MIDAS Teacher Module #1

Participants will be able to:

• Apply the Instruction and Assessment Cycle to integrate academic achievement assessments to enhance student learning.
• Implement universal design principles to give students access to grade-level content and assessments.

Collaboration for Assessment and Learning

General and special education teachers have critical roles in providing instruction in inclusive classrooms for students with disabilities. Students who take the state alternate assessment based on alternate academic achievement standards (AA-AAAS) are taught the same grade-level academic content standards as students who take the general assessment. Still, they learn with different achievement expectations that are less complex. When Individualized Education Program (IEP) teams decide that these students should move to the general assessment, they are expected to meet the same achievement expectations as all other students taking the general assessment.

Collaboration between the general and special education teachers is key to supporting these students in meeting these expectations throughout the academic year. Each teacher has expertise in their respective discipline.

• General education teachers provide instruction on grade-level content.
• Special education teachers provide specially designed instruction (SDI). In other words, it is important to adapt the content, methodology, or delivery of instruction to address the unique needs of a student with a disability and ensure access to the general curriculum.

Both general and special education teachers benefit from using multiple assessment data points to monitor how well students are accessing the instruction and curriculum and making progress in grade-level content learning. They can then use the data to make instructional adjustments as needed.

This module introduces a framework for using multiple measures of academic achievement to guide instructional decisions and address learning barriers for students who have moved from the alternate to the general assessment. While the content applies to all students, this series is designed to support instruction for students who have moved from the state alternate to the state general assessment. The series focuses on classroom and school assessments that can inform instruction; it does not focus on state assessments.

Assessment and Student Growth

Let’s begin by considering how assessment often affects our lives and how we use the results. Regardless of a person’s professional role, most people undergo an annual job performance evaluation by their supervisor. For a teacher, whether in your preservice training program or as a licensed educator, being evaluated is a typical means of feedback about your performance. This may happen intermittently during the year or annually. Depending on your school’s process, multiple data sources, such as classroom observations, student work samples, lesson plans, and instructional materials, may be used to assess your performance. Having multiple data sources means that your assessment is not based on a single piece of data; this provides the opportunity for more robust feedback.

Similarly, as a teacher, you use multiple data sources to monitor and evaluate your students' learning and adjust instructional activities to enhance their access and learning. For all students, learning based on grade-level standards is not possible if the content is not accessible. However, accessing the content is insufficient by itself. Teachers must gather data to ensure that students are making progress in learning the content. No single data source can provide all the information needed to make well-informed decisions. Using multiple data sources offers a more accurate picture.

Students who participate in the alternate assessment should learn content based on the same grade-level standards as their peers who participate in the general assessment. However, they learn the content with less breadth, depth, and complexity. When students move to the general assessment, they are expected to learn content at the same level of rigor as their peers who participate in the general assessment. Some teachers may need more information, ideas, and even confidence about instructing these students to learn more rigorously.

Using data from multiple measures of academic achievement can inform instructional decision-making for all students, including students who moved from the alternate to the general assessment. Measures of academic achievement can include:

• Formative assessments and informal assessments are used to inform instruction, including quizzes, classroom activities, student observations, and exit tickets.
• Summative assessments measure students' learning at the end of a course or unit, including end-of-unit exams, projects, portfolios, essays, and presentations.
• Benchmark or interim assessments measure progress at intervals over a school year to monitor growth according to grade-level standards.

The Instruction and Assessment Cycle

The Instruction and Assessment Cycle provides a process for teachers to focus their instruction, collect and analyze benchmark and classroom data about what the student has learned and where gaps exist, and use these data to adjust instruction to improve student achievement. Data ensures that instructional decisions build on what students already know and can do while identifying gaps in knowledge and skills for targeted instruction. When data comes from multiple sources, with a continuous flow of assessment data in the classroom, the Instruction and Assessment Cycle framework supports how to organize these data to impact student learning.

The foundational principle is that all students must access varied, challenging curricula and instruction matched to and focused on grade-level standards. Integrating formative assessment practices with universal design (UD) frameworks provides the opportunity to meaningfully expand their usage for all learners in a class, including those who previously took the alternate assessment. It includes universal design for learning (UDL) and assessment (UDA). A primary goal of UD is to improve access for all students. Using UD to expand the usage of formative assessment practices meaningfully can lead to instruction and assessments that are more accessible and support the learning of all students.

The following video introduces the Instruction and Assessment Cycle and UD frameworks that general education and special education teachers can use to inform their instructional decisions for all students. While viewing this, consider all students in the general education classroom and any student who moved from the alternate to the general assessment. The concepts apply equally and translate into effective instructional practices for all students.

Consider how you can integrate multiple assessments into your instructional practices for all students, with a particular focus on any student who moved from taking the alternate to the state general assessment.

1. List the data sources, including benchmark and classroom assessments, you use to ensure student learning of grade-level content.
2. For each assessment, evaluate:
   1. What are the pros and cons of each assessment?
   2. Which are accessible to the student(s) who have moved from the alternate to the state general assessment?
   3. Which assessments are not accessible?
   4. How could they be made accessible so you can gather valid data?

Consider these questions about your current practice:

• Do your students who have moved from the alternate to the general assessment have access to grade-level content similar to their peers without disabilities?
• Are you using various valid and reliable data to identify students’ strengths and needs and to document learning?
• How do you collaborate with your colleagues to share the successes and challenges of using multiple assessment measures to increase access to grade-level content?
• What barriers currently exist in your learning environment that might prevent students from accessing grade-level content?
• How could Universal Design principles help you proactively address these barriers?

Share your reflections with a collaborative partner, focusing on specific strategies you could implement immediately to enhance access and learning for all students.

Here are additional resources to learn more about accessible lesson design:

Accessibility and Accommodations

• National Center on Educational Outcomes, several short videos on accessibility and accommodations
  • https://nceo.info/Resources?nceo_type=ici.umn.edu%2Fcontent%2Fproduct_types.json%23video&topic=11.118
• Design for every learner: Universal Design for Learning Modules
  • https://publications.ici.umn.edu/ties/universal-design-for-learning-modules/design-for-each-and-every-learner
• Think Inclusive Podcast: Busting Math Myths with UDL: Making Math Accessible for All (50 minutes)
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZnBEcwGTbk

Instruction

• Five More Minutes video: Dr. Baked Potato: How can we scaffold complexity? (7 minutes)
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j0oL1CNXAs
• Learn more about the differences and similarities between alternate academic achievement standards and content standards.
  • Standards-Based Instruction for Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities (TIES Center)
• Instructional practices for students with disabilities
  • Evidence-Based Practices for Students With Severe Disabilities
  • ACCESS! Teaching Writing Skills to Students with Intellectual Disability, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0040059915580032?download=true&journalCode=tcxa (8 pages, pdf)

Teaching a Class with Big Ability Differences:

• https://www.edutopia.org/article/teaching-class-big-ability-differences-todd-finley

Collaboration

• Teachers Working Together to Identify Students' Needs (NCEO V1-2)
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=n0H8uKJ3Ig0
• Collaborate with professionals to increase student success
  • https://highleveragepractices.org/collaboration/hlp-1
• TIES Center’s 5-15-45 Tool, which overviews a collaborative process for achieving these results
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZa3LKqpzL0