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

Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities services/48/ 2

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

4 NCSC State Partners

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) NCSC Project Goals 5

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. 6

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. 7 College and Career Readiness

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) Initial Steps 8

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. Curriculum and Instruction 9

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

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

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, and South Carolina teachers will have the opportunity to review items and tasks throughout the development process. Summative Assessment 12

NCSC website 13

Suzanne Swaffield Office of Assessment 14