. Assessment Participation Guidelines • There will be a NCSC AA-AAS in math and one in ELA, which includes both reading and writing, for grades 3-8 and 11 • The IEP team will determine, on an individual basis, whether a student will take the NCSC AA-AAS • If a student doesn’t meet the AA-AAS criteria for both math and ELA, he/she may not be eligible for either AA-AAS

28. Format • Approximately 30 items for each subject. • These 30 items will cover approximately 10 CCCs • Most of the assessment items ask the student to select the correct response (e.g. multiple choice). • Some items will require the student to construct a response (e.g. write a short answer or use an alternate way to respond e.g. picture symbols)

29. Technology • This will be an online testing program. • Some students will use the online testing program directly on the computer. • For other students, the teacher may print out testing materials and enter student responses into the computer. • The assessment will have built-in supports to provide students with the opportunity to respond independently

30. Length of Assessment • Expected testing time will be approximately 1.5 – 2 hours for each assessment (math and ELA) • Each student’s assessment can be completed in multiple smaller time slots over a 2 month period to meet the student’s needs

31. Relationship of Items to Grade Level Content • About 75% of the assessment items are closely linked to the grade-level content • About 25% are a farther link to the grade-level content to allow students who are just beginning to work with the academic content show what they know and can do • In the first years of the new assessment many students will likely answer questions and do tasks that are less complex, but increase complexity as instruction improves

32. Levels of Complexity • Multiple items were then developed for each standard at four increasing levels of complexity, along with accommodations, to allow for measurement across the performance continuum • 4 Tiers • Varying in complexity and embedded supports • Visual support, simplified sentences or language • “Remember statements” or prompts

33. Exceptional Circumstances • There will be policies and criteria for dealing with rare situations where it may not be appropriate to administer or continue an assessment • When these policies are used there will be requirements for data collection in order to flag the need for interventions to address unmet instructional needs (e.g., related services or instructional supports)

35. Assessment • Summative Assessment ( Testing Window late spring 2015) • Math and ELA including Writing • Grades 3-8 and GRADE 11 • Computer Based (Online) • selected response • some constructed response (Math and Writing)

36. Assessment Features • Online Platform • Each of the two content area assessments, mathematics and ELA • Selected response and constructed response • Math constructed response at various grade levels • Writing both selected and constructed response • Tiered items of varying complexity

37. Call for Participants: NCSC Pilot 2 • During the NCSC Pilot 2 Test students and test administrators will have the opportunity to try out items and interact with a computer based test administration platform in reading, mathematics, and writing. The Pilot 2 Test will supplement the work from the Pilot 1 Test, providing additional information on the functionality of items, test forms, platform performance, and the overall user experience. Pilot 2 will be administered to students in grades 4–9 and 12. If your school district is interested in participating in the test pilot email severo.martinez@state.nm.us

38. Pilot 2 • October 20 through November 14 • All test administrators will participate in required training modules • Your last opportunity to get experience and knowledge of the new NCSC Alternate Assessment

39. Parent Resources • Additional materials designed to help inform parents about NCSC’s work and related issues can be found athttp://www.ncscpartners.org/resources • Other topics are: • A summary of the project • The NCSC curriculum/ instructional resources • College and career readiness • Communicative competence • Research on instruction/ assessment of students with significant cognitive disabilities

40. Questions ??? NMPED Contact: Severo Martinez Education Administrator 505.827.6553 severo.martinez@state.nm.us