Alternative Assessments and Curriculum
What's Required
300.114 LRE requirements. (a) General. (1) Except as provided in 300.324(d)(2) (regarding children with disabilities in adult prisons), the State must have in effect policies and procedures to ensure that public agencies in the State meet the LRE requirements of this section and §§300.115 through 300.120. (2) Each public agency must ensure that—(i) To the maximum extent appropriate, children with disabilities, including children in public or private institutions or other care facilities, are educated with children who are non-disabled; and (ii) Special classes, separate schooling, or other removal of children with disabilities from the regular educational environment occurs only if the nature or severity of the disability is such that education in regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily. (34 CFR 300.115I(b)).
(c) Alternate assessments. (1) A State (or, in the case of a district-wide assessment, an LEA) must develop and implement alternate assessments and guidelines for the participation of children with disabilities in alternate assessments for those children who cannot participate in regular assessments, even with accommodations, as indicated in their respective IEPs, as provided in paragraph (a) of this section. (2) For assessing the academic progress of students with disabilities under Title I of the ESEA, the alternate assessments and guidelines in paragraph (c)(1) of this section must provide for alternate assessments that—(i) Are aligned with the State's challenging academic content standards and challenging student academic achievement standards; (ii) If the State has adopted alternate academic achievement standards permitted in 34 CFR 200.1(d), measure the achievement of children with the most significant cognitive disabilities against those standards, and (iii) Except as provided in paragraph (c)(2)(ii) of this section, a State's alternate assessments, if any, must measure the achievement of children with disabilities against the State's grade-level academic achievement standards, consistent with 34 CFR 200.6(a)(2)(ii)(A). (3) Consistent with 34 CFR 200.1(e), a State may not adopt modified academic achievement standards for any students with disabilities under section 602(3) of the Act. (34 CFR 300.160(c)).
What We Do
Alternate Curriculum:
Teachers follow the general curricula including the TEKS Resource System, Bilingual Language Arts, Origo through modification/adaptation and supplemental materials. Math teachers also use programs such as Equals for math. Functional skills development is embedded in the adjusted lessons across the content areas. For example, Language Arts, Math, and Science can be addressed using a Cooking lesson that supplements curriculum concepts. Language Arts, Math, and Social Studies/Social Skills can be addressed through Community-Based Instruction (trips into the community). Social skills are embedded throughout Social Studies lessons. Students with multiple disabilities are assessed in a variety of ways at TSD including curriculum based measures, projects, hands on activities, and unit tests.
Alternate Curriculum Participation Requirements:
TSD does its best to push students to take as many general academic and CTE courses as possible. Prior to determining if the alternate curriculum is appropriate for a student, the admission, review and dismissal (ARD)/ Individualized Education Program (IEP) committee must understand the characteristics of the student’s disability that warrants participation in the alternate curriculum and the potential future implications of this decision.
STAAR Alternate 2 Participation Requirements:
Only students receiving special education services and who meet all of the requirements (as determined by the ARD/IEP committee), may participate in the STAAR Alt 2 assessment. In order to participate, the student must meet all of the following:
- have a significant cognitive disability (Intellectual disability)
- require specialized supports to access the grade-level curriculum and environment
- require intensive individualized instruction in a variety of instructional settings
- access and participate in the grade-level TEKs through prerequisite skills (student expectations from earlier grades)