Testing Accommodations for Students with Disabilities Educator Leader Cadres February 2013 Tamara Reavis, Senior Adviser

1. Testing Accommodations for Students with Disabilities Educator Leader Cadres February 2013 Tamara Reavis, Senior Adviser PARCC Assessment Accessibility & Equity

2. Today’s Charge Objectives: • Review and understand research and best practices currently in place in PARCC states • Understand the timeline for public comment on draft PARCC accommodations policies • Give feedback on the draft policy recommendation • Discuss current policies and implementation strategies

3. K-12 and Postsecondary Roles in PARCC K-12 Educators & Education Leaders • Educators will be involved throughout the development of the PARCC assessments and related instructional and reporting tools to help ensure the system provides the information and resources educators most need Postsecondary Faculty & Leaders • Nearly 750 institutions and systems covering hundreds of campuses across PARCC states have committed to help develop the high school assessments and set the college-ready cut score that will indicate a student is ready for credit-bearing courses

4. The PARCC Goals • Create high-quality assessments • Build a pathway to college and career readiness for all students • Support educators in the classroom • Develop 21st century, technology-based assessments • Advance accountability at all levels • Build an assessment that is sustainable and affordable

5. Create High Quality Assessments Priority Purposes of PARCC Assessments: • Determine whether students are college- and career-readyor on track • Assess the full range of the Common Core Standards, including standards that are difficult to measure • Measure the full range of student performance, including the performance of high and low performing students • Provide data during the academic year to inform instruction, interventions and professional development • Provide data for accountability, including measures of growth • Incorporate innovative approaches throughout the system

6. Coherent System Aligned to College and Career Readiness Summative Assessments 0 PARCC Assessment System Diagnostic & Informative Assessments Implementation & Transition Support Aligned Instructional Resources

7. Build a Pathway to College and Career Readiness for All Students K-2 formative assessment being developed, aligned to the PARCC system Timely student achievement data showing students, parents and educators whether ALL students are on-track to college and career readiness College readiness score to identify who is ready for college-level coursework • Targeted interventions & supports: • 12th-grade bridge courses • PD for educators SUCCESS IN FIRST-YEAR, CREDIT-BEARING, POSTSECONDARY COURSEWORK ONGOING STUDENT SUPPORTS/INTERVENTIONS

8. Assessment DesignEnglish Language Arts/Literacy and Mathematics, Grades 3-11 2 Optional Assessments/Flexible Administration • End-of-Year • Assessment • Innovative, computer-based items • Required • Mid-Year Assessment • Performance-based • Emphasis on hard-to-measure standards • Potentially summative • Performance-Based • Assessment (PBA) • Extended tasks • Applications of concepts and skills • Required • Diagnostic Assessment • Early indicator of student knowledge and skills to inform instruction, supports, and PD • Non-summative • Speaking And Listening Assessment • Locally scored • Non-summative, required

9. Access and Equity

10. Accessibility All students will have equitable opportunities to access and respond to PARCC assessment items and tasks.

11. Strategies for Increasing Student Access • Provide item developers with clearguidelinesfor writing items that are free of bias, are sensitive to diverse cultures, are stated clearly, and use consistent formats • Require item developers to use principals of Universal Design to allow participation of the widest possible range of students, and increase the likelihood that test questions measure only what they are intended to measure • Conduct bias and sensitivity reviews and statistical procedures that are designed to detect bias as part of the item development/field testing process • Develop common test accommodation and participation policies for Students with Disabilities (SWD) and English Language Learners (ELL) • Use technologyto provide and increase access to testing accommodations • Conduct researchto determine factors that promote or hinder accessibility

12. Timeline for Implementing Access Strategies

13. Committees on Accessibility • Operational Working Group: State representatives responsible for the day-to-day aspects of work • Technical Working Group: National experts who advise on issues of accessibility, accommodations, and fairness. There are three sub-groups: (1) students with disabilities; (2) English learners; (3) equity

14. 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

15. Accessibility, Accommodations, & Fairness Operational Working Group • The AAF Operational Working Group members represent the following states: • Arizona • Colorado* • Florida • Illinois • Indiana • Louisiana • Maryland* • Massachusetts • New Jersey • New Mexico • New York • Ohio • Oklahoma • Rhode Island • Tennessee * Co-chairs of the AAF OWG

16. AAF Students with Disabilities Sub-TWG *Chair of the AAF TWG and liaison to the AAF OWG

17. AAF English Language Learner Sub-TWG *Chair of the AAF TWG and liaison to the AAF OWG

18. AAF Equity Sub-TWG *Chair of the AAF TWG and liaison to the AAF OWG

19. Accessibility as a part of the development process • Accessibility guidelines • Design review and feedback • Test blueprint development • Technology development and selection • Passage and media review committee involvement • Item review & 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 • Cognitive labs & item development research

20. Embedded Supports Being Discussed • Screen readers/ text-to-speech/speech-to-text software • Highlighting • Enlargement of text/graphics • Customized colors • Graphic organizers or representations • Customized dictionary or other home language supports/tools • Embedded/pop-up glossary • Reducing visual distractions surrounding written text • Captions for audio • Descriptive audio for students with visual impairments • Option response: adapted keyboards, StickyKeys, MouseKeys, FilterKeys • Braille (tactile/refreshable) • Signing supports (ASL) • Assistive technology

21. Designing Accessible Assessments: Key PARCC Deliverables INCREASING EQUITY AND ACCESSIBILITY FOR ALL STUDENTS

22. Developing a Common PARCC Accommodations Manual

23. PARCC has committed to developing a common PARCC Accommodations Manual by spring 2013.

24. What is an Accommodation? • A testing accommodation is a change in how a test is presented or how the test taker responds, which may include changes in the presentation format, response format, test setting, timing, or scheduling. • This term generally refers to changes that do not significantly alter what the test measures. • It results from a student need; it is not intended to give the student an unfair advantage.

25. Why Must PARCC Have Common Assessment Accommodation Policies? • One of the primary objectives of PARCC is to report comparable results across all states in the Consortium • In order to achieve comparability in results, students must have comparable testing experiences, therefore, accommodation policies for SWDs and ELLs, among other factors, must be commonly defined and implemented across PARCC states.

26. Accommodations Comparability Issue • While PARCC states currently allow for the provision of a range of accommodations that are common among them, there are a few that are not commonly allowed • Reading access accommodations • Writing response accommodations • Braille and signing support accommodations • Calculator use accommodations • Translations

27. Why Release Select Draft Policies Now? • Teachers need to know which accommodations will be offered • Public feedback is essential to state-led policy development • States need to know if PARCC accommodations policy decisions will impact current state statue / regulation / policy • Accommodations information is necessary for field testing (& item tryouts)

28. Reading Access Accommodation Policy

29. Reading Access • Providing reading access accommodations, specifically for reading aloud the passages, items, and response options on the ELA/literacy summative assessments for SWD who meet eligibility criteria • The reading access accommodation may be delivered through human read-aloud, recorded voice presented via an audio file, and other text-to-speech technologies.

30. Reading Access Two populations: • Student with a specific disability that severely limits or prevents him/her from accessing printed text even after varied and repeated attempts to teach the student to do so. The student must be a virtualnon-reader; OR • Student with visual impairments who has not yet learned braille; Student must also: • Receive ongoing, research-based interventions to access printed text or learn braille, as deemed appropriate by the IEP team AND • Has access to written text in instruction only through the use of reading access accommodations, outside time spent in direct reading or braille instruction AND • The accommodation is listed in an approved IEP with the disability documented by objective, measurable data points and evaluation summaries from locally-administered, research-based diagnostic assessments

31. Calculator Accommodation Policy

32. Calculator • Provide calculator accommodationson the non-calculator test sessions of the mathematics summative assessments for SWD who meet the eligibility criteria

33. Calculator Population: • Student has a specific disability that severely limits or prevents him/her from calculating, even after varied and repeated attempts to teach the student to do so. The student must be unable to calculate single-digit numbers (i.e., 0-9) without a calculation device, using the four basic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division; Student must also: • Receive ongoing, research-based intervention strategies in learning to calculate, as deemed appropriate by the IEP team AND • Has access to mathematical calculation in instruction only through the use of a calculation device, outside time spent in direct instruction on calculation AND • The accommodation is listed in an approved IEP with the disability documented by objective, measurable data points and evaluation summaries from locally-administered, research-based diagnostic assessments

34. Scoring & Reporting • PARCC states will monitor the number and percentage of students using these accommodations at the school, district, and state level • Summative assessment scores for students who receive this accommodation will be aggregated with the scores of all students and those of relevant subgroups • Scores will be included for accountability purposes • Confidentialparent/guardian reports, non-public rosters of school- and district-level results, and other non-public reports will include notationsin cases where these accommodations were provided. District and school reports available to the public will not include the notations in cases where these accommodations were used

35. Writing Access Accommodation Policy

36. Writing Access Policy • Scribe • Word prediction

37. Scribe Definition • A scribe is a human or device that records verbatim what a student dictates • Human scribe; recording device, augmentative communications device; speech to text software, communication interpretation/transliteration, or by gesturing pointing or eye-gazing Who Requires the Accommodation? • Student with a physical disability that impedes motor process for writing OR • Student with a specific disability that significantly impacts the area of written expression

38. Word Prediction • Word prediction is recommended to be used as an accommodationfor eligible students • Proposed Definition:Word prediction software provides a student with a selection of word options based on spelling or frequent/recent use by the student, given partial input of words (i.e., letter characters) • Proposed Eligibility Criteria:Students who have difficulty producing text due to the speed with which they are able to enter keystrokes AND/OR Students who have difficulty with language recall

39. We Want Your Feedback! • Where Do I Find the Information? • http://parcconline.org/open-policies-public-comment • What Should I Read? • PARCC Draft Writing Access Accommodations Public Comment Document • How Do I Provide Feedback? • Fill out the surveyonline. • When Is Feedback Due? • February 20, 2013

40. Timeline for AdoptingCommon Accommodations Policies

41. Public Comment on Reading Access & Calculator Policies

42. Draft Policies for Public Comment • Provide reading access accommodations, specifically for reading aloud the passages, items, and response options on the ELA/literacy summative assessments for SWD who meet eligibility criteria • Provide calculator accommodationson the non-calculator test sessions of the mathematics summative assessments for SWD who meet the eligibility criteria

43. Public Comment Process • Policies were released for public comment on Wednesday, January 16, 2013 • National Stakeholder Meeting held on Friday, January 18, 2013 at Achieve(Approximately 40 participants) • States engage stakeholders and solicit public comment • Public comment due Monday, February 4, 2013

44. Preliminary Feedback • 2,615 responses have been recorded. • All Governing Board states have submitted surveys • 48 out of 50 states, plus the District of Columbia responded • Role of Respondents: • 18% of respondents – K-12 Instructors • 37% of respondents – Special Educators • 12% of respondents - Parents • 22% of respondents – Other

45. Tamara Reavis treavis@achieve.org February 2013 www.PARCConline.org The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers