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Designing from the Ground Floor: Alternate Assessment on Alternate Achievement Standards

Summary

So we see that with each curriculum approach, some important learning has occurred that should guide access to the general curriculum for all students. Essentially, we need to keep the important concepts from each of the evolutionary periods:

• Developmentally appropriate practices that utilize age appropriate materials and activities while addressing students' current characteristics and emerging skills still play a part in the education of students with disabilities.
• Opportunities to learn functional skills remain a high priority for this population of students, but functional skills can, in reality, be taught most effectively within the context of natural routines using appropriate cues and consequences and there is functionality in academic skills.
• Self-determination (choice-making, goal setting) focused attention on teaching students to make choices about learning, participate in goal setting, and evaluate themselves. These skills appear to make a difference in their post school life.
• Continued efforts to refine our perception of curriculum for students with moderate, severe, and profound disabilities to include those skills, including academic, that make students more successful in current and future social, community, and work environments.

This "new" perception about curricula necessarily includes academic/cultural knowledge for functioning in a social situation, engaging in social conversations, increasing receptive understanding, and fostering individual interests. Our society places a high value on academic knowledge and skills, therefore, without attention to this aspect of learning, students with cognitive disabilities again face a future of lowered expectations and lower results.

As the keeper of memory, we must remember our history so that we understand our present condition and continue to improve results for students with disabilities. As Dr. Seymour Sarason (1965, p. 107) pointed out thirty-five years ago, "It could be argued with a good deal of persuasiveness that when one looks over the history of man the most distinguishing characteristic of his development is the degree to which man has underestimated the potentialities of men."

Notes

Team Reflection

1. What did we learn today that represented an "Aha Moment"?
2. What was most familiar to us?
3. How was our thinking challenged?
4. What are our next steps with this information?
5. Note Taking Guide for Curriculum Eras

References

Blatt, B., & Kaplan, F. (1974). Christmas in Purgatory: A photographic essay on mental retardation. Syracuse: Human Policy Press.

Browder, D.M., Wakeman, S., Spooner, F., Ahlgrim-Delzell, L., & Algozzine, B. (manuscript submitted for publication). Research on reading for students with significant cognitive disabilities. Exceptional Children.

Brown, L. (1982). An introduction to educational programs for severely handicapped students. In L. Brown, A. Ford, J. Nisbet, M. Sweet, B. Shiraga & L. Gruenewald (Eds.), Educational programs for severely handicapped students, Vol. XII. Madison, WI: MMSD.

Center for Applied Special Technology. (CAST). (2002). www.cast.org. Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, Pub. L. No. 103-382, 101-250. (1965).

Gersten, R., Fuchs, L. S., Compton, D., Coyne, M., Greenwood, C., & Innocenti, M. (2005). Quality indicators for group experimental and quasi-experimental research in special education. Exceptional Children, 71, 149-165.

Giangreco, M., Cloninger, C., Iverson, (1999). COACH: Choosing options and accommodations for children. Baltimore: Paul Brookes.

Grisham-Brown, J. & Kearns, J.F. (2001). Creating standards-based individualized education programs. In Kleinert, H. K., and Kearns, J.F. Alternate Assessments Measuring Outcomes and Supports. Baltimore: Paul Brookes.

Horner, R. H., Carr, E. G., Halle, J., McGee, G., Odom, S., & Wolery, M. (2005). The use of single-subject research to identify evidence-based practice in special education. Exceptional Children, 71, 165- 180.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Amendments of 1997, PL 105-117, 20 U.S.C. § 1400 et seq.

Joseph, L.M., & Seery, M.E. (2004). Where is the phonics. Remedial and Special Education, 25(2), 88-95.

Kleinert, H. L., & Kearns, J. F. (1999). A validation of the performance indicators and learner outcomes of Kentucky's alternate assessment for students with significant disabilities. The Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps, 24(2), 100- 110.

Kliewer, C. & Biklen, D. (2001). "School's not really a place for reading: A research synthesis of the literate lives of students with severe disabilities. Journal of the Association of Persons with Severe Handicaps, 26(1), 1-12.

Newmann, F., & Wehlage, G. (1995). Successful school restructuring: A report to the public and educators. Center on Organization and Restructuring of Schools.

No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Pub L. No 107-110, 115 Stat. 1425 (2002).

Rose, D. H., & Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for learning. Chapter 4. Retrieved April 8, 2005, from http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ideas/tes/chapter4_3.cfm

Wiggins, G. & Mc Tighe, J. (1998). Understanding by design. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Design (ACSD).

References and Annotated Bibliographies for Part III: Theory of Learning

Blatt, B., & Kaplan, F. (1974). Christmas in Purgatory: A photographic essay on mental retardation. Syracuse: Human Policy Press.

Browder, D.M., Wakeman, S., Spooner, F., Ahlgrim-Delzell, L., & Algozzine, B. (manuscript submitted for publication). Research on reading for students with significant cognitive disabilities. Exceptional Children.

Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST). (2002). www.cast.org.

Joseph, L.M., & Seery, M.E. (2004). Where is the phonics. Remedial and Special Education, 25(2), 88-95.

Kleinert, H. L., & Kearns, J. F. (1999). A validation of the performance indicators and learner outcomes of Kentucky's alternate assessment for students with significant disabilities. The Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps, 24(2), 100-110.

Kliewer, C. & Biklen, D. (2001). "School's not really a place for reading": A research synthesis of the literate lives of students with severe disabilities. Journal of the Association of Persons with Severe Handicaps, 26(1), 1-12.

Ref. Type: Journal

Notes: Journal Article

Title: Where is the phonics? A review of the literature on the use of phonetic analysis with students with mental retardation

Authors: Joseph, L.M., & Seery, M.E.

Pub. Date: 2004

Source: Remedial and Special Education

Vol, Issue: 25, 2

Publisher:

Page #: 88-94

Keywords: Phonics, Students with Mental Retardation

Abstract

Participants:

Test Design: This is a review of studies conducted over the past 12 years on the use of phonetic analysis strategies and/or phonetics instruction with students with mild or moderate mental retardation. Seven studies were found to consist of the use of phonetic analysis (making letter-sound correspondence). No studies were found that examined the use of phonetics instruction. The purpose of the review was to examine the existing literature in this area over the past 12 years.

Findings: All studies found that students with mental retardation can learn and use phonetic-analysis strategies and/or have the potential to benefit from phonetics instruction. Further research is necessary to draw substantial conclusions, particularly regarding the effectiveness of direct/explicit phonics instruction with children with mental retardation.

Ref. Type: Journal

Notes: Journal article

Title: A validation of the performance indicators and leaner outcomes of Kentucky's alternate assessment for students with significant disabilities.

Authors: Kleinert, H. L., & Kearns, J. F.

Pub. Date: 1999

Source: The Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps

Vol, Issue: 24, 2

Publisher:

Page #: 100-110

Keywords: validation, alternate assessment, cognitive disabilities

Abstract:

Participants: A total of 44 national authorities in best practices for students with moderate and severe cognitive disabilities participated in this study.

 Test Design: The purpose of this study was to conduct an expert validation of Kentucky's approach to alternate assessment for students with significant cognitive disabilities. Participants were asked to fill out a survey that asked questions about performance indicators and academic expectations for the state of Kentucky. All written comments included with the survey were typed and categorized into major themes.

Findings: Results indicated that in terms of the core of best practices embodied in the performance criteria for Kentucky's alternate assessment, there was a high degree of professional congruence. However participants also raised some concerns about the extent to which more limited learner outcomes have been identified for students with significant disabilities and whether the alternate assessment was sufficiently aligned to general curricular expectations for all students.

Ref. Type: Journal

Notes: Journal Article

Title: "School's not really a place for reading": A research synthesis of the literate lives of students with severe disabilities

Authors: Kliewer, C., & Biklen, D.

Pub. Date: 2001

Source: Journal of The Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps

Vol, Issue: 26, 1

Publisher:

Page #: 1-12

Keywords: severe disabilities, literacy, social relationships, intimacy

Abstract

Participants: The research presented in this article is from 6 in depth case studies as well as biographies and autobiographies of persons with severe disabilities. The 6 individuals ranged in age from 4-16 years and were all professionally defined as severely mentally retarded.

Test Design: Researchers conducted interviews and observations in inclusive and segregated classrooms, at work sites, in homes, and in the community. Observations were focused on the students' interactions, social relationships, use of printed language, and general literacy. Analysis of the observations and interviews was ongoing.

Findings: The research suggests that persons labeled as having severe intellectual disabilities demonstrate the ability to acquire knowledge of symbols and literacy when they are in the presence of people who support them, believe in their abilities, and with whom they share an intimate relationship with. Based on these findings, the researchers suggest that the ladder to literacy be reconstructed into a web of relationships, educators work towards a more local understanding of students with severe disabilities, and that we shed the use of labels altogether for these individuals.

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