Universal Design and Assessment

Assessment means many things in education. Roughly speaking, there are three general types of assessment used: diagnostic, formative, and summative.

Summative assessments are generally used to make placement, promotion, retention, graduation, and/or accountability decisions. They tend to be “large-scale” assessments, which are given infrequently (for example, annually). Examples of summative assessments would include annual statewide testing of students either “high-stakes” purposes (e.g. the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, or MCAS) and/or system accountability purposes (e.g. demonstrating Adequate Yearly Progress for the No Child Left Behind Act).

Formative assessments are used to track student progress and inform teacher decision-making. Formative assessments tend to be instructionally embedded and continuous, and are generally intended to monitor student performance during the instructional episode so that teachers can implement interventions before students fail. Examples of formative assessment systems include Curriculum-Based Measurement.

Diagnostic assessments are used to evaluate general student characteristics, such as aptitude, abilities, and disabilities. Examples would include the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children® for evaluating intellectual abilities and the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests® for evaluating reading abilities.

These three categories of assessment are not mutually exclusive. A diagnostic assessment, for example, could be used in a summative fashion to determine whether a child has achieved a set level achievement, and a summative assessment could be used formatively to assess change over time. Note, however, that using an assessment for the wrong purpose can significantly compromise its validity.

An additional important distinction should be made between norm-referenced and criterion-referenced assessments. Norm-referenced assessments are used to understand how a student compares with his or her peers, while criterion-referenced assessments are used to evaluate student knowledge and abilities against determined standards.

CAST is currently engaged in research on how to make summative and formative assessments more accessible, and hence accurate, for diverse students, especially those with disabilities. Since assessment is an integral part of learning, we feel that the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) can help inform this process.

Summative Assessment Initiatives at CAST

CAST is currently involved in several research initiatives exploring the role of digital technologies and UDL in creating large-scale assessments that are more accessible for students with disabilities:

Computer-Based Testing and Universally Designed Large Scale Assessments
With funding from the Peter Jay Sharp Foundation and LD ACCESS Foundation, CAST is conducting a series of studies exploring the use of computer-based testing accommodations in creating universally designed large-scale assessments for high school students with learning disabilities (LD). Through 2005, CAST will pursue this line of research, studying the potential of text-to-speech, writing supports, and other technology-based supports for improving the accessibility, accuracy, and fairness of large-scale assessments for high school students with learning disabilities.

Universal Design of Assessment: Applications of Technology
This three-year project, supported by a Directed Research Grant from the Office of Special Education Programs within the U.S. Department of Education, is being conducted in conjunction with the Inclusive Large-Scale Standards and Assessment (ILSSA) group at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. Jacqui Kearns, Ed.D. at ILSSA and Bob Dolan, Ph.D., at CAST are co-principal investigators. Begun in 2002, the project addresses the following five research questions:

1. What are the practical, procedural, and political design and implementation features of accessible computer-based assessments?
2. What prerequisite technology skills do students need to use computer-based assessments?
3. What is the impact of a computer-based universally designed assessment on the scores of students with disabilities?
4. To what extent does accessible curriculum design impact student assessment results?
5. Can the universally designed assessment design features be replicated with new content in the context of a different state?

Research is being conducted in partnership with the Kentucky and Maine departments of education, and will involve students and teachers in these schools.

New England Compact Enhanced Assessment Grant

The goals of the project address two major challenges:

1. To create inclusive yet rigorous and valid state assessments that accurately measure content knowledge and academic skills of all students, and
2. To improve teachers’ capacity to enable every student to achieve the success envisioned in the NCLB Act.

As a subcontractor, CAST is developing the computer architecture to support the delivery of assessment exemplar research modules across grades 3-8 in English/language arts and mathematics. CAST is also providing teaching training facilities for the project. CAST’s Bob Dolan, Ph.D., and Tracey Hall, Ph.D., are members of the project’s Research Technical Advisory Committee, lending their expertise in the universal design of assessments.

Alternate Assessment Collaborative Enhanced Assessment Grant
CAST has a subcontract to this multi-state, U.S. Department of Education-funded project to assist states in enhancing their alternate assessments for students with disabilities. Colorado is the lead state on the project, which also includes Illinois, Iowa, New Hampshire, Oregon, Missouri, South Carolina, West Virginia & Wyoming.

The project is creating a variety of assessment resources so that states and local districts can develop, pilot test, and refine alternate assessment methods for use at the state or local levels. In addition, the project is researching existing and newly created alternate assessments to better inform decisions about the reliability, validity, and practicality of these assessments.

Measured Progress, ILSSA at the University of Kentucky, CAST, and Colorado State University will lend their expertise to the project. As a subcontractor, CAST is assisting in making the assessments as universally designed as possible by developing training materials for the project’s State Development Teams and reviewing assessment materials.

Formative Assessment Initiatives at CAST
CAST is currently exploring the use of formative assessment techniques in all of its technology-supported, UDL-based research projects. In addition, we are awaiting notification of funding requests for specific explorations into how UDL can inform curriculum-embedded assessment.