So...

You've decided to embark on the long and convoluted journey that is the Kansas Alternate State Assessment.

Welcome to the club. Take a deep breath. Take another one (you'll need it).

Ready?

Set?

Jump in!

The first thing to do is to determine the eligibility of the student in question.

Specific information regarding eligibility is available here: eligibility (under Testing Information)

Remember that eligibility is a team decision and should be made in the best interests of the student. You also need to be aware of the 1% cap for the alternate and 2% cap for the KAMM and that there may be students from your district attending out-of-district programs who will also qualify for these assessments. It is essential that the IEP team work closely with the testing coordinator to ensure proper placement of the student.

In Butler County the majority of students who should take the alternate assessment are in one of our 2 cluster programs.

Very few students in the interrelated programs will qualify for the alternate assessment. Extreme care should be taken in considering the reasons for choosing the alternate over the KAMM for these students.

Here are some general guidelines to aid you in making these decisions:

Students who are functioning 50% or below their typical same age peers could be considered good candidates for the KAMM.

Students who are functioning 75% or below their typical same age peers should be considered for the alternate.

Ex. A 3rd grader functioning at a 1st grade level should probably take the KAMM. A 3rd grader functioning at a preschool level or below (under 5 years developmental) should probably take the alternate.

An 8th grader functioning below a 4th grade level might be considered for the KAMM. An 8th grader functioning at or below grade 1 should probably take the alternate.

An 11th grader functioning below 6th grade could be considered for the KAMM. An 11th grader functioning below grade 3 should probably be considered for the alternate.

Sensory and motor deficits should also be taken into consideration when making assessment decisions. In rare cases you could have a cognitively typical student who can't access the general or even the KAMM because of physical and sensory limitations (think of a student with low vision who also has severe CP that prevents her from accessing things like braille; she requires auditory support for all text-based activities; taking the general reading test would not be possible for this student under the current guidelines). At the same time, a cognitively typical student with severe CP who accesses his curriculum using a computer and assistive technology who is able to read independently and is doing grade level work could most likely take the general assessment with accommodations (putting test or answer sheet into a format accessible to him; assistance to manipulate testing materials; extra time).

NOTE: FUNCTIONING does not always equal PERFORMING. Some kids PERFORM significantly below same age peers on tests but their overall FUNCTIONING is much closer to age-typical. This is especially true for kids whose behaviors may be masking abilities/performance. REMEMBER THAT BEHAVIOR IS NOT ENOUGH REASON TO LOWER THE LEVEL OF THE TESTING! The KAMM and the alternate were designed and intended for kids who COGNITIVELY FUNCTION at significantly lower levels than their same age typical peers. Thus the reason for the caps, which are based on estimates of the numbers of students in the general population who have these types of "low incidence" disabilities.

Another point to remember is that the five subject areas are five different assessments. A student can take a different level of the assessment depending upon his/her needs in any given area. Technically this means that a student could take the General Assessment with Accomodations in Math, the KAMM in Reading, and the Alternate in Writing (or some other combination). You will need to determine what test your student should take in each area.

Once you have determined that you have at least one student taking at least one alternate assessment, you, as the primary provider, need to then visit the Center for Educational Testing and Evaluation website at www.cete.us. You will need to create a teacher account for yourself by clicking on the "new account" option on the right side of the page. NOTE: If you already have an alternate assessment account from last year, you DO NOT need to create a new one. You will, however, need to change your password in the "My Account" section.

• Under "Account type" select: Alternate Assessment (building) --note that you may already have one or more accounts established for grade level/general and KAMM assessments. You cannot access the Alternate Assessment with those accounts. You must have an Alternate Assessment account as well. This account is good for all grade levels.
   
• Under "district" select your district number
   
• Complete the following page as directed. Your account will need to be approved by an administrator in your district before it will become active (in Augusta that is our district testing coordinator; other districts may have building principals or a counselor handle this).Let the responsible person in your district know you have created a new account so they can watch for it.

You will also need to make sure your building has the student correctly registered in KIDS. At Augusta Middle School this function is handled by a secretary. The student will need to be appropriately registered before you can access his/her information and enter assessment data. In addition, if your student is an out-of-district placement, the sending building must also do a TEST submission before you can access CETE information. Your district testing coordinator should know how to do this and be willing to take care of this for you.

Log in to your new CETE account. From here you will be able to perform a variety of tasks:

• Scroll down the Welcome page to find the Alternate Assessment Implementation Guide
• Choose the Alternate Assessment link to access Student information
• Under the Students section you can locate a student's available indicators and print a variety of documents
• This is also where you will enter your student's chosen indicators for assessment

Make sure you are thoroughly familiar with both the Implementation Guide available from CETE as well as the Kansas Alternate Assessment Teacher's Guide located at _______   under Kansas Alternate Assessment Information

So far, so good. Not too difficult yet. But hold onto your hat. You are about to embark into strange, often confusing, and sometimes frustrating territory with the next step in the process...