Curriculum and Assessment for Students with Moderate and Severe Disabilities

1. Curriculum and Assessment for Students with Moderate and Severe Disabilities Kean University SPED 5701-01: Assessing Students with Developmental Disabilities Spring 2013 February 11, 2013

2. Why Focus on Curriculum? Provides blueprint for learning Complex learning needs of low-incidence populations, so tools needed for designing personalized curriculum To ensure that instruction will achieve desired outcomes Will use behavioral assessment strategies May also include qualitative appraisals

3. Quality of Life Indicators • Social relationships • Personal satisfaction • Employment • Self determination • Recreation and leisure • Personal competence • A home • Normalization • Support services • Personal development • Social acceptance and status • Material well-being • Civic responsibility • Other personal indicatives

4. Self-Determination Individual can define what constitutes a “good life” and then pursue it May be enhanced as they discover preferences and make choices Target skills that relate to the student’s desired outcomes Focus on what to teach that will enhance their quality of life

5. Focus of Curriculum Target skills that relate to the student’s desired outcomes Focuses on what to teach to enhance quality of life

6. Focus of Curriculum • 70’s and 80’s – overemphasis on skill acquisition as means of obtaining new opportunities • Watered down general ed. curriculum • “Bottom-up” approach: Start at bottom of typical developmental sequences and moved upward • Students rarely progressed pass preschool skills • “Top-down” approach: Students’ environment was reviewed to generate curricular options • “Functional” approach to curriculum development

7. Focus of Curriculum • 90’s – today – “Person Centered Planning” • Self-determination- Making student’s preferences and goals the focus of planning. • Portfolio assessments- Began as a way of maintaining a collection of representative student work to demonstrate achievement. • 1997 – Amendments to IDEA required alternate assessments for all students not included in statewide testing.

8. Traditional Planning • Professionals conduct assessments of individuals with developmental disabilities • Assessments put together by interdisciplinary team • Fitting the person into the program / service system

9. Person-Centered Planning • Crafts lifestyle around person with disability • Takes inter-visionary look of people involved in person’s life • Often family, friends, and interested persons involved

10. Person-Centered Planning (cont.) • Creates vision for person’s future • Goal is to improve quality of life • Takes individual gifts and capacities; finds, utilizes, and crafts different aspects of community around what person wants

11. Traditional Planning vs. Person-Centered Planning • Traditional planning may provide more or unnecessary support for person • Person-centered planning is tailored around individual needs • Traditional planning fits the person into the service system • Person-centered planning crafts the system around the person

12. Traditional Planning vs. Person-Centered Planning (cont.) • Reliance on service professionals (traditional) vs. reliance on the community (person-centered) • Focus on deficits (traditional) vs. focus on capacities (person-centered) • Professionally driven (traditional) vs. family/network driven

13. Capacity Building vs. Deficit Finding “Capacity building” – focuses on person’s strengths and preferences “Deficit finding” – describing the student’s limitations in detail

14. Capacity Building O’Brian and Mount (1991) Planning that focuses on a person’s strengths and preferences In initial assessment, focus on capacity building by noting: - What the student does well - The student’s personal attributes - The student’s achievements

15. Capacity Building Don’t bring up negative information about student’s past not relevant to present Avoid standardized tests not appropriate to student due to physical or sensory impairments Don’t use outmoded or stigmatizing terms Use observations and family interviews to describe student’s strengths and recent achievements

17. Capacity Building

18. Values for Curriculum Building • Self-determination • Honor student’s preferences • Family- and Culture-centered planning • Focus on family’s priorities and be sensitive to cultural values • Educational accountability • All students deserve the opportunity for high-quality instruction • Monitor progress • Provide accountability to students • Adjust instruction to improve learning

19. Values for Curriculum Building • Personalized Curriculum • Draw from both academic curriculum and life skills • Inclusion • Encourage opportunities for inclusion in school, jobs and community. • Functional and age-appropriate skills • Choice • Research as a resource for practice • Data based

20. Provisions of IDEA Zero reject rule IEP Related services FAPE LRE Discipline of a child with disability

21. Reauthorization of IDEA Special education services must include alternate assessment for students exempt from standardized testing But…no set curriculum for students with moderate to severe needs, so how do you assess? With no set curriculum and no specific alternate assessment procedures, it may be difficult to assess educational gains

22. Alternate Proficiency Assessments Difficult and confusing when students are not pursuing standard courses of study No set curriculum for all students with moderate/severe needs should achieve - In gen. ed., usually close match between academic curriculum and standardized testing For sake of accountability, need to define curriculum priorities and provide information on student outcomes

23. So…Where do we go? Educational planning for students with moderate to severe disabilities needs to define curriculum priorities and provide information on student outcomes Professionals must first define an individualized curriculum before planning specific assessment Specific assessment will often use behavioral assessment strategies May use qualitative appraisals such as portfolio assessments

24. Historical Perspective Diagnostic – prescriptive models - Students’ deficits targeted for instruction - Deficit-oriented. May not be age appropriate Shift to precision teaching -Specific skills taught, defined as observable behaviors -Data collected on ongoing progress Inclusion and self-determination -Person-centered planning -Accountability

25. Individualized Functional Life Skills Curriculum Honors student preferences Reflects family and cultural values Incorporates planning for general education Meets the student’s unique learning needs

26. Values for Curriculum Building Specific skills selected will reflect the values of the participant So it is crucial to have student and family at center of planning Content of curriculum will reflect these specific values

27. Values for Curriculum Building Self-determination - Honor student’s own preferences in setting goals for future - They define their future as adults and take steps towards achieving it Family and culture-centered planning - Focus on each family’s priorities - Be sensitive to cultural values

28. Values for Curriculum Building • Educational accountability • All students can learn and deserve right to receive high quality instruction • Curricular priorities need to be specific enough that assessment can track student progress • Provide accountability and adjust instruction to improve learning • Personalized curriculum - Draw from adaptations of academic curriculum and from life skills

29. Values for Curriculum Building Inclusion - Focus on skills to enhance participation in general education, work settings, and the community Functional and age-appropriate skills - Usable in daily living

30. Values for Curriculum Building Choice - Choice-making increases active participation - Should include a focus on skills that teach and encourage choice-making Research as a resource for practice - Data-based interventions provide resource of “what” and “how” to teach students with moderate to severe disabilities

31. COACH Model • Choosing Outcomes and Accommodations for Children • Curricular priorities • Being safe and healthy • Having a home, now and in the future • Having meaningful relationships • Having choice and control consistent with age and culture • Participating in meaningful activities in various places