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Other Grants for Enhanced Assessment Instruments

New Hampshire Enhanced Assessment Instruments (2004-2006)

This project addresses the issue of technical criteria for alternate assessments, beginning with an exploration of “Knowing what students with significant cognitive disabilities know.” Jim Pellegrino, from the National Research Council’s Committee on the Foundations of Assessments, is facilitating discussions regarding the assessment triangle of cognition, observation, and interpretation and its influence on validity. What does a valid assessment for students with significant cognitive disabilities look like?

A nationally renowned panel of experts in measurement, assessment, academic content, policy, and special education considers this question and provides recommendations to states that need to demonstrate the technical quality of their alternate assessments. Their recommendations will result in a technical report prototype, which will be tried in four Measured Progress client states: New Hampshire, Colorado, Massachusetts, and New Mexico. Each of these states has a different model of alternate assessment, and it is anticipated that the content of a technical report will be refined, as the criteria are applied and states examine the evidence they have. 

Other partners in this project include the National Center on Educational Outcomes, the National Alternate Assessment Center, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment.

Utah Enhanced Assessment Grant (2003-2005)

Starting in March of 2003, the Mountain West Assessment Consortium developed an English language proficiency assessment to improve the instruction and assessment currently provided for English language learners. The Mountain West Assessment Consortium is a group of states in the mountain west region of the United States which includes Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming. Measured Progress was a partner in this consortium, and the state of Michigan joined as an associate member.

West Virginia Enhanced Assessment Instruments (2004-2006)

An Enhanced Assessment project was awarded to West Virginia, which will use as advisors the Council of Chief State School Officers’ State Collaborative on Assessment and Student Standards (SCASS) committee and Assessing Special Education Students (ASES), to which Measured Progress sends representatives. Project D.A.A.T.A. (Developing Alternate Assessment Technical Adequacy), is designed to support state efforts to prepare for and respond to the NCLB peer reviews.

The project focuses directly on alternate assessments as a part of state comprehensive assessment systems, including accommodations and modifications. At each ASES SCASS meeting from January 2005 to May 2006, Gerald Tindal and Patricia Almond from the University of Oregon, Behavioral Research and Teaching will facilitate discussions on one topic per meeting, addressing content validity, generalizability, reliability, criterion and predictive validity, and consequential validity.

The final products will include a handbook for states, exemplary instruments, and examples of reporting systems. These materials are to be disseminated through the DAATA Web site and via presentations by the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE), the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO), and the Regional Resource Centers (RRCs) at the annual Large-Scale Assessment Conference, and through the CCSSO publication process, so states have access to all DAATA products.