The relation of a statewide alternate assessment for students with severe disabilities to other measures of instructional effectiveness

This article is based on a study that investigated the extent to which scores in Kentucky's statewide alternate assessment program for students with severe disabilities correlated with measures of program quality and overall school effectiveness. Across 36 schools, 60 students were observed in their classroom environments, and the resulting measures of overall program quality (i.e., observed indicators of best practices for students with moderate and severe disabilities) and Individualized Education Program (IEP) quality were correlated with the students' alternate assessment scores. Results indicated a significant relationship between overall program quality and the resulting Alternate Portfolio scores, but not between assessment scores and IEP quality. Finally, for these 60 students, Alternate Portfolio scores were positively related to the school's educational accountability index for all students and with the percentage improvement within each school's overall accountability index over the previous 2-year reporting cycle.