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New Jersey APA

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Title: New Jersey APA


1
New Jersey APA
  • Parent Workshop
  • Presented by
  • Tracey I. Maccia
  • Interim Director of Special Services
  • WALL TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS

2
NCLB
  • The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB)
    requires that all students, including those with
    disabilities, participate in the state assessment
    program. NCLB also requires that the measurement
    of progress toward meeting state standards
    include assessment results for all students.

3
Alternate Proficiency Assessment
  • Fulfills state requirements
  • Based on Core Curriculum Content Standards (CCCS)
  • Content Areas include Language Arts Literacy,
    Mathematics, and Science
  • In this manner all students in New Jersey are
    moving toward the same general standards with
    whatever modifications or supports they need.

4
Assessment and Accountability
  • Ensures appropriate allocation of resources and
    learning opportunities
  • Designed for a small percentage of total school
    population for whom traditional assessments, even
    with accommodations would be inappropriate
    measures of their progress

5
NJ Alternate Proficiency Assessment
  • Represents a cohesive approach
  • Curriculum, instruction, and assessment work
    together
  • Builds a comprehensive educational programs
  • Curriculum drives instruction and assessment
  • Assessment and instruction inform the curriculum

6
Linkage of Assessment
7
Todays Agenda
  • APA What is it and who participates?
  • Grades and Subjects Assessed
  • Test Design Changes
  • Instruction of CPI Links and Evidence
    Documentation
  • APA Test Design Details
  • Scoring Rubric Dimensions
  • Sample Entries
  • General Information and Questions

8
What is the APA?
  • An alternate assessment that measures achievement
    of New Jerseys Core Curriculum Content
    Standards (CCCS) specifically designed for
    students with the most significant cognitive
    disabilities.
  • A portfolio of student work that demonstrates a
    students performance of knowledge and skills
    that are LINKED to grade level knowledge and
    skills.

9
What is the Purpose of the APA?
  • To measure performance of students with the most
    significant cognitive disabilities on the CCCS
    the knowledge and skills that ALL New Jersey
    students are learning
  • To ensure that ALL New Jersey students are
    included in the accountability system that is
    required by the No Child Left Behind Act

10
Which Students Participate in the APA?
  • Students with the most significant disabilities
    whose cognitive impairments may prevent them from
    attaining grade-level achievement standards even
    with the very best instruction
  • Decisions about who participates in the APA are
    not based on
  • Students disability category
  • Students educational placement
  • Which assessment the student is most likely to
    score highest

11
What Grades and Subjects Are Assessed?
  • Students in grades 3 8 and grade 11 must be
    assessed in language arts literacy and
    mathematics.
  • Students in grades 4 and 8 must also be assessed
    in science.
  • Students in high school must be assessed in
    science the year they receive instruction in
    biology (grade 9, 10, or 11).
  • High school students may have an APA submitted
    for science in a different year than the year the
    APA is submitted for language arts and math.

12
Changes for 2008-2009
  • CPI Links, which are skill statements that link
    to grade-level CPIs, were written and reviewed by
    content staff and NJ educators.
  • This is the list of eligible skills for use in
    the APA, and replaces the need for teachers to
    write targeted skills.
  • The CPI Links were sent to districts in August
    2008.
  • These CPI Links must be used when assessing a
    standard, strand, and CPI for the APA.
  • Providing specific skills that link to the CPIs,
    which replace teacher designed targeted skills,
    was a recommendation from APA educators.

13
CPI Link
Matched Link
13
14
Providing Grade Level Instruction
  • There are multiple ways to provide instruction
  • Choose modifications and supports based on the
    students mode of communication, areas of
    strengths and needs
  • CPI Links were built based on the idea that any
    student can participate in grade-level linked
    instruction, and make progress acquiring the
    skills, when given appropriate supports and
    modifications

15
Keep In Mind
  • The portfolio assessment contains a collection of
    graded student work produced during everyday
    classroom instruction.
  • Classroom instruction that reflects best practice
    and adheres to federal and state guidelines will
    generate appropriate evidence for the portfolio.
  • APA is based on 2004 New Jersey Core Curriculum
    Content Standards (CCCS) for language arts
    literacy and science, and 2008 CCCS for
    mathematics.

16
APA
  • What will this portfolio look like?
  • What are the required components?

17
What is the Format of the APA?
  • Portfolio Paper based, submit in a
  • 3-ring binder
  • Content Areas Mathematics, Language Arts
    Literacy, and Science
  • Science for grades 4, 8, and high school (grade
    9, 10, or 11).
  • Entries relate to content standards, grade-level
    CPIs, and CPI Links
  • Evidence documents educational instruction and
    student performance of skills

18
When is Evidence Collected?
  • Activity Collection Period
  • Initial Activity September - November 21, 2008
  • Final Activity December 15, 2008 - February 20,
    2009
  • Dates on the evidence must include month, day,
    and year
  • Instruction and assessment will match each CPI
    Link and content area.
  • All students will need to be assessed on an
    initial activity within the correct time frame
    above, even if the majority of instruction will
    not occur until the winter.

19
Test Design
  • NOTE NO entry should contain more than four
    pieces of evidence.
  • This graphic represents a student who is being
    assessed in all three subjects with the APA. Not
    all portfolios will include all three subjects.

20
Student Work Samples May Be
  • A printout of computer screens of students
    response after hitting a switch
  • An essay written using picture symbols scored
    using a rubric
  • A worksheet completed by the student
  • Drawings to extend patterns
  • A printout of a sentences written using a picture
    writer (i.e. Writing with Symbols, PictWriter,
    etc.)
  • Completed job application using name, address and
    other stamps
  • A graph made from ordered pairs

21
Developing an entry
  • Step 1 Select a CPI and one related CPI Link to
    be assessed.
  • Step 2. Assess the student to get an initial
    piece of evidence (accuracy must be 39 or lower)
    to collect for APA entry.
  • Step 3 Identify additional age- and
    grade-appropriate activities for use during
    instruction. Provide instruction on the CPI
    Link.

22
Developing an Entry
  • Step 4 Determine when evidence can be collected
    to document the final instructional assessment of
    the CPI Link for APA purposes.
  • Step 5 Based on students accuracy score and
    level of prompt information on the final
    activity, determine if additional instruction and
    collection of evidence needs to occur for the
    entry.
  • Step 6 Review evidence to ensure that all
    required information related to test design
    requirements are included.

23
Appropriate Supports
  • How will the student access instruction?
  • How will the student interact with instruction
    and materials?
  • How will the student demonstrate knowledge,
    skills, and concepts acquired?

24
Examples of Supports for Reading
  • Student reads by
  • Following along with the text
  • Following along with picture symbols
  • Following along with objects
  • Following along with tactile cues
  • Adapted text
  • Shortened text
  • Chunked information
  • Large font
  • Color coding to emphasize important information

25
Examples of Supports for Mathematics
  • Use of manipulatives or pictures
  • Use of calculator
  • Task analyzed skills
  • Reduced number of problems
  • Number line
  • Stamps to write numbers
  • Word problems read to student
  • Enlarged text
  • Chunked problems

26
Prompting during Assessment
2008-2009 NJ APA Teacher Training
26
27
APA Scoring Rubric
  • Scoring Dimensions
  • Complexity Link
  • Match, near, or far link selection
  • Performance
  • Percentage of accuracy when performing skill
  • Independence
  • Percentage of time skill was performed
    independently

28
Complexity Link Dimension
Does the evidence assess the CPI Link documented
on the entry cover sheet? Does the evidence
reflect performance of the entire CPI Link that
was selected? If the entire skill is not assessed
in the evidence the score assigned is one. e.g.,
link required compare and contrast, evidence
includes only skill of compare If a grade-level
CPI Link, based on the assigned grade of the
student, is not used, the score assigned for all
dimensions is zero.
29
Examples
  • Language Arts Literacy EntryWritingFall
    2008Henry

30
Pg. 11
31
Henry Jones 10/25/08
31
32
32
33
Henry Jones February 3, 2009
100 accurate 100 independent
I
1
I
2
I
3
I
4
I
5
Pg. 14
34
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35
Henry Jones February 3, 2009
16
35
36
(No Transcript)
37
Professional and Ethical Responsibility
  • It is the responsibility of all contributors to a
    students portfolio to ensure that any and all
    documentation reflect authentic, accurate, and
    truthful information.
  • Any student portfolio that is found to contain
    inauthentic documentation may result in
    professional consequences for staff and financial
    consequences for the school or district.

38
In District Support
  • Administrators must complete the paperwork which
    registers your APA students. This will generate
    the delivery of binders and return materials.
  • Administrators should periodically review the
    collection of evidence in the portfolio.
  • Administrators must collect all necessary data
    that is required on the APA Scan Sheet.
  • Administrators must collect the portfolios from
    teachers on or before February 20, 2009.
  • Administrators must review the portfolios for
    potential evidence of security breach materials.
  • Administrators must package the materials, and
    ship them back to the contractor no later than
    March 6, 2009.

39
Accountability
  • APA test results will be combined with the
    results from the general assessment for
    accountability purposes for state and federal
    reports.
  • For accountability purposes, the APA is both a
    student assessment, and a school/district program
    assessment.

40
Federal Results 1 Cap
  • The NCLB 1 cap limits the number of APA
    proficient and advanced proficient results that
    can be used in the AYP calculation. It does not
    limit the number of students who may participate
    in the APA.
  • Districts legitimately testing more than 1 of
    the total grade population with the APA should
    apply for a waiver from the Office of Special
    Education Programs. The waiver, if approved,
    allows proficient and advanced proficient results
    greater than 1 to be used in the AYP
    calculations.

41
Proficiency Levels
  • Due to the test design changes for 2008 - 2009, a
    standard setting panel will be convened to set
    new cut scores for proficiency levels.
  • Standard setting will occur for every content
    area and grade level.
  • Therefore, the 2007 2008 cut scores that
    defined the proficiency levels were applicable
    for last year only.

42
Learner Characteristics Inventory
  • The National Alternate Assessment Center (NAAC)
    has validated a nine-item inventory that
    describes a student according to their
  • expressive communication,
  • receptive communication,
  • hearing,
  • vision,
  • motor,
  • engagement,
  • attendance,
  • reading skills, and
  • mathematics skills.

43
Accessing Instruction
  • There are multiple ways to access instruction
  • Choose modifications and supports based on the
    students mode of communication, areas of
    strengths and needs
  • CPI Links and Sample Activities were built based
    on the idea that any student could access
    instruction when given appropriate supports and
    modifications

44
Learner Characteristics
  • Symbolic communicators
  • Use symbolic language to communicate
  • Emerging symbolic communicators
  • Use intentional communication, but not at a
    symbolic level
  • Pre-symbolic communicators
  • Do not have a recognizable or consistent form of
    communication

45
Symbolic Communicators
  • Characteristics
  • Expressive Communication
  • Consistently uses verbal or written words, sign,
    Braille, or language-based augmentative systems
    to request, initiate, and respond to questions,
    describe things or events, and express refusal.
  • Receptive Communication
  • Understands and independently follows simple
    directions presented verbally, signed, or in
    print without accompanying gestures.
  • Follows print directions when given supportive
    gesture, picture, object cues, or
    demonstrations/models.

46
Emerging Symbolic Communicators
  • Characteristics
  • Expressive Communication
  • Uses (or inconsistently uses) understandable
    communication through such modes as gestures,
    pictures, objects/textures, points, etc., to
    clearly express a variety of intentions.
  • Receptive Communication
  • Inconsistently follows simple verbal or signed
    directions when accompanied by gestures,
    pictures, object cues and minimal physical
    assistance.
  • Alerts to sensory input from another person
    (auditory, visual, touch, movement), but requires
    physical assistance to follow simple directions.

47
Pre-Symbolic Communicators
  • Characteristics
  • Expressive Communication
  • Communicates primarily through cries, facial
    expressions, change in muscle tone, etc., but no
    clear use of objects/textures, gestures,
    pictures, signs, etc., to communicate.
  • Receptive Communication
  • Uncertain response to sensory stimuli (e.g.,
    sound/voice, sight/gesture, touch, movement,
    smell).

48
Large Group Instructional Planning
  • Review the CPI Links and collaborate with other
    participants on the development of instructional
    activities.
  • Prepare planning forms and discuss supports
    needed during instruction related to CPI Links.
  • Request general assistance from training
    assistants.

49
Small Group Extra Guidance
  • Discuss planning process when producing lesson
    plans for CPI linked instruction for students who
    are pre-symbolic.
  • Think about a student and the grade level CPIs
    and/or curriculum
  • Consider students current mode of communication
  • Consider students support needs
  • Brainstorm communication and support needs to
    allow the student to
  • Receive instruction
  • Demonstrate performance
  • Engage in the activities
  • Review the difference between providing supports
    and providing prompts
  • Review of evidence production including scribing
    student work and documentation of activities

50
Thank You
  • Thank you for taking time to attend this session.

50
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