Contact: Dr. Steve Henry, Gen. Dir. Of Planning & Evaluation (785)575-6139

shenry@topeka.k12.ks.us

Overall Goal Statement

It is our goal to have special education and ESL students participate in the CBM Assessment program whenever the child can feasibly do so and staff believe the assessment will provide information useful for educational planning or monitoring the student's progress in the curriculum. When it is reasonable to do so, accommodations should be made to the testing procedures to increase the feasibility of participation.

Special Education Guidelines

As general guideline, special education students who receive 50% or more of their instruction from regular education teachers in the regular education setting should participate in the assessments using probes designed for their grade level placement and in most cases should not require any modifications to the standard testing procedures.

Even "self-contained" LD, BD, EMH, and some TMH students may be able to participate in the CBM assessments if accommodations to the standard testing procedure are made. Every time we choose to make an accommodation to the standard testing procedure we should pause to consider how the accommodation will affect the validity of testing and the inferences which are made from the test data. We should make accommodations when and only when the validity of the inferences made from the assessment data is increased. This requires careful thought about the intent of the assessment and whether or not the accommodation fundamentally changes what is being measured.

Reasonable Accommodations Include:

• Administering a probe designed for use with students at a lower grade level. For example, a fifth grade TMH student has reading skills at about the first grade level and is administered the probe for first grade students rather than the one designed for fifth grade students.
• Use of large print versions of probes for the visually impaired or Braille versions of the probes for the blind.
• The use of signing or an interpreter to present instructions to the deaf or hearing impaired.
• Permitting a student with severe motor impairments to respond to the math probes orally rather in writing, allowing more time than the standard three minutes, and administering the probe individually rather than in a large group setting.

Inappropriate Accommodations or Testing Practices

Some examples of inappropriate accommodations or testing practices include:

• Giving an LD student whose only qualifying area is math a reading probe which is below their grade level.
• Increasing the time allowed for the "one minute" reading probes.
• Providing cues for initial sounds of words on the reading probe.
• Providing the student with the opportunity to practice the probe in advance of the "real" testing.
• Allowing a student to use a calculator on the math probes.

Implications of the IEP for Assessment

The IEP should include provisions for whether special education students participate in assessments and what accommodations if any should be provided.

Inclusion of Results in Building and District Reports

Whenever a student is administered a probe which does not match the student's grade level designation, the results will be excluded from building and district averages. If the level of the probe matches the student's grade level placement, the implication is that the student is being assessed at their instructional level and results will be included in building and district averages.

ESL Students

ESL students who are classified as Non-English Speaking(NES) and those classified as Limited English Speaking Level 1(LEP-1) should not participate in the assessments. Those designated as Limited English Speaking Level 2(LEP-2) should participate but their results will not be included in building and district averages. ESL students classified as Fluent English Speaking (FES) or who have been moved to just monitoring status should participate and their results will be included in building and district averages. As with special education students, it may be appropriate in some cases to give a student a reading but not a math probe designed for a lower grade level. Some testing accommodations such as translating instructions may also be appropriate for ESL students.