Students with Disabilities

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Alternate Assessment Performance in the State of Rhode Island

Percent of Students at Each Performance Level on the Alternate Assessments

WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING AT

These bar charts show the results of the state’s Alternate Assessment in spring 2005. These assessments are designed to evaluate the progress and programs of the most severely challenged children with special educational needs. Other than Providence at the elementary-school level, no district has a large enough number of students taking the Alternate Assessment for results to be reported at the district level.

Most children with disabilities take the regular state tests, with varying degrees of accommodations, depending on the child’s Individual Education Program (IEP) or 504 Plan. About 1 of 200 children in the state has a severe or profound disability, and is therefore unable to participate in the standard testing process. These students take the Alternate Assessment, a series of portfolio entries. These items are based on the state’s content standards, as are the state’s regular assessments. They also have goals that are agreed upon by the student’s IEP and caregivers.

The portfolio might include such items as samples of student work, captioned pictures, scripted videotape, or data from the teacher. The teacher develops these portfolios over time, not during a scheduled testing period. Each portfolio is evaluated by two trained scorers, using 27 standards derived and adapted from the regular state tests and 3 more standards addressing life skills appropriate to the child with severe disabilities.

The results from the Alternate Assessment are included in the school, district, and state scores reported throughout Information Works!

WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR

You are hoping to see that all students who participated in the Alternate Assessment Program achieved the standard, and thereby met the proficiency goals set forth for them.

The Alternate Assessments provide information to the state, district, and school about the performance of students with severe special needs and their programs; these assessments give parents and caregivers standardized, clear measures of student progress.