1
Improving the Oklahoma Modified Alternate Assessment Program General Supervision Enhancement Grant (GSEG) 2007-2010 Renée Cameto, Principal Scientist and Katherine Nagle, Project Director Contact Us: Renée Cameto - [email protected] Katherine Nagle - [email protected] Technical assistance in three focus areas: Accessibility of the AA-MAS (OMAAP) reading assessment Cognitive interview study Designed professional development module for teachers to instruct and improve students test taking strategies Students from most disability categories took the AA-MAS Students most likely to take the AA-MAS - Learning disability - Other health impairments - Intellectual disability - Emotional disturbance Trouble with organizing and keeping track of their work Required frequent clarification of instruction and one on one support Difficulty with memorization Difficulty finishing assignments and were easily distracted Academic learning characteristics of students taking the AA-MAS, 2008 Reading - Read slowly - Difficulty drawing inferences from grade level text - Difficulty answering comprehension questions on long passages - Limited awareness of narrative or expository text structures - Difficulty identifying the main idea Mathematics - Difficulty with problems requiring multi-step solutions - Difficulty understanding and applying mathematics procedures - Slow or inaccurate retrieval of basic math facts Professional development needs of teachers of AA-MAS eligible students, 2008 Teachers had many professional development needs More than half of the teachers wanted training in: - Teaching students organization and study skills - Improving student’s problem-solving skills - Increasing student’s persistence on tasks - Strategies for teaching comprehension of narrative text Two stage sampling procedure: First stage stratified district sampling of small, medium, and large districts Second stage random selection of special education teachers from each selected district - Small districts: 2 teachers - Medium districts: 4 teachers - Large districts: 22 teachers The total number of teachers selected: 404 in 2007-08 422 in 2008-09 Response rates: 66% in 2007-08 74% in 2008-09 Technical quality of data and documentation of the AA-MAS (OMAAP) Expert review of technical documentation of OMAAP Recommendations for improvement of documentation Recommendations for studies to be conducted to support validity and alignment - Comparison of scores on AA-MAS (OMAAP) and regular assessment (OCCT) for same student State guidelines for assessment eligibility decisions and standards- based IEPs (OMAAP) Revise eligibility guidelines to reflect - Federal regulations - State requirements Revise guidelines for developing standards-based IEPs Conduct annual monitoring survey Oklahoma Special Education Teacher Survey (OSETS) that assessed teachers’ knowledge of - Eligibility guidelines - Guidelines for developing and implementing standards-based IEPs - Student characteristics - Professional development needs What are the professional development needs of teachers of AA-MAS eligible students? What are the disability and behavioral and learning characteristics of students who take AA-MAS? Background Data Sources and Sampling Research Questions Results Percentage of teachers reporting that they had at least one student participating in the AA-MAS in the following disability categories: Percent 100 80 60 40 20 0 52% 9% 7% 12% 91% 44% 0% 11% 16% 70% Intellectual disability 29% Autism Hearing impairment/deafness Traumatic brain injury 31% Speech and language impairment Visual impairment/blindness Learning disability Emotional disturbance Deaf-blindness Orthopedic impairment Multiple disabilities Other health impairment Disability categories of AA-MAS test takers, 2008 Percentage of respondents indicating that one or more students assessed on the AA-MAS in their classrooms exhibited the following behavioral characteristics all or most of the time: 47% Do not follow directions or instructions 35% Avoid participating in class discussions 74% Require frequent clarification of instructions and one on one support 72% Have difficulty with memorization 40% Do not consider the consequences of their behavior 66% Have difficulty finishing assignments and are easily distracted 50% Struggled to sit still and fidgeted 75% Have trouble with organization and keeping track of work 32% Have trouble following school rules Behavioral characteristics of students taking the AA-MAS, 2008 Percent 100 80 60 40 20 0 Percentage of respondents indicating that one or more students assessed on the AA-MAS exhibited the following academic learning characteristics all or most of the time: 66% Limited vocabulary compared with same age peers 90% Read slowly 60% Lose spot when reading 88% Difficulty drawing inferences from grade level text 56% Difficulty predicting what may happen next in a story 88% Difficulty answering comprehension questions on long passages 80% Difficulty identifying the main idea of grade level texts 82% Limited awareness of text structures 59% Poor sight word recognition skills 84% Difficulty with problems requiring multi-step solutions 63% Problems forming mental representations of mathematical concepts 70% Slow or inaccurate retrieval of basic math facts 56% Difficulty comparing/classifying/sorting items according to a specific criteria 63% Difficulty with number concepts 73% Difficulty understanding/applying math procedures 45% Math anxiety Percent 100 80 60 40 20 0 Percentage of teachers indicating additional professional development needs for 2008-09: 44% 50% 57% 50% 49% 43% 70% 60% 78% Increase reading oral reading fluency Improve vocabulary acquisition Improve comprehension of narrative text Improve expository text Improve retrieval of basic math facts Improve computational skills Improve problem-solving skills Increase task persistence Improve organization and study skills Percent 100 80 60 40 20 0
