Montana Enhanced Assessment Grant (2007-2010)
Measured Progress, along with the states of Montana, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Rhode Island, collaborated with researchers at the Education Development Center, the University of Arizona, and WestEd to look at ways to improve state academic assessment for students who represent the 2 percent population.
The project, Adapting Reading Test Items to Increase Validity of Alternate Assessments Based on Modified Academic Achievement Standards (ARTIIV), reflects the desire of the five states to respond to the reading assessment needs of students eligible for the 2 percent option.
The consortium investigated strategies states could use to adapt their current assessments based on grade-level academic achievement standards. ARTIIV explored the "re-engineering" of assessment items to fit the cognitive skill set of this population.
Using student work and multiple data measures, ARTIIV also looked at the impact of read-aloud accommodations and their impact on items created for the 2 percent population, based on the work of the National Accessible Reading Assessments Project.
The item manipulations, including format and linguistic modifications and read-aloud accommodations, were presented in a pilot test in January, 2009.
