Building Content Structures for Multidimensional Science Assessments for Students With Significant Cognitive Disabilities

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Abstract

In this paper, we describe the development process for articulating multidimensional content structures in science to develop alternate assessments for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. We first describe our approach to developing alternate academic content standards linked to A Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards on behalf of a consortium of State Departments of Education. Next, we describe the development of learning maps that represent the multiple ways that students may learn the multi-dimensional science content described in the alternate standards. We present evaluation data collected for different phases of the development process to support the validity argument for the new assessments.

Authors

• Russell E. Swinburne Romine, University of Kansas

• Christy Glore, University of Kansas

• Jennifer Richardson, University of Arizona

• Vanessa R Simmering, University of Kansas