Designed for Diverse Communication Experiences
System Components
The Alt ELPA’s system components are thoughtfully designed by a principled approach, allowing the system to meet the unique communication needs of English learners with the most significant cognitive disabilities.
Items
The Alt ELPA’s accessible assessment items are designed to allow students to fully demonstrate their English language knowledge and skills in the domains of listening, reading, speaking, and writing. Items reflect consideration of the range of students’ unique communication experiences, application of principles of Universal Design for Learning, and best practices related to item development, accessibility, and accommodations.
Scoring
English learners with the most significant cognitive disabilities deserve a scoring system that accounts for their diverse communication experiences. To this end, we are designing a scoring model that supports reliable, valid, and fair scores. The Alt ELPA will report at the modality level (receptive, productive) with domain-level subscores (listening, reading, writing, speaking) and an overall proficiency score. The overall proficiency is determined through the pattern and level of performance across the four domains and considers how the language domains interact.
