STAAR ALTERNATE 2014 Administration

1. STAAR ALTERNATE 2014 Administration TETN # 20963 January 8, 2014

2. AGENDA • Final Administration Details for the Current Assessment • Important Dates • Participation Requirements and ARD Committee Process Changes • Reporting for the 2014 Testing Results • Spring Postings • Updates on the Assessment Redesign Development

3. Texas Assessment Management System Testing Window January 6, 2014 until April 18, 2014

4. Remind test administrators to change the school year before selecting a Test Administration to be able to locate the 2014 STAAR Alternate administration.

5. Texas Assessment Management System • check to see if any recent ARD decisions have been made that would affect how the student assignments are set up in the system • ensure that student assessments are linked to the appropriate alternate assessment teacher in the Assessment Management System so evaluations can begin • unregister any students no longer being assessed with STAAR Alternate and add any new students or alternate assessment teachers • ensure that all test administrators have completed all required training before access to the Assessment Management System is provided

6. Test Administrator Training Monitor test administrator training by verifying that … • all training modules have been completed and the qualifications passed with 80% accuracy, • supplemental support is provided before the third attempt is given to the teacher, and • supervision is occurring for any test administrator that has not passed all the modules but is continuing to implement the assessment. Check to verify the training status of all test administrators on the TrainingCenter by viewing the STAAR Alternate At-A-Glance Training & Qualification Report

7. Pearson Resources to Help Link Teachers to Student Assessments Home>Resources>Training> Texas Assessment Management System

8. Monitoring Completion of Assessments District Testing Coordinators have done a great job monitoring! Monitor progress on the assessments. Number of registered students Need to have “0” in these columns to ensure that all students will be tested.

9. Storing the Documentation Forms District Testing Coordinators must: • develop and communicate the district policy on where the documentation forms will be stored • ensure that only one official documentation form exists and that all forms are stored in the same location for the campus • make sure that the test administrator knows that the form must remain secure and confidential while it is in his or her care until given to the testing coordinator for storage • secure all forms by the close of the assessment window • inform staff that forms will not be accessible after April 18, 2014 at 7:00pm CST Test administrators should use caution when taking the documentation forms out of the classroom or building or when forms are stored on computers, laptops, or flash drives.

10. Important Dates

11. Important Dates • The assessment window runs from January 6, 2014 until April 18, 2014. • The transfer cut-off date is March 28, 2014. • All documentation forms must be given to the testing coordinator by 7:00pm CST on April 18, 2014. • The Student Evaluation tab in the Assessment Management System will be available for District Testing Coordinators, Campus Testing Coordinators, and teachers as a “View Only” status from May 19, 2014 until June 27, 2014. • Districts will receive the STAAR Alternate Standard and Operational Reports for Grades 3-8 on May 21, 2014. • Districts will receive STAAR Alternate Standard and Operational Reports for EOC on June 6, 2014. There will be no STAAR Alternate survey, Interrater Study, or Audit this year.

12. Participation Requirements and ARD Committee Process Changes for 2015

13. Participation Requirements • The Participation Requirement documents have been updated to reflect the requirements for participating in the redesigned assessment in 2015. • The requirements are basically the same since participation in an alternate assessment is still based on No Child Left Behind and IDEA regulations. • Participation Requirement 5 was removed to accommodate the changes in the assessment from a performance task model to a standardized item-based assessment.

14. One person from the ARD committee will sign the front page of the document and be responsible for making sure that all sections have been discussed. • The justification section does not need to have page numbers from the IEP, but evidence must be provided for all “Yes” entries.

15. ARD Committee Process Changes • The ARD committee will continue to determine if a student meets all four of the participation requirements before recommending STAAR Alternate for Spring of 2015. • A student must have a cognitive disability, determined by an assessment specialist, and be instructed on an alternate curriculum based on prerequisite skills linked to the general education curriculum. • Students who receive special education with an eligibility code of learning disabled are still not eligible for STAAR Alternate even though STAAR Modified is no longer available.

16. ARD Committee Process Changes • ARD committees will continue to go over the assurances required for decisions involving alternate assessments. • ARD committees will determine which assessments will be administered based on the student’s enrolled grade or high school course. • The ARD committee will not need to determine complexity levels because the levels are not part of the test design for the new assessment. • Accommodations for instruction still need to be determined and used as a basis for what is needed for access to the assessment. • Accommodation policies for what is allowable for the new item-based assessment will be determined after data from the pilot test is reviewed.

17. Each assurance must be discussed by the ARD committee and initialed by the person who signed the first page. • The document needs to be part of the IEP if the decision to administer STAAR Alternate is determined. • Dynamic fields have been added so that the form can be filled out locally on a computer.

18. Reporting for the 2014 Testing Results

19. Confidential Student Reports

20. Growth Measure • Raw scores are grouped into stages in a similar method to that used for TAKS−Alt. • The first stage spans more scores since fewer students receive a score lower than 20. • The last stage reflects the scores for students who fall in the Accomplished category.

21. Growth Measure • The current year’s stage is compared to the prior year’s stage. • The chart shows the result of the stage comparisons.

22. STAAR Progress Measure Resources • The Growth Measure described is unique to STAAR Alternate due to the different format of the assessment from the other state assessments. • More detailed information about the STAAR Alternate Growth Measure is available on TEA’s STAAR Resources page • Questions and Answers (Questions 13-15) • Calculating Progress Measure • Implementation Schedule (Same as that for STAAR) TEA Website > STAAR > STAAR Resources > STAAR Progress Measure Section

23. Parent Training Materials Parent Materials will be updated to explain the growth measure that will be added to the CSR this year. Grades 3-8 Parent Brochure for Grades 3-8 Available in English and Spanish PowerPoint available in English and Spanish EOC

24. Spring Postings

25. New Postings for spring • Participation Requirements Documents (January) • Sample CSR (March) • Parent Brochures (March) • Parent Training PowerPoint (March) • Essence Statement Documents (March)

26. 2015 Essence Statements • The essence statement documents will continue to be available for IEP planning. • These documents along with the Curriculum Framework documents will assist teachers when planning instruction for the assessment. • Ten essence statements per subject will be used to create an assessment.

27. Updates on the Assessment Redesign Development SPRING 2015

28. STAAR Alternate 2015 Development • TEA and Pearson conducted a Cognitive Lab in October involving 13 districts and 45 students of varying abilities and disabilities. • TEA and Pearson used the information learned during the labs to design test items that are currently being assessed during a December-January Pilot Study. • One hundred and forty-one districts across the state are participating in the Pilot Study. • Between 300-600 students will be assessed for each of the following subjects: • Grades 4 and 7 Reading • Grade 7 Writing • Grades 4 and 7 Math • Grade 5 Science • English I • Algebra I • US History

29. STAAR Alternate 2015 Development • Although a standardized item-based assessment covering 6 essence statements per subject was designed for the Pilot, the design of the assessment will not be finalized until results from the Pilot Study can be evaluated. • Teachers participating in the pilot are asked to complete the survey providing TEA with valuable information about the assessment. • The assessment may look very different from the one that is being piloted. • Districts participating in the pilot are asked to return all secure test items and shred the pilot manual. • More details about the assessment will be available in fall of 2014.

30. Questions?? staaralt@tea.state.tx.us 512-463-9536