Curricular Implications of Alternate Assessments.

The 1997 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) required that states provide alternate assessments for students unable to participate in the statewide assessment systems (e.g., those with severe disabilities). IDEA mandated that alternate assessments access the general curriculum. This study examined the curricular focus of alternate assessments. A content validity procedure was used to examine alternate assessment performance indicators in mathematics, language arts, and functional skills from 42 states. Experts in mathematics, language arts, severe disabilities (n=30), and a group of stakeholders (5 teachers and 4 administrators) examined the alignment of the performance indicators to national standards and the general curriculum. Results suggest it is possible to create assessments for students with severe disabilities that access the general curriculum and reflect national mathematics and language arts standards and are acceptable to stakeholders; however, many states' alternate assessments were not accessing the general curriculum. This confusion is reflected in both the variation across states' examples of extended standards and the reactions of stakeholders and experts to them. Direction for improvement of alternate assessment practices is provided. (Contains 57 references.) (Author/SLD)