1. FSAA – Datafolio 2016/2017 Administration Training
Module 2
Levels of Assistance
Hello, and welcome to the FSAA-Datafolio Administration Training Module 2: Levels of Assistance.

2. Purpose Levels of Assistance (LOA) Response Accommodations
Use of Levels of Assistance (LOA) in the FSAA – Datafolio
The purpose of this module is to provide you with an overview of the Levels of Assistance, discuss response accommodations, and describe how Levels of Assistance are used in the FSAA – Datafolio. 2

3. Levels of Assistance (LOA)
One unique feature of the FSAA-Datafolio is the use of Levels of Assistance to help assess student progress.

4. What is a Level of Assistance (LOA)?
Support provided by the teacher to help the student access the curriculum
What is a level of assistance, or LOA? It refers to the support required from the teacher to help the student engage in academic content. Level of assistance refers specifically to the amount of assistance the student needs to meaningfully respond to a question or item during administration of the FSAA-Datafolio. It is important to note that although this is a similar concept, an LOA is not the same as a response accommodation. 4

5. Why do we use Levels of Assistance (LOA)?
Reflect classroom practices and implementation of supports that are typically provided to the student to help him/her respond
Demonstrate progress at a more reflective rate of increase for population
Acknowledge the variety of teacher supports required for students to access the curriculum while providing a mechanism for demonstrating growth
Why do we use Levels of Assistance? Levels of Assistance reflect classroom practices. These are the supports that are typically provided to the student to help him or her respond to an activity or an item. As one of the goals of the FSAA – Datafolio is to blend with classroom activities, it makes sense to use the same supports for assessment as are used for instruction. What we have done for the purposes of the FSAA – Datafolio is to define six specific levels, arranged in a hierarchy, based on common classroom practices appropriate for this population of students.
Documenting the Levels of Assistance provided during activity choices also provides us with an important mechanism for demonstrating progress. Progress for this population of students will generally be at a slower, more incremental pace. Recording student progress as a function of either increased accuracy within a level of assistance or the need for a decreased amount of assistance by Collection Period #3 is a fair and appropriate measure. 5

6. Levels of Assistance Non-Engagement Physical Assistance
student actively refuses to engage in activity
Physical Assistance
hand over hand, teacher physically guides to correct response
Gestural Assistance
teacher gestures to correct response, student selects answer
Verbal Assistance
teacher tells student correct response, student selects answer
Modeling Assistance
teacher models how to arrive at a correct response, student applies and selects answer
Independent
No assistance required
There are a total of 6 levels of assistance for the 2016/17 FSAA-Datafolio administration.
Non-engagement can be considered as when the student actively refuses to engage in the activity, generally by refusing to accept physical assistance.
Physical assistance can be considered as hand-over-hand help, with the teacher physically guiding the student to a correct response.
Gestural Assistance involves the teacher gesturing to the correct response with the expectation that the student will select the answer that he or she has indicated.
Verbal assistance is when the teacher tells the student the correct response and the student selects this answer. Verbal assistance would include communication via sign language for students who primarily receive communication in this manner.
Modeling assistance requires the teacher to model how to arrive at a correct response using alternate materials, with the expectation that the student will follow the modeled procedure and arrive at a response using this methodology.
The Independent level of assistance is when the student does not require prompting from the teacher to respond to the activity.
It is important to note that the best practice for the 2016/17 FSAA-Datafolio is to select the Level of Assistance most typically used during classroom instruction for the specific content area or activity and use this as the Level of Assistance for all activities associated with the activity choice. This level of assistance would be offered immediately for the activity without waiting to see if the student would answer independently.
The Levels of Assistance used during the baseline collection period #1 will be used to set the Level of Assistance Goal for the Standard for the 2016/17 assessment year. The progress towards the LOA goal is what is measured by the FSAA-Datafolio assessment for each standard.
Additional information on the Levels of Assistance can be found on page 8 of the FSAA-Datafolio Teacher Resource Guide.
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7. Levels of Assistance (LOA) Formal Definitions
Non-Engagement (N) – Student requires assistance from the teacher to initiate, engage, or perform; however, the student actively refuses or is unable to accept teacher assistance
Example: The student resists the teacher’s physical assistance towards the correct answer.
Non-Example: The teacher physically moves the student’s hand toward the correct answer and the student allows it.
A more formal definition, examples and non-examples may be helpful in understanding the role of the Levels of Assistance. Again, this information can be found beginning on page 8 of the Teacher Resource Guide.
Non-engagement (N): The student requires assistance from the teacher to initiate, engage, or perform; however, the student actively refuses or is unable to accept teacher assistance. The most important part of this definition is the “actively refuses or is unable to accept.” We reserve Non-engagement to reflect non-compliance on the part of the student.
An example of this in the classroom would be the student resisting the teacher’s physical assistance towards a correct answer. What does this resistance look like? It could be pulling away. It could be verbally indicating a desire to not participate, using formal language or informal communication. It could be pushing away a teacher’s help. It could be shown through physical aggression towards the teacher or the materials. For students who use eye gaze to communicate, it could be closing their eyes and refusing to participate.
If a student allows you to provide physical assistance towards a response but does not look at the response while you guide him or her there, that is not non-engagement. The student is not actively resisting your help.
What non-engagement looks like may vary greatly based on the characteristics and behaviors of each student. The most important characteristic of Non-engagement is active resistance. This is where we rely on you, as a teacher. You know your students. You know when they are participating willingly. You know when they are actively resisting. When they do not want you providing physical assistance and, in whatever capacity the student is capable of, express their unwillingness to be a part of the activity, this is when you would indicate an N as the Level of Assistance.
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8. Levels of Assistance (LOA) Formal Definitions
Physical Assistance (P) – Student requires physical contact from the teacher to initiate, engage, or perform.
Example: The teacher physically moves the student’s hand to the correct answer.
Non-Example: The teacher taps the correct answer and expects the student to touch where he/she tapped.
Physical assistance (P): the student requires physical contact from the teacher to initiate, engage, or perform. Again, this could look very different, depending on the characteristics of the student. Some students may require hand over hand, or hand over foot. Some students who use eye gaze to communicate may need gentle positioning towards the correct response. As long as the student is not actively resisting, as long as the student is allowing you, as a teacher, to use your physical body to guide their physical body to the correct responses, the student is receiving Physical Assistance.
Here’s an example of what physical assistance could look like in the classroom: The teacher physically moves the student’s hand to the correct answer.
Here’s a non-example: The teacher taps the correct answer and expects the student to touch where he/she tapped. That would be Gestural assistance, not physical.
During the opportunities for an activity choice, there is only one way for a student to get an answer incorrect and that is for the student to display non-engagement. Again, the only way a student can get an answer incorrect at the Physical Assistance level is for the student to display non-engagement during that opportunity.
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9. Levels of Assistance (LOA) Formal Definitions
Gestural Assistance (G) – Student requires the teacher to point to the specific answer.
Example: When presenting a choice of three pictures and asking the student which picture is a triangle, the teacher will point to or tap on the correct picture to prompt the student to indicate that picture.
Non-Example: The teacher moves the student’s hand to gesture towards the right answer.
Gestural Assistance (G) – The student requires the teacher to point to the specific answer, which the student will then indicate.
Here’s an example of gestural assistance: When presenting a choice of three pictures and asking the student which picture is a triangle, the teacher will point to or tap on the correct picture to prompt the student to indicate that picture.
Here’s a non-example: The teacher moves the student’s hand to gesture towards the right answer. This would be physical assistance.
Gestural assistance can involve hands, flashlights, pointers, or any other creative way of indicating a desired response.
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10. Levels of Assistance (LOA) Formal Definitions
Verbal Assistance (V) – Student requires the teacher to verbally provide the specific answer to a question or item.
Example: The teacher says, “Remember, the main character was George. Point to the picture of the main character.”
Non-Example: The teacher says “Who is the main character?” without providing the information verbally.
Verbal Assistance (V) – The student requires the teacher to verbally provide the specific answer to a question or item, which he or she will then indicate.
Here’s an example: The teacher says, “Remember, the main character was George. Point to the picture of the main character.”
Here’s a non-example: The teacher says “Who is the main character?” without providing the information verbally. This would be Independent.
Verbal assistance does not necessarily need to be a vocalization. It is meant to refer to expressive language. Using sign language, picture exchange communication or other assistive technology expressively to present the desired response option to the student is Verbal assistance.
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11. Levels of Assistance (LOA) Formal Definitions
Model Assistance (M) – Student requires the teacher to model a similar problem/opportunity and answer prior to performance.
Example: A teacher models one-to-one correspondence using manipulatives and then asks the student to perform a similar item.
Non-example: The teacher completes the exact same activity as the student is expected to perform with the same materials.
Model Assistance (M) – The student requires the teacher to model a similar problem/opportunity and answer prior to performance.
Here’s an example: A teacher models one-to-one correspondence using manipulatives and then asks the student to complete the process using different manipulatives.
Here’s a Non-example: The teacher completes the exact same activity as the student is expected to perform with the exact same materials. This may be part of the instructional methods, but is not a Level of Assistance.
Materials may differ in a variety of ways. In math, manipulatives can be different shapes, sizes, colors or textures. In English Language Arts, you can model finding the main idea of a familiar book and then provide the student with a different text to then apply the process to. The purpose is for the student to demonstrate that he or she can generalize the process you have modeled to a different set of materials.
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12. Levels of Assistance (LOA) Formal Definitions
Independent (I) – Student requires no assistance to initiate, engage, or perform. The student may still require other supports and accommodations to meaningfully engage in the content but does not require assistance to participate and respond.
Example: The teacher asks the student, “Who is the main character of the book?” and the student meaningfully responds without any prompting or assistance.
Non-example: The teacher asks the student, “Who is the main character?” and points to the picture of the main character.
Finally, we have Independent level of assistance (I)- The student requires no assistance to initiate, engage, or perform. The student may still require other supports and accommodations to meaningfully engage in the content but does not require assistance to participate and respond.
Here’s an example: The teacher asks the student, “Who is the main character of the book?” and the student meaningfully responds without any prompting or assistance.
Here’s a Non-example: The teacher asks the student, “Who is the main character?” and points to the picture of the main character.
The Independent level is basically asking and getting a meaningful response with no prompting required by the teacher. It is important to note the use of the word meaningful in this context. There are many students who have a favorite response option to pick: always the option presented on the right, or maybe the middle. If the student is selecting a response based on the position of the response, not based on the content of the response option, this would not be considered a meaningful response. At the Independent level, the student is demonstrating the ability to apply evaluative criteria to response options and, based on this criteria, to select the response that he or she believes is correct. It does not have to be a correct response. If the student has interacted with the response options, applied evaluative criteria to the response options and then selected one response option, right or wrong, they are functioning at the Independent Level of Assistance.
If a students consistently can be considered as independent in terms of the level of assistance provided, it may be appropriate for the IEP team to consider whether FSAA-Datafolio is the appropriate assessment to judge the student’s progress over time.
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13. Response Accommodations

14. Response Accommodations
What is a response accommodation?
an accommodation provided by the teacher to help the student to access items or questions
examples include the use of assistive technology, object exchange or stabilizing assistance
What is a response accommodation? It is an accommodation provided by the teacher to help the student to access items or questions. Examples include the use of assistive technology, object exchange or stabilizing assistance. 14

15. Response Accommodation vs. LOA
Response accommodations provide access to all response options
LOAs are required assistance needed to meaningfully select desired response options
Response accommodations provide access to all response options, whereas LOAs are required assistance needed to meaningfully select a desired response option out of the group of possible response options.
Additional information on the role of response accommodations in the FSAA-Datafolio can be found beginning on page 9 of the Teacher Resource Guide.
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16. Use of Levels of Assistance in FSAA – Datafolio

17. Use of Levels of Assistance in FSAA – Datafolio
Where are they used?
Opportunities presented for Activity Choices
Only 1 LOA provided per Activity Choice
Can have different LOAs for different Standards
The Levels of Assistance are used in the opportunities presented for activity choices for each standard. It is very important to note that evidence submitted must show only one LOA provided per activity choice. It is possible for a student to need different levels of assistance for different standards, and that is acceptable. 17

18. Use of Levels of Assistance in FSAA – Datafolio
When are they used?
Collection Period #1
Use LOA most commonly provided to gain baseline data
Set LOA goal for each standard based on student rate of growth, realistic prediction of potential achievement
Collection Period #2
All opportunities for an activity choice MUST be presented at LOA goal level
Collection Period #3
Usually presented at LOA goal level
Exception to the rule
LOA goals are used throughout the three collection periods. During Collection Period #1, opportunities for each activity choice will be administered at the LOA most commonly provided during classroom instruction to gain baseline data. The baseline data should be reflective of the student’s current abilities. Only submit evidence showing the same LOA used for all 5-8 opportunities.
You will then be setting the LOA goal for each standard based on the data you collected as evidence for Collection Period #1. You will have two choices: if the student does not have high accuracy at the baseline LOA and you believe it is more realistic to increase accuracy throughout the school year than to decrease the level of assistance needed, you may set the goal to increase accuracy at the LOA level used to administer the baseline. The other choice is to set the goal to a decreased level of assistance from the LOA used to administer the baseline.
Please note that if you are considering setting the LOA goal as Physical Assistance, you must contact the FSAA Service Center in order to properly document this decision.
During Collection Period #2, you MUST present all opportunities for an activity choice at the LOA goal level. There are no exceptions.
During Collection Period #3, you will almost always use the LOA goal level for all opportunities. There is one exception to the rule, which can be found on page 55 of the Teacher Resource Guide. If, during Collection Period #2, the student has achieved 50% or greater accuracy, the teacher MAY decide to present all opportunities in Collection Period #3 at a decreased level of assistance than the LOA goal level. This is a matter of professional judgment. This is the only scenario where the opportunities at Collection Period #3 would be presented at a LOA other than the initial LOA goal level.
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19. Questions? FSAA Service Center
Office:
Standard Hours:
Monday – Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (EST)
Page iii of FSAA – Datafolio Teacher Resource Guide
The FSAA Service Center is available to assist you with any questions or issues related to the FSAA-Datafolio. The FSAA Service center can be reached by at or by phone at The Standard Hours for the FSAA Service Center are Monday through Friday from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Eastern Standard time. This contact information is also located on page iii of the FSAA-Datafolio Teacher Resource Guide.
This concludes the FSAA – Datafolio Administration Training Module 2 – Levels of Assistance. 19