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Slide 1 - Professional Perspective/ Audience/ Topic

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Slide 1 - Professional Perspective/ Audience/ Topic

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As a district testing coordinator, I will discuss an important area connected to testing. This area is the ARD requirements that produce the accommodations and modifications used by student when they test. My main focus is high school end of course examinations. I chose this topic because anything that the ARD committee determines to be an accommodation and modification to a students testing environment should be applied on testing day. The admission, review, and dismissal (ARD) committee makes educational decisions for a student with a disability, including decisions related to state assessments and decisions related to graduation requirements as described in Texas Administrative Code (TAC) §89.1070.

This process affects teacher performance as well as students abilities to be successful while testing. My target audience is administration, teachers, staff and students.

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The topic of accommodations and modifications is important in the education field because as test administrators we are responsible for the students entrusted in our care. Many of these students have accommodations and certain modifications to their assessment to  help them test in an equal field as everyone else. When a coordinating teacher for a special education student does not document properly these accommodations or when the testing administrator does not implement these accommodations it hurts the child academically and its against the law to do so. In the last 2 testing cycles we have noted certain indicants related to this topic it was decided to implement an in depth professional development training.

An emerging area that has been implemented by Texas is moving everyone to online testing. This is a very beneficial change because it removes the majority of human error and automates the accommodations and modifications directly tot he test. In the past testing cycles we have see a great improvement related to accommodation incidents.

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In the research conducted, a source related to my topic that derives from the Texas School for Deaf analyzes accommodations and modifications that are required and must be followed to properly assist students with impairments. This source discusses how an ARD can determine and aid school personnel, parents, and teachers to provide the child with services and supports to appropriately attain the student's academic annual goals. This source is linked to my topic because all students must be provided with an equal testing opportunity using any accommodation or modification approved by the ARD committee.

https://www.tsd.state.tx.us/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=170905&type=d&pREC_ID=2100714&tota11y=true
Texas School for Deaf. (n.d). Accommodations and Modifications.

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For my first article of this section, I want to share Region 13 Education service center announcement. This article contains the updates for the upcoming changes to the testing environments. For years Pearson has been responsible for all the online testing assessments but  starting the 2021-2022 year Cambium Assessments will be provider of STAAR, STAAR Alt 2, TELPAS and TELPAS Alternate.

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There are many changes to Texas student assessment for the 2021-2022 school year. This blog post will examine the known changes as well as some of the things that will not change for the upcoming year.

Change in Test Vendor

Cambium Assessments, Inc. (CAI) will be the new state test vendor starting in 2021-2022. CAI will handle all of the state testing program (STAAR, STAAR Alternate 2, TELPAS, and TELPAS Alternate). This means that testing personnel will need to learn new processes for all testing activities (ordering, registration, accessing reports, etc.) and students will have a new testing interface for online testing. On the positive side, testing personnel will now have only one system to access for all state testing. They will have to remember only one password and will have the same processes (ordering, registration, etc.) for each assessment. Students will also interact with the same user interface for all state tests.

Pearson will still be involved in the state testing program but in an entirely behind-the-scenes role. Pearson will help develop test items and build test forms. ETS will no longer have a role in the Texas Assessment Program.

Elimination of Tests

The Texas Assessment Program has been streamlined. The stand-alone grades 4 & 7 writing STAAR assessments have been eliminated, as have the optional Algebra II and English III EOCs. These tests will no longer be provided by TEA.

HB 4545 eliminated the automatic retention of students in grades 5 & 8 based on their reading or math STAAR test results. Because of this, the retesting of grades 5 & 8 reading and math STAAR assessments has been discontinued. At this time it is not clear if these assessments will be administered in April (when they have been historically administered for the first time) or May (with the other 3-8 STAAR assessments).

Grades 3-8 Reading Language Arts Redesign

The grades 3-8 reading STAAR tests are currently undergoing a redesign. In spring 2022 the 2017 Reading Language Arts TEKS will be assessed and the number of cross-curricular passages on the assessments will increase. The tests will continue to have embedded multiple-choice field test items covering revising and editing. Embedded filed test items do not affect the student's test score. There will not be a writing prompt item on the 2022 3-8 reading STAAR tests.

Stand-Alone Field Tests

To meet the legislative requirement that no more than 75% of the points on the STAAR tests come from multiple-choice items TEA has been developing new item types. Because these item types are so different from the ones on the current tests they cannot be embedded. Schools will be notified by August 23, 2021, if they have been selected to participate in stand-alone field tests from February 14-18, 2022. All STAAR grade level and subject tests will be field-tested. Participation will be online only and is mandatory for all selected schools.

Shorter Testing Windows

The windows for administering all state tests were extended in 2020-2021 due to COVID-19 concerns. With the relaxing of recommended CDC COVID-19 restrictions, the testing windows for 2021-2022 have been returned to their pre-pandemic lengths.

Optional Testing Opportunities

TEA will again offer the Beginning-of-Year (BOY) assessments. These assessments are created from released STAAR test items and are meant to diagnose the student's learning of the TEKS during the 2020-2021 school year. Therefore the BOYs should be administered to students in grades 4-12 based on their 2020-2021 enrolled grade level or course. Students may be registered July 31-October 8, 2021 and the BOY assessment window will be August 16-October 15, 2021. More information is forthcoming.

Interim Assessments will be available during the 2021-2022 school; year for all STAAR assessed grades and subjects. Registration for the Interim Assessments will open July 31, 2021, and extend through April 8, 2022. These subjects will be available during Administration Window 1 (September 7-December 17, 2021) and Assessment Window 3 (January 10-April 15, 2022: grades 3-8 reading (including 3-5 Spanish), grades 3-8 math (including 3-5 Spanish), Algebra I, English I, and English II. These subjects will only be available during Administration Window 2 (November 8, 2021-April 15, 2022: grades 5 & 8 science (including grade 5 Spanish), grade 8 social studies, Biology, and U.S. History. More information is forthcoming.

TEA will also continue to offer the Texas Formative Assessment Resource (TFAR) to districts during the 2021-2022 school year. TFAR is an online tool that educators can use to create formative assessments by using items from a TEKS-aligned item bank or writing their own items. It will allow teachers to analyze the results of these assessments and immediately adjust lesson plans accordingly. TFAR is meant to be a supplement to any existing district resources and practices. More information on TFAR is forthcoming.

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Texas State Student Assessment for 2021-2022 * Region 13's Blog

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There are many changes to Texas student assessment for the 2021-2022 school year. This blog post will examine the known changes as well as some of the things that will not change for the upcoming year. Change in Test Vendor Cambium Assessments, Inc. (CAI) will be the new state test vendor starting in 2021-2022.

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For the second article I selected an e-newsletter that defines accommodations and modifications and how they remove the learning barriers in the classrooms to provide all children with an equal opportunity to learn. There are many accommodations students can benefit from but it all goes back to properly documenting every change after the ARD meeting.

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* Statutory Law- ARD Requirements

Statutory Authority: The provisions of this §89.1050 issued under the Texas Education Code, §§29.001, 29.004, and 29.005, and 34 Code of Federal Regulations, §300.321.

§89.1050. The Admission, Review, and Dismissal Committee.

This authority discusses and details the process and the purpose of the ARD committee. Also, it explains what the school district needs to ensure to take the proper steps and afforded for the parents to participate in the meeting and their child’s education plan.

http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/rules/tac/chapter089/ch089aa.pdf
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LISD. (2021). What is Special Education?

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* Administrative Law - Texas Education Code (TEC) § 26.0081

In response to the requirement in Texas Education Code (TEC) § 26.0081, a guide has been developed by the statewide leadership for the Legal Framework and the Texas Education Agency to explain the special education services, process, rights and responsibilities to a parent of child who is eligible or receiving services under the special education program. The main purposes of this is to ensure that all children with disabilities are receiving or have available FAPE (free appropriate public education).

http://framework.esc18.net/Documents/ARD_Guide_ENG.pdf
TEA. (2020). Texas Education Agency.

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* Statutory Law- Content of the Individualized Education Program §89.1055

IEP (Individualized Education Program) is developed and proposed by the ARD committee for each student and must comply with the requirements of the 34 Code of Federal Regulations, §300.320 and §300.324.

The IEP must include the allowable accommodations and districtwide assessment that the child will participate to measure the academic achievement and functional performance. Also, it is determine if a BIP (behavior intervention plan) is needed or/and appropriate for the child.

http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/rules/tac/chapter089/ch089aa.pdf
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Special Education Resources. (2021). 7 steps of the IEP process. https://specialedresource.com/7-steps-iep-process/

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* Judicial- § 300.536 Change of placement because of disciplinary removals.

For purposes of removals of a child with a disability from the child’s current educational placement.

* Statutory - § 1407. State Administration- IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) 'State rules, regulations, and policies shall support and facilitate local education agency and school-level system improvement designed to enable children with disabilities to meet the challenging STATE student academic achievement standards' (IDEA, 2019).
IDEA. (2019). Section 1407.
https://sites.ed.gov/idea/statute-chapter-33/subchapter-i/1407

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Slide 10 - Local Administrative Policy- United Independent School District.

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Slide 10 - Local Administrative Policy- United Independent School District.

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This local policy reflects decisions made by UISD board of trustees. "The District shall comply with applicable state and federal requirements when determining methods for students with disabilities or students who are English Language Learners to demonstrate mastery of the curriculum" (UISD, 2021).
UISD. (2021). Academic Achievement and Promotion.
https://pol.tasb.org/Policy/Code/1210?filter=EIE

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Texas Administrative Code
Chapter 247/§247.2
"Standard 1.7. The educator shall comply with state regulations, written local school board policies, and other state and federal laws."
https://texreg.sos.state.tx.us/public/readtac$ext.TacPage?sl=R&app=9&p_dir=&p_rloc=&p_tloc=&p_ploc=&pg=1&p_tac=&ti=19&pt=7&ch=247&rl=2

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This online source offers information about how important is the availability of test data is to improve instruction, identify the needs of the students, implement interventions, and help all students reach their high level of performance. Although each state and district have their policies in place, this source presents information that helps test administrators prevent and detect irregularities in testing.

U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics (2012). Transcript of Proceedings. Testing Integrity Symposium. February 28, 2012. Retrieved September 30 from http://nces.ed.gov/whatsnew/conferences/PDF/2012_symposium_transcript.pdf

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* Establish a healthy testing culture. It is important that teachers, administrators and all staff must understand and act responsibly regarding testing practices and adhere to students' recommended accommodations.
*As the testing coordinator, it is my duty to train and certify teachers/staff in administering and interpreting academic assessments.
* Verify every student's accommodations/modifications to assure every student succeeds in the assessment cycle.
*Collaboration is a must between administrators, teachers, all staff involve in the students education, and Special Education personnel.
*Repetitive training/staff development in all areas of the testing program to assure compliance.
* Communication- communicate effectively, maintain emotional control under stress.