2012 Fall Administrators’ Professional Development

1. 2012 Fall Administrators’ Professional Development August 28, 2012

2. Office of Assessment Liz Jones Suzanne Swaffield Douglas Alexander Anne Mruz Chris Webster

3. South Carolina Assessments

4. New in Assessment • Improvements to End-of-Course Examination Program (EOCEP) online administration • National Center and State Collaborative (NCSC) update • Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium update

5. End of Course Online Assessment • Online testing of EOCEP is now compatible with oral administration • Students needing the following accommodations will have the option to test online this fall: • Oral Administration • Loose-Leaf • Sign Language (enter responses only online; will still need to use the DVD, as applicable)

6. National Center and State Collaborative (NCSC)Alternate Assessment Consortium Update

7. NCSC Project Goal To develop a system of assessments supported by • Curriculum and instruction • Professional development To ensure that students with cognitive disabilities achieve increasingly higher academic outcomes and leave high school ready for post-secondary options.

8. NCSC To determine the needs of students and teachers and to inform test and curriculum development the project conducted: • Focus Group of SC teachers • Survey of SC teachers • Learner Characteristics Inventory (LCI)

9. Curriculum and Instruction Resources • Curriculum is in process of development • aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) through core content connectors (CCC) • includes instructional modules • We will be providing materials for teachers to review and provide feedback

10. Professional Development • Community of Practice • SC teachers who have committed to assisting with the review of materials and tasks • They have participated in training webinars throughout the year • Additional webinars are planned for this school year • Communication Triage • Training designed to equip all students with a communication system before entering school • Seminar held this summer to build teams in partner states to implement communication training • Plan in process for implementing in SC • Training on use of curriculum and instruction materials will be rolled out as soon as materials are ready

11. Summative Assessment • Performance or selected response tasks similar to SC-Alt • Computer-based and computer-adaptive • Census Field Test of ELA and math scheduled for Spring 2015 As a state partner we have input on design, and theSC teachers will have the opportunity to review items throughout development.

12. NCSC website www.ncscpartners.org

13. Monitoring Required by ESEA and IDEA • Onsite monitoring visits during testing windows from staff from Office of Assessment • Desk audits by staff from Office of Exceptional Children

14. District Reports on Use of PASS Accommodations • Report the rates of use of IEP and 504 Plan accommodations for Writing, ELA, and Mathematics for the 2010 – 2012 PASS administrations • The reports were posted on the Advanced Data Transfer System (ADTS) for access by your DTC. • Contact your DTC for a copy of the report; address questions about the report to Doug Alexander.

15. Palmetto Assessment of State Standards (PASS) Use of Testing Accommodations for 2010–2012 Sample District

16. Coming Soon • Oral Administration FAQs • Guidance for IEP Teams on Determining Participation in theSouth Carolina Alternate Assessment (SC-Alt)

17. Smarter Balanced Assessments Update

18. Why change Assessment Systems? • The State Board of Education adopted and the Education Oversight Committee approved the Common Core State Standards for South Carolina • Current assessments are not aligned to the Common Core State Standards • The State Board of Education adopted the assessments being developed by theSmarter Balanced Assessment Consortium

19. Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium Assessment System • Group of states working together to develop assessments to be administered beginning in the 2014-15 school year • Aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) • Measure progress toward college- and career-readiness • English language arts/literacy and mathematics • Grades 3-8 and 11 • Computer Adaptive Tests

20. Types of Assessments Formative Assessment Tools School Year Interim Assessments Interim Assessments Summative Assessments

21. Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium Assessment System • Formative Assessment Tools • Resources for teachers • Interim Assessments - Optional • Summative Assessments • Computer adaptive test • Performance tasks

22. Small Scale Trials • October 15 to November 2, 2012 • Computer-administered • 15–18 items • Selected-response and constructed-response • Approximately 60–90 minutes to complete • Schools selected from member states • One classroom in one grade (4, 7, or 11) • Schools select test days within the test window

23. Pilot Tests & Field Tests • Pilot Testing • February – May, 2013 • Participation open to all schools in consortium states • Field Testing • Spring 2014

24. Advisory Committees forStudents with Disabilities and ELLs • Advisory committees helping guide decisions for accessibility and accommodations • Comprised of more than 20 national experts in: • Student assessment • Accommodations strategies • Language acquisition • Learning disabilities

25. Release of sample items and performance tasks • Online • Early October • Illustrate the rigor and complexity of items • Items do not include accessibility tools and accommodations options

26. Accessibility Tools • Under development for operational assessment in 2014-15 • Sample items to give students chance to become familiar • Decisions about tools guided by consortium’s: • Accessibility and Accommodations Work Group and • Advisory committees for English language learners

27. http://www.smarterbalanced.org/

28. http://www.smarterbalanced.org/parents-students/support-for-under-represented-students/http://www.smarterbalanced.org/parents-students/support-for-under-represented-students/

29. Questions?

30. Including Students with Disabilities: Ensuring the Validity of NAEP Results

31. Overview • Agency responsible for NAEP implementation: National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), U.S. Department of Education • Only ongoing nationwide assessment • Representative sample across states • State- and national-level results • State grades 4 and 8 • National-grades 4, 8, and 12

32. Overview • Valid cross-state comparisons • Designed primarily to provide data to state- and national-level policy makers • With passage of ESEA/NCLB, state’s participation became required • NAEP policy is set by the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB)

33. NAEP Inclusion Policy • Focuses on states’ inclusion of students with disabilities (SD) and English language learners (ELLs) • As a percentage of total population, total excluded (SD/ELL) should not be more than 5%. • As a percentage of each identified group (SD/ELL), excluded should not exceed 15%.

34. SC Exclusion Rates: 2009/2011

35. SC Exclusion Rates: 2009/2011

41. Increasing Inclusion Key points regarding participation: • NAEP provides most accommodations typically offered on state tests. • NAEP does not produce scores for individual students and participation is anonymous. • Federal law requires that schools notify parents of their child’s selection for the assessment. • Students who meet participation guidelines for the SC-Alternate Assessment are not expected to participate in NAEP. All others are.

42. Increasing Inclusion • The IEP/504 Plan team should determine how the student will participate. • Students are not required to complete the entire test and may skip any test question. Even when a student does not complete the entire test, valuable information is still obtained from the item responses provided. • NAEP assessments are “low-stakes” and are solely intended to provide an overall measure of educational achievement for the nation and individual states.

43. Questions? cwebster@ed.sc.gov

44. Contact Information NAEP Chris Webster cwebster@ed.sc.gov Accommodations and Customized Material Anne Mruz amruz@ed.sc.gov South Carolina Alternate Assessment Suzanne Swaffield sswaffie@ed.sc.gov Douglas Alexander dgalexan@ed.sc.gov Smarter Balanced Liz Jones ejones@ed.sc.gov