Alternate Assessment on Alternate Achievement Standards

1. Alternate Assessment on Alternate Achievement Standards Aligned to Common Core State Standards

2. Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities http://ed.sc.gov/agency/programs-services/48/

3. National Center and State Collaborative (NCSC)Alternate Assessment Consortium

4. NCSC State Partners

5. NCSC Project Goals To develop a comprehensive system of technically defensible summative assessments supported by • Curriculum and instruction • Professional development To ensure that students with significant cognitive disabilities achieve increasingly higher academic outcomes and leave high school ready for post-secondary options (college and career ready)

6. NCSC Summative Assessments • Coordinate with the general assessment used by each member state (in SC this is SBAC); • Utilize alternate academic achievement standards strongly linked with the CCSS; • Yield scores that can be used for accountability purpose(s); and • Utilize a technology-based management system for assessment administration, documentation, and reporting.

7. College and Career Readiness • Communicative Competence; • Full access to the academic content for life long learning; • Development of appropriate social skills; • Development of independent work behaviors; and • Development of support access skills.

8. Initial Steps To determine the needs of students and teachers and to inform curriculum, instruction, and test development the project conducted • Focus Group of SC teachers • Survey of SC teachers • Learner Characteristics Inventory (LCI)

9. Curriculum and Instruction Aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) through core content connectors (CCCs) and Learning Progression Frameworks (LPFs) Curricular materials and instructional modules will be provided to SC teachers as they are developed to review and provide feedback.

10. Professional Development Community of Practice • South Carolina teachers who have committed to being involved in the rollout out of the Common Core State Standards in the state by • assisting with the review of curriculum and instructional materials and assessment tasks, and • participating in webinars and face-to-face training sessions

11. Professional Development (cont) Communication training designed to equip all students with a communication system before entering school • A seminar was conducted during the summer of 2012 to build teams in partner states to implement communication training. • A plan is being developed by the Office of Exceptional Children for implementation of communication training in South Carolina.

12. Summative Assessment • Performance or selected response tasks similar to SC-Alt • Computer-based and computer-adaptive • Operational Field Test of ELA and mathematics scheduled for Spring 2015 As a state partner we will have input on design, andSouth Carolina teachers will have the opportunity to review items and tasks throughout the development process.

13. NCSC website www.ncscpartners.org

14. Suzanne SwaffieldOffice of Assessment sswaffie@ed.sc.gov