Comments on: Alternative Testing Method For Students With Disabilities Falls Out Of Favor http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2010/02/26/portfolio-test-2/7147/ Developmental Disability News Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:55:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: deealpert http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2010/02/26/portfolio-test-2/7147/comment-page-1/#comment-1271 deealpert Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:49:48 +0000 http://www.disabilityscoop.com/?p=7147#comment-1271 There are no legitimate studies re the validity of these portfolio assessments, irrespective of what they're used for. In VA, the state was given permission to use them for alternate assessments on grade level. In NYS, they're used as the alternate assessments for severely disabled students. And, of course, virtually everybody passes and the majority of such kids score at the highest level possible. Then they don't graduate from high school, no matter what type of diploma is counted. The only constant is that the grades given out on these portfolio assessments/exams are staggeringly high. Some rigorous comparisons of grades given on these tests v. scores attained on individual diagnostic evaluations are very much in order. A number of years ago, USDOE-OSEP funded the NLST-2 and SEELS studies, which were both large-scale longitudinal studies regarding kids classified as having disabilities. One finding made in both studies (NLST-2 for secondary kids; SEELS for elementary kids) was that the correlation between subjective teacher-given grades and the same kids' objectively-assessed reading and math scores was "almost zero." There are no legitimate studies re the validity of these portfolio assessments, irrespective of what they’re used for. In VA, the state was given permission to use them for alternate assessments on grade level. In NYS, they’re used as the alternate assessments for severely disabled students. And, of course, virtually everybody passes and the majority of such kids score at the highest level possible. Then they don’t graduate from high school, no matter what type of diploma is counted. The only constant is that the grades given out on these portfolio assessments/exams are staggeringly high.

Some rigorous comparisons of grades given on these tests v. scores attained on individual diagnostic evaluations are very much in order. A number of years ago, USDOE-OSEP funded the NLST-2 and SEELS studies, which were both large-scale longitudinal studies regarding kids classified as having disabilities. One finding made in both studies (NLST-2 for secondary kids; SEELS for elementary kids) was that the correlation between subjective teacher-given grades and the same kids’ objectively-assessed reading and math scores was “almost zero.”

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