MI-ACCESS
One Critical Component of Michigan's Assessment System
by Peggy Dutcher, Coordinator, Assessment for Students with Disabilities Program, Michigan Department of Education
For many years, when the education community in Michigan talked about statewide assessments, they really meant one thing: the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP). MEAP has been in place, in one form or another, for more than 30 years and, traditionally, has been the only state assessment option for Michigan public school students.
In the past few years, however, the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) has developed additional statewide assessments. That is because federal laws—including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001—require that ALL students be assessed in the state assessment system, including those with disabilities and/or limited English proficiencies. The laws also state that if special education students cannot participate fully and appropriately in the general state assessment (MEAP), they must participate in alternate assessments.
The Michigan Educational Assessment System
In response to federal legislation, the Michigan State Board of Education adopted a resolution in 2001 that established the Michigan Educational Assessment System or MEAS. MEAS includes:
- MEAP.
- MI-Access (Michigan's Alternate Assessment Program).
- ELL-Access for English Language Learners (also referred to as LEA-alternate in the No Child Left Behind Act).
What Is MI-Access?
MI-Access is the state's standardized assessment program for students with disabilities. It is not for all students with disabilities, however; instead, it is designed for those special education students whose individualized education program (IEP) teams have determined that the MEAP, even with assessment accommodations, is not appropriate for them.
The overall purpose of MI-Access is to provide teachers, parents, and others with a point-in-time picture of what students know and are able to do. The activities selected for the assessment—all of which were designed with input from classroom teachers—are applicable to real-world situations; that is, they reflect the knowledge and skills students need to be successful in school and in adult-life roles.
Because of the student population taking part in MI-Access, it is designed differently than most standardized assessments. For example, some MI-Access assessments (Phase 1) rely entirely on teacher observations. In other words, teachers observe as the students carry out a standard set of activities during the course of a normal school day. Then, teachers score students using a standardized scoring guide, which on some assessments can be individualized for a particular student.
Other MI-Access assessments (Phase 2) incorporate a wider range of assessment item formats, including multiple-choice and extended response. Even with these options, however, the assessments are designed so that students can demonstrate their knowledge and skills in a manner consistent with their abilities. The Phase 2 assessments currently cover the content areas of English language arts and mathematics. In 2007-2008, they also will cover science.
Student Population
At present, there are two fully developed and implemented MI-Access assessments:
- MI-Access Participation, which is for students who have, or function as if they have, severe cognitive impairment.
- MI-Access Supported Independence, which is for students who have, or function as if they have, moderate cognitive impairment.
Michigan is also in the process of developing additional assessments for students who have, or function as if they have, mild cognitive impairment. Until Michigan's own assessments are developed, students who fit this description (as determined by their IEP Team) are being assessed with MI-Access Interim Phase 2 BRIGANCE assessments. These are off-the-shelf, commercially-available assessments that have been customized for use in Michigan until 2005-2006.
Administration and Reporting
MI-Access assessments are administered each year during a six-week assessment window that starts in mid-February and runs through March. The assessment window is different from the MEAP's for two reasons: (1) During development, districts indicated that they did not have the staff capacity to administer both assessments at the same time, and (2) MI-Access staff wanted educators to have a longer window for assessing students with special needs. This decision will be re-evaluated by the Office of Educational Assessment and Accountabi-lity and the Assessment for Students with Disabilities program.
Once the MI-Access assessments are administered, assessment materials are returned to BETA/TASA—the MI-Access operational contractor—for scanning and scoring.
The contractor then provides detailed reports to districts, schools, teachers, and parents before the end of the school year. A results handbook, called MI-Access Handbook: How to Understand, Interpret, and Use MI-Access Results, accompanies the reports.
The MI-Access results reports are critical because the information contained in them is used—along with MEAP results—to calculate NCLB participation rates and adequate yearly progress (AYP). MI-Access results are included in district and state calculations, as required by the NCLB. Of course, the state, districts, and schools also use the results to inform instruction and curriculum and to help parents understand what their child(ren) should know and be able to do.
What Does It Mean?
Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP): AYP is a formula required in No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and used by states, districts, and schools to ensure that a minimum percentage of students are achieving grade level standards in mathematics and English language arts. AYP targets, as required by NCLB, are set by individual states and apply to all students and each major student subgroup. If a major subgroup at the school or district level misses the AYP target, the school or district does not make AYP. A Title 1 school is in gschool improvement statush if it fails to make AYP for two consecutive years in the same content area. Schools or districts in gschool improvement statush that do not receive Title 1 funding do not have to take the same actions as Title 1 schools but will face state-designed improvement activities.
Assessment Accommodation: An adjustment in an assessment procedure, that is intended to minimize the impact of a student's disability on her/his performance on the assessment. Decisions regarding accommodations should be made on an individual, case-by-case basis and should be based on the relative appropriateness to a disability and the impact the disability has on the student. The individualized education program (IEP) team, well in advance of the actual assessment, should make decisions about accommodations.
Source: The Assist, April 2004, Volume 3, No. 4 |
To learn more about MI-Access, visit the MI-Access page on the MDE Web site, www.mi.gov/mi-access, or go to the MI-Access Information Center, www.mi-access.info.
For more information, contact: Peggy Dutcher, Michigan Department of Education, P.O. Box 30008, Lansing, MI 48909, (517) 335-0471, (517) 373-7504 fax, DutcherP@michigan.gov.
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