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 scor es in Kentucky's statewide alternate assessment program for students with s evere 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 qual ity (i.e., observed indicators of best practices for students with moderate and severe disabilities) and Individualized Education Program (IEP) qualit y were correlated with the students' alternate assessment scores. Results i ndicated a significant relationship between overall program quality and the resulting Alternate Portfolio scores, but not between assessment scores an d IEP quality. Finally, for these 60 students, Alternate Portfolio scores w ere positively related to the school's educational accountability index for all students and with the percentage improvement within each school's over all accountability index over the previous 2-year reporting cycle.