State Leaders Summit : Making a Commitment to Systems Change in Deaf Education
May 7, 8 & 9, 2007, Columbia , MD
Session Date and Time: 5/8/07 8:30 am
Name of Facilitator/Presenter Claire Bugen
E-mail Address: Claire.bugen@tsd.state.tx.us
Name of Recorder Delia Cerpa
E-mail Address dcerpa@mail.aum.edu
Topic title and brief description:
Adequate Yearly Progress - Measurement and reporting (high stakes testing)
Summary of the issues and recommendations
Some of the programs reported that they are included in the state AYP and others are not.
Some states require high stakes testing for graduation while others do not. While there are states that do not require high stakes test or that this population may be exempt from taking the high stakes test if required, there is a movement changing in direction of requiring high stakes in the future as well as no exemptions.
In some states the program/school does not receive the results of the AYP test, for the deaf students subgroup or individual student. This results on the school not having the data to plan for school improvement. The data is not disaggregated by disability, as it would be more costly to do that. If it is disaggregated for the deaf population then it will have to be disaggregated for an all disabilities. This is more prevalent in large districts.
Solutions/ Strategies; Commitments of Participants; Improvement suggestions
This is a national subgroup. To be able to appropriately track meaning for progress include:
- Age the child had language access and age the child started the program.
- States are unique in how they may report progress.
- Unite behind best practices.
- Ask for, seek, and explore funding possibilities for research on evidence-based practices for this population. There aren't enough evidence-based practices that include the deaf population.
Work toward resolving the issue of phonics subtest.
- How valid is the phonics subtest for the deaf population?
- Including the phonics subtest significantly lowers the scores for this population.
- Eliminating the phonics alters the validity of the test.
- Using sign language during the test beyond giving instructions invalidates the test.
Some schools do not get the results of the test to be able to analyze strength and weaknesses for the purpose of school improvement. Some schools are using the NWEA (MAPS)
Be clear as to what the purpose of the test used for AYP and the NWEA " MAPS" test.
The NWEA / MAPS is a growth assessment that is very popular.