Dynamic leaning maps, 10/2012

              A newsletter about the Dynamic Learning Maps Alternate Assessment System
Dynamic Learning Maps Alternate Assessment
System: Advancing Alternate Assessment
October 2012
Highlights
• Online and computer based
• Created to assess students with
significant cognitive disabilities
• Individualized to adapt to student
needs
• Embedded assessments
	
throughout the school year and
stand-alone, summative (end-of-year)
assessments
• Assessment tasks model best
	
instructional practices
• Based upon a learning
	
map (see page 2)
• To be implemented during the
	
2014-2015 school year
About Us:
The Dynamic Learning
Maps Alternate Assessment
System Consortium is made
up of 13 states and additional
partner agencies developing the
Dynamic Learning Maps Alternate
Assessment System, a computer-based
assessment for the 1% of
the K-12 public school student
population with significant cognitive
disabilities for whom, even with
accommodations, general state
assessments are not appropriate.
Led by the Center for
Educational Testing and Evaluation
at the University of Kansas, DLM
is funded through a five-year-grant
awarded in late 2010 by the U.S.
Department of Education, Office of
Special Education Programs. The
assessment will be implemented
during the 2014-2015 school year.
The DLM Consortium is one
of two multistate consortia to
receive federal grants to create
a next-generation alternate
assessment linked to Common
Core State Standards in math and
English language arts for the 1%
population. DLM member states
are involved during every phase of
DLM-AAS development.
DLM Consortium States
Iowa • Kansas • Michigan
Mississippi • Missouri
New Jersey • North Carolina
Oklahoma • Utah • Virginia
Washington • West Virginia
Wisconsin
Who are Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities?
Students with significant cognitive disabilities make up the 1% of the K-12
public school student population for whom, even with accommodations,
general state assessments are not appropriate.Therefore, these students take
an alternate assessment. They are a broad range of students with diverse
disabilities and communications needs, and make up about 9% of all students
with disabilities.
The Dynamic Learning Maps
Alternate Assessment System
(DLM-AAS) is a comprehensive
assessment system designed
to more validly measure what
students with significant cognitive
disabilities know and can do.
Until recently when federal
laws mandated that all students
be assessed, students with
significant cognitive disabilities
were not included in large-scale
assessment. Furthermore, despite
advances in technology, it has not
been common practice to assess
students within this population
using a computer.
DLM-AAS will mark the first time
this student population is assessed
using online, computer-based,
large-scale state assessments.
Based on research into how
students learn and utilizing the
latest advances in assessment
technology, the DLM-AAS will be
able to adapt to individual student
needs based on the student’s
personal profile.
Also, the dynamic assessment
technology will adapt to the
student’s individual learning pattern
during the assessment process
and will select assessment tasks
based on the student’s previous
responses. Therefore, the system
can adapt to the student’s skill
level.
Additionally, test content is
linked to the Common Core State
Standards, educational standards
adopted by most states, through
the Essential Elements that
the DLM Consortium created,
thereby allowing for comparable
expectations and assessment
measures.
Future newsletters will provide
more details about key features of
the DLM-AAS.