In this article, the authors share a unique and unfolding story about a program in Virginia that allows districts to opt into a series of Inquiry Design Model (IDM) performance assessments in place of the state-developed multiple-choice test. In the Rockingham County School District, this initiative was piloted in ninth-grade World Geography…

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) cemented a standardized testing assessment culture in the United States but research has highlighted the inequities (Au, 2020; Dixon, 1978; Grodsky et al., 2008; Khan, 2020; Moses & Nanna, 2007), unreliability (Hunt et al., 2010; Pizmony-Levy & Green Saraisky, 2016) and negative impacts (Berryhill et al., 2009;…

A school in Virginia serves students with significant cognitive disabilities (SWSCDs) whose full scale IQ scores are 40 and below. The problem is the SWSCDs were administered the Virginia Alternate Assessment Program (VAAP) and did not perform well from 2017 to 2019. As a result, the school did not receive state accreditation. The purpose of this…

In 2014 the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation replacing end-of-course, multiple-choice assessments with locally developed alternative assessments in five courses, including two middle school social studies courses. This policy allowed Virginia school divisions the autonomy to develop the format, quantity, and focus of their assessments…

Despite evidence suggesting that standardized tests are an imperfect measure of academic readiness, many community colleges across the country rely on them alone to determine student course placement. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced campuses to transition to remote operations in spring 2020, proctoring in-person placement tests became…

After nearly two decades of federal and state accountability requirements relying on conventional standardized assessments, Virginia and several other states are moving to create more balanced approaches to statewide assessment systems that include the use of performance assessments. But Palm (2008) states, "Performance assessment can mean…

The purpose for this study was to develop a descriptive account of one large Virginia school district's plan for implementation of alternative, locally developed assessments designed to supplant standardized measures. As policy reform with alternative assessments has been under-researched for the past 30 years, there is a need for studies…

States with an alternate assessment based on modified achievement standards (AA-MAS) that received a flexibility waiver from some of the requirements of No Child Left Behind are required to phase out their use of this assessment. And, on August 23, 2013, the U.S. Department of Education published a proposed rollback of regulation that allowed the…

Federal policy initiatives such as the flexibility waivers for accountability are requiring that states transition away from the use of an alternate assessment based on modified achievement standards (AA-MAS). It is expected that those students who had participated in that assessment will instead participate in the state's general assessment (or a…

In this article, the author investigates whether an alternative grading system (contract grading) would yield the same final grades as traditional grading (letter grading), and whether or not it would be accepted by students. The author states that this study demonstrated that contract grading was widely, and for the most part, enthusiastically…

Federal legislation requires that all students participate in state accountability systems. Most students with disabilities participate in the regular assessment, with or without accommodations. Students with more significant cognitive disabilities participate in the Alternate Assessment based on Alternate Achievement Standards (AA-AAS). A few…

Students with disabilities have traditionally achieved to a lesser degree than have their nondisabled peers. Since the 1950s the federal government has enacted laws to provide free, appropriate public education to students with disabilities. In the first decade of the 21st; Century the government has produced legislation requiring schools to be…

The Virginia Alternate Assessment Program (VAAP) is the assessment tool that Virginia uses to measure the progress of students with significant cognitive disabilities on the state's Aligned Standards of Learning (ASOL). The VAAP was developed in order to comply with No Child Left Behind's (2001) requirement of educational accountability for all…

Instructors at community colleges around Virginia have been assessing student learning informally and formally since their opening, but recently, with renewed emphasis on accountability and documentation, a group of faculty and administrators were brought together to study the assessment process and develop procedures to ensure that…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act requires state programs to adopt standards for all children, including those with disabilities, in state and district-wide assessments with the provision of appropriate and necessary accommodations. For students who cannot participate in state and district-wide assessments, the law requires that…