New Hampshire Enhanced Assessment Instruments (2004-2006)

This project addresses the issue of technical criteria for alternate assessments, beginning with an exploration of "Knowing what students with significant cognitive disabilities know." Jim Pellegrino, from the National Research Council's Committee on the Foundations of Assessments, is facilitating discussions regarding the assessment triangle of cognition, observation, and interpretation and its influence on validity. What does a valid assessment for students with significant cognitive disabilities look like?

A nationally renowned panel of experts in measurement, assessment, academic content, policy, and special education considers this question and provides recommendations to states that need to demonstrate the technical quality of their alternate assessments. Their recommendations will result in a technical report prototype, which will be tried in four Measured Progress client states: New Hampshire, Colorado, Massachusetts, and New Mexico. Each of these states has a different model of alternate assessment, and it is anticipated that the content of a technical report will be refined, as the criteria are applied and states examine the evidence they have. 

Other partners in this project include the National Center on Educational Outcomes, the National Alternate Assessment Center, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment.