Utah's Alternate Assessment Resources by Gooley, Tracy

Tracy Gooley

tracygooley — 2025-03-31 20:14:00 UTC

USBE Special Education Assessment Specialist

tracy.gooley@schools.utah.gov

801-538-7887

Who Are Alternate Assessments For?

tracygooley — 2025-03-31 20:15:51 UTC

Alternate assessments are for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities whose disability significantly impacts their intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior (typically functioning at least two and a half or more standard deviations below the mean).

Participation in alternate assessments is determined by the Individualized Education Program (IEP) team as the appropriate assessments for the student to demonstrate their knowledge and skills aligned with Utah’s Alternate Achievement Standards, the Essential Elements.

Utah Alternate Assessment Participation Guidelines

tracygooley — 2025-03-31 20:16:42 UTC

Updated March 2026

Who is a student with the most significant cognitive disability?

tracygooley — 2025-03-31 20:17:56 UTC

Updated March 2026

Utah's Alternate Assessment Chart

tracygooley — 2025-03-31 20:18:52 UTC

Digging into Significant Cognitive Disability and Alternate Assessment Participation

tracygooley — 2025-03-31 20:33:41 UTC

Updates comining soon

PEEP Alternate Assessments are Found on the Assessment Webpage

tracygooley — 2025-08-07 21:30:53 UTC

The Pre-K Entry and Exit Alternate Assessment (PEEP AA) for students with the Most Significant Cognitive Disabilities (MSCD) is a simple rubric that assesses students’ early Literacy and Numeracy skills as they relate to the academic and lifelong learning practices essential for entering and exiting pre-kindergarten students. The skills that make up the rubric are aligned with the Utah’s Early Childhood Core Standards used in the general PEEP assessment but are reduced in breadth and complexity. The rubrics are meant to be completed for each preschool student with (MSCD) by their teacher, based on the student’s performance on IEP goals and every day early literacy and numeracy instruction within the classroom.

Acadience Alternate Assessments are found on the Special Education Assessment Webpage (Alternate Assessment tab)

tracygooley — 2025-08-07 21:37:18 UTC

The Acadience alternate assessments are for students with the Most Significant Cognitive Disabilities (MSCD), is a simple rubric that assesses students’ early literacy and numeracy skills as they relate to strands within English Language Arts and Mathematics that are aligned to the skills assessed with Acadience Reading and Acadience Math but based on the alternate achievement standards the Essential Elements. The rubric is meant to be completed for each student with the MSCD (grades K-3) by their teacher, based on the student’s performance on IEP goals and every day early literacy and mathematics instruction within the classroom.

Utah's Dynamics Learning Map (DLM) webpage

tracygooley — 2025-08-07 21:38:06 UTC

DLM Administration for Teachers Padlet

tracygooley — 2025-08-07 21:39:07 UTC

This padlet provides guidance, DLM instructional and assessment expectations and resources.

DLM District Test Coordinators Padlet

tracygooley — 2025-08-07 21:42:53 UTC

This padlet is for LEA district staff, NOT TEACHERS, that support the implementation of DLM assessments. This padlet has training recording, technical assistance documents and other resources to support the implementation of DLM administration in their LEA.

WIDA Alternate ACCESS Webpage

tracygooley — 2025-08-07 21:43:31 UTC

Instructional Resources for Students with the Most Significant Cognitive Disabilities Padlet

tracygooley — 2025-08-07 21:44:46 UTC

Utah's Accessibility, Accommodations and Assessment Resources Padlet

tracygooley — 2025-08-07 21:45:15 UTC

WIDA ALTELLA project resources for English learners with the most significant cognitive disabilities

tracygooley — 2025-10-08 17:55:53 UTC

The ALTELLA project examined instructional practices and policies for English learners with significant cognitive disabilities. Find links to all the great ALTELLA research briefs and reports on the brand-new ALTELLA webpage.

Alternate Assessment Trainings You Tube Play List

tracygooley — 2025-10-23 19:50:14 UTC