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Access Guide: Students with Significant Disabilities: Curriculum Instruction and Assessment Issues

Louisiana Department of Education

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Legal Mandates
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA 04) requires that all students with disabilities have access to the general education curriculum. IDEA 04 emphasizes raised expectations for all students with disabilities through the provision of challenging academic standards, and the use of alternate assessment aligned to academic content standards at grade-level. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) also requires the implementation of alternate assessments for students with significant disabilities that is aligned to grade-level content. The Louisiana Department of Education’s website provides extensive information regarding general curriculum requirements and resources for the state, including the Louisiana Content Standards, Grade-Level Expectations, and the Louisiana Comprehensive Curriculum. Further information can be found at http://www.louisianaschools.net/lde/saa/2257.html.
Louisiana Extended Standards
Louisiana students with significant disabilities who meet the LEAP Alternate Assessment, Level 1 (LAA1) Participation Criteria must have access to the general education curriculum, including the content standards, benchmarks, and Grade-Level Expectations (GLEs). In addition, the Extended Standards, based upon the benchmarks and GLEs, have been developed for these students in the areas of English language arts, mathematics and science. The Extended Standards capture the essence of the GLEs and provide a way for students with significant cognitive disabilities to access the general education curriculum. Extended Standards do not represent the entire curriculum for a given grade or content area. Rather, they represent the core academic content that may be assessed at each grade span and serve to: · articulate academic learning from one grade to the next · facilitate access to grade level content · move from the concrete to the abstract · attend to prerequisite skills and understandings The Extended Standards can be found on the Louisiana Department of Education’s website at http://www.louisianaschools.net/lde/uploads/11618.pdf
Grade-Level Expectations: Considerations for Students with Significant Disabilities
Students with significant disabilities will address a variety of GLEs and Extended Standards, depending upon their grade level. It is not expected that these students will always master the content; however, they should be exposed to as many meaningful educational experiences as other students addressing the general education curriculum. The Grade-Level Expectations in the general education curriculum increase in complexity from elementary to middle to high school, supporting the acquisition of higher skill levels as students progress from grade to grade. This same progression should be evident in how students with significant disabilities access the curriculum. Furthermore, the instructional materials used by students should be age-appropriate and should reflect grade level content modified to meet students’ needs. Input from multiple team members, along with collaboration with general educators, is key in the process. Priority GLEs for students with significant disabilities should be identified in each core academic content area, should be reflective of the abilities and interests of the students, and should follow the scope and sequence of our State curriculum. To accomplish this, instructional teams should examine the grade band GLEs that will be addressed through the course of the school year. It is important to note that many of the GLEs addressed in the State curriculum appear repeatedly within a grade level and across grade levels with increasing complexity. The GLEs identified for students with significant disabilities should reflect this growth in complexity both within a school year and across grade levels. Since the LEAP Alternate Assessment Level 1 is designed across specific grade spans (i.e., grades 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, and 9-11), it is appropriate to focus curriculum in this same manner. For a complete list of Grade-Level Expectations for all students across content areas, click here.
Functional Skills
Students with significant disabilities may certainly be taught functional skills. Although the LEAP Alternate Assessment, Level 1 addresses academic skills, functional skills needed by a student should be addressed through the IEP and assessed in the context of classroom instruction. There has been a national shift in general education to make classroom learning more contextual. Making the classroom learning experience more contextual will provide embedded opportunities for all students to learn and practice functional skills.
Foundation Skills
The Foundation Skills,embedded within the Louisiana Content Standards, are applied to all students in all disciplines. As the term implies, these skills form a foundation for all students’ programs. The foundation skills represent global outcomes for all students who are to become lifelong learners and productive citizens. While these skills apply to both students with and without disabilities, they may represent major areas of focus for students with the most significant disabilities. The following are sample ways in which students evidence foundation skills: Communication · Joint attention · Ask for Help · Follow directives · Answer questions · Initiate communication · Respond to systematic/movement cues · Orient to sound and/or speaker · Communicate for various purposes (e.g., for needs, wants, expressing opinions, commenting) · Attend to others Problem-Solving · Attention and focus · Make a choice among items · Making associations · Matching · Cause/effect · Patterning/sequencing · 1 : 1 correspondences Resource access and utilization · Use the internet to access information · Check out books/DVDs/CDs from library · Use information booth in public places · Identify and access resource personnel Linking and generating knowledge · Utilize library resources to gather information · Use assistive technology (AT) to gather and express information · Apply learned skills in a variety of environments · Actively participate in classroom Citizenship · Follow rules – participate in society, school, community, and classroom · Participate in clubs and committees · Self-advocate · Express opinions, make choices, make requests, ask questions · Respond to greetings · Share materials · Respond to others request for help · Acknowledge others · Participate in corporative learning groups · Attend school · Hold a job · Access public facilities