WASL test | Autism PDD

Hi, I am new.  I have a 15 year old with PDD.  In Washington state, students are required to pass the Washington Assessment of Student Learning before they are allowed to graduate.  I wonder if anyone out there can tell me what her rights are in this situation.  Does she HAVE to take it?  What if she does not pass it by the time she is a senior?  HELP! quiquine6139078.8491319444

Thank you.  We do have accomadtions for testing, but not adaptions of his work at this time.  This year has been extremely challenging.  I will be convening an IEP meeting and asking for his work to be modified.  Thanks.  I got advice from a few others on the board too.  I really appreciate the help.  

I live in NY and we have Regents exams for all the core subjects.  If a child does not pass the Regents tests, he can be given RCT tests, which are less difficult.  Until 2013, that is.  At that point, the RCT tests will be obsolete and ALL kids in NY will have to pass the Regents exams in order to get ANY HS diploma. I took my son out of the Regents track in 9th grade because it became totally clear to me that if he is required to study for THOSE tests he won't have the time to learn the things HE'LL need in HIS life. So he is getting an IEP diploma (he's 15 going on 16).  That means he just has to meet the goals in his IEP.  It is NOT a legal HS diploma.  Unless a child is getting an IEP diploma, the child DOES have to meet the state's testing criteria.  Of course, all accommodations in her IEP apply.  If your daughter doesn't meet those testing criteria, she won't get a HS diploma. This is Federal law (NCLB) but the criteria vary from state to state.I live in WA and am a special educator. All students are required to take some form of state assessment. There are several options and several potential limitations based on those options. Since I don't know more about how impacted your daughter is - I'll give you all the scenarios. I'm assuming that your daughter is on an IEP. If she is, all this should have been explained to you at her recent meeting. This information is not totally new and we are required to discuss the WASL at each meeting. I even have to discuss it with my kindergarten students parents.

First: One can take the WASL with or without accommodations. Any accommodations must be documented in the IEP and used with the student on a regular basis, not just on the WASL. The accommodations must also be on the list of approved accommodations from the state. For example, a student can not have a reader read the reading passages of the reading test - if that was allowed, we wouldn't be testing the students reading ability. There are quite a few accommodations available, but like I said, it needs to be documented on the IEP and used or at least available to the student on a daily basis. If/when the student passes the WASL with or without accommodations AND meets the rest of the regular high school requirement, the student will receive a diploma with a certificate of ACADEMIC achievement on it. Four year universities will want students to have that type of certificate. (mind you, the university might not come out and tell you that). Students have multiply trials to pass the WASL and if a student doesn't pass, there are means to then try to prove mastery in the area by additional means.

Second: A student can take an alternative assessment. There are two types of alternative assessments available. One is for the student to take the WASL with or without accommodations and have a lower level of proficiency to pass. What that means is that as a 10th grader, she could take the 10th grade WASL and instead of needing a score of 3 or 4 on each test to pass, she would only need a score of a 2 to pass. The second type of alternative assessment is the portfollio. This assessment is for the lowest functioning students who for whatever reason, aren't able to take a paper/pencil test. Think moderately to severely disabled students. This assessment is a portfollio that the teacher completes based on guidelines to show how a student make progress on and IEP objective in each WASL test area. If a student passes an alternative assessment, the high school diploma has a Certificate of INDIVIDUAL achievement attached to it. This certificate will probably not get a student directly into a 4 year university.

Now if your daughter DOES NOT have an IEP, then everything I just said is moot. You could perhaps try to get her some accommodations by requesting a Section 504 plan. 504 plans are to provide accommodations for someone with a documented disability. It is a civil liberties act, not a special education issue.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.

This is kind of off subject, but a little on.  I need help with something.  Adam is in 6th grade this year and the work has become very challenging for him.  I just had to sign two science tests that he only scored a 35 on.  I do believe that he would be failing this subject.  Now he is having a social studies test tomorrow, and I know he will fail.  How does the school determine if he will pass?  He has an IEP with accomodations, but the work is not different.  Below is the example of his test quetions for tomorrow.  There is now way with his level of pragmatics that he can contrast life in acient Rome and now. 

What do I do?????

 I plan to give them a vocabulary word and they need to provide a definition.  For example, monarchy, forum, pater familias - these are all words that we've studied and I've told the students to take notes.  Secondly, I'm asking the students to retell the story of Romulus and Remus and explain differences between two different classes of people who lived in ancient Rome.  Lastly, we have been discussing lifestyles from ancient Rome and I will give the students a list of topics (ex., religion, education, weddings, entertainment) and ask students to provide ways they are different and ways they are the same to today (for only two of them). 

 

My son too will need to take an assessment test in February.  We live in Florida and we have what is called the FCAT.  I'm so not looking forward to this!  I'm printing so many FCAT examples off the internet and trying so hard to go over some of the things I know he might not understand.  Even though he has accommodations written in his IEP, he will still need to have the same score to pass like everyone else does.  This year, he will need to pass reading, math, and science.

Adamsmom...I feel for you!  If my son had that type of test, he would have one sentence paragraphs for each question!   

Adamsmom,

What areas does your child qualify under: reading, written language, math, social, etc. My guess is that you should be able to ask for modified curriculum which would then allow for different type of questions to be asked and different expectations to be allowed while still assessing knowledge of content. I would recommend talking with his special education teacher,  (ok, again assuming he's on an IEP), call for an IEP meeting and discuss the issue. If he's not on and IEP, you can ask for a 504 plan and address how accommodations can be made for him.

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