Please share the pros and cons of using alternate assessments such as the VGLA and VSEP with students with mild disabilities.
Why are there so many students utilizing the VGLA and none utilizing the VSEP in Roanoke County?
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The VSEP is time consuming and labor intensive for teachers who are already overwhelmed by the paperwork, meetings, worry about legal issues, and a desire to be creative/effective.
ReplyDeleteAfter hearing colleagues viewpoints on VGLA, some students are being placed on VGLA for the wrong reasons. All team members need to focus on the reasons that VGLA's were "invented". VSEP not being used totally confuses me. Is it because high school age students are more aware of differences and want the challenge of taking the SOL's??
ReplyDeleteI have only ever used VSEP one time several years ago and said I would never want to go through that process again. Not only was there a huge amount of paper work involved, but the justification for the student needing VSEP was amazing. It was also difficult to get the appropriate work from the student. I guess if I thought a student would benefit from VSEP I would do it again, but there has to be a better way. As always in SPED, time is the issue.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the pressure to prepare students to perform on SOL tests with high pass rates is one of the underlying reasons that so many students are placed on VGLAs. I think that we need to look carefully at the questions asked when an IEP team is considering whether a student qualifies for VGLA testing. I fear that we are placing many students on this form of assessment unnecessarily.
ReplyDeleteIt takes so much time to collect evidence for VGLA binders, especially in 3rd grade (!), that sometimes students participating in this form of testing end up missing a lot of time in the regular classroom in order to produce VGLA work samples. That being said, of course there are many students who truly qualifty for VGLA testing and are unable to demonstrate their mastery of SOL objectives through multiple choice format.
As far as VSEP is concerned, it does seem a little curious that very few students on VGLAs in elementary school end up on VSEPs in secondary school. I feel sure it has a lot to do with the paperwork, the time it takes to collect evidence, and the wealth of objectives (with numerous bullets included) that need to be worked on. Also, I'm sure it's easier to arrange the schedule and find time in elementary school to work on goals for alternate testing than in secondary settings.
I agree with Billie Jean that the VSEP is time consuming and a great intense labor issue for both the teachers and the students. Most high school teachers prefer to remediate students for SOL testing rather than complete a VSEP. Most "grey area students" at the high school level are participating in the VAAP assessment based upon the IEP committee decision. How to assess "the grey area students" continues to be a major issue for our students.
ReplyDeleteAlternate assessment- LISA YORK
ReplyDeleteI believe the VGLA is beneficial to those students who have memory issues, reading issues (decoding and comprehension), processing issues, and/or difficulties sustaining attention to long passages and tests. Do I think it is subjective? Yes. (How is it that one student gets a 2 while another gets a 3 on evidence submitted that is basically the same?-the “2” had higher percentages overall than the “3” with more evidence submitted!) Do I think those students who are on VGLA are required to submit much more evidence of an SOL learned versus those taking the regular SOL tests? YES! ( 2 or 3 pages of prefixes/suffix assessments versus 1 question (maybe) on the SOL test). As Robyn commented, the pressure upon us to get passing scores to meet accreditation is immense. Without VGLA, many of our students would not pass due to the disability issues previously mentioned. However, the time it takes on a regular basis to assess all the required SOLS (especially at the third grade level), is a concern.
I can’t speak for VSEP requirements since I didn’t realize the percentage of VSEPS was significantly less that VGLAS. I can only assume from others’ comments that it too requires an immense amount of work, documentation, and time. We do have a little more scheduling flexibility at the elementary level which allows us to test at different times during the day. I do know this, however. It certainly makes you wonder when a 10 year old with significant medical, attentional, and processing issues, tells you that “it’s kind of embarrassing“ when he is asked to do a “rhythm pattern” to assess a Kdg. SOL for the 3rd grade Math VGLA.
I agree with Robyn in that there is such pressure to prepare students to perform on SOL tests with high pass rates and that is one of the underlying reasons that so many students are placed on VGLAs. I do believe that we often place students on this type of assessment when they truely don't meet the criteria. I feel that some administrators really push teachers, even more so than others to try to get their students to qualify for VGLAs because they are under such pressure for their school to get those high pass rates.
ReplyDeleteI feel like more children can get passing scores on VGLA's than on SOL tests, which in turn, helps us meet AYP. However, VGLAs are very time consuming for teachers to collect all the evidence and put together the binders which are turned in. I believe that 3rd grade VGLAs are definitely the most difficult because you have to cover K-3rd grade SOLs. The children must come out of their classroom and miss instruction in order to complete the K-2 criteria for the VGLA.
I find it very interesting that so many students participate in the VGLA in elementary school, but do not participate in the VSEP in high school. I would bet that teachers try to avoid doing them because of how time consuming and labor intensive they are.
Cons: Time consuming, requires a lot of paperwork. Most students with mild disabilities can access SOL’s with the appropriate accommodations. VSEP can be valuable for students with severe processing disorders and short memory recall.
ReplyDeleteWe have students that transfer to the high school that were assessed using a VGLA. The students then come to the high school and pass the SOL’s in the traditional manner with appropriate accommodations. Some students may not pass the first time but will pass on subsequent testing.
As we get closer to 100% AYP pass requirements, alternate methods of assessments such as the VGLA will become more and more used and misused. It can be a more authentic measure of learning than a test that contains one question per topic... how do you know the student didn't just make a lucky guess? And, we are required ot address all of the "verbs" written in the SOL, but the test may not. In many ways we are holding our students with disabilities to a higher standard than the general education population.
ReplyDeleteThe VGLA is extremely time consuming, and despite our best efforts, requires that the students are pulled out of class to complete work samples, thus missing instruction, group activities, etc. These days, when inclusion is the rule, pulling out students who can access the gen. ed. curriculum seems to oppose inclusive goals.
I didn't know that the VSEP was so un-used by the High Schools, but I imagine that with larger class rolls, it just becomes impossible to collect the amount of evidence, do the paperwork, etc., and still deliver a quality education to the remainder of the class.
Children with menmory deficits and decoding disabilities need an Alternate Assessment. They are able to pass and be sucessful on the SOL's. Although I feel the VGLA is not a true indication of mastery of the SOL's. It is a labor intensive assessment for both the child and the teacher. There is an ernormous amount of stress on the teacher to complete the VGLA. It also takes the teacher out of the classroom to complete the VGLA, leaving the children taking the SOL test in the classroom without support.
ReplyDeleteI feel there are so many VGLA's because of the pressure on the administrators from Central Office and from the administrators on the teachers to meet AYP. A lot of children with disabilities fall into more than one subgroup in AYP. The pressure makes teaching very stressful.
I cannot speak to VESEP's. Although it is odd that there are so many VGLA's in elementary schools and very few VSEP's in Middle Schools and High Schools.
Having done a number of VGLAs and VAAPs over the past several years, I can say that they are extremely time-consuming, and a burden for the teachers involved (especially 3rd grade). The paperwork is crushing. I think we, at the elementary level, must do the alternate assessments to give our schools a better chance at having passing scores and making AYP. The students at our level have only one chance to pass the tests in any particular grade. I was surprised that the VSEP wasn't being utilized at all, but realizing how much extra work it is for the teachers, I understand.
ReplyDeleteThe VGLA-- It's one of those things that sounds good on paper to someone sitting in an office far, far away from our classrooms but in reality ...
ReplyDeleteI have spent hours upon hours of not only my school time but my personal time working on these assessments over the years.(I have 3rd gr.) I have neglected myself, my home, and my own children at times to work on "the notebooks". It's one thing to devote a lot of time and energy to a project that you feel passionate about, it's another story to feel physically and emotionally drained because of worksheets that need to be modified, created, copied, completed, graded, stickered, copied for another section, filed, etc., etc. Oh yeah, somewhere along the way the actual skills need to be taught too.
Because there is such a huge "grey zone", we are often forced to chose the lesser of 2 evils because there is not a test that really fits. I don't know how to feel good about that.
I feel a real commitment to Roanoke Co., my school, my principal, and my co-teachers to make it work. But what about my commitment to my students?
I will end on a positive note to say that at times, VGLAs can be an effective way to assess if the criteria truly fits and there is a team of teachers dedicated to make it work for the student.
ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENTS- MELANIE
ReplyDeleteShare the pros and cons of using alternate assessments such as VGLA and VSEP with students with mild disabilities.
There is too much pressure to pass SOL tests with high pass rates. Students are identified unnecessarily for VGLA. It is beneficial for students with processing, comprehension, and working memory, but many students participate when they do not have such disabilities. The focus is on the accommodations. If we carefully determine the needed accommodations for the students, they will have an equal opportunity to pass the SOL.
Unfortunately, the amount of work required to complete portfolio’s challenges us to “teach to the test” rather than provide lessons to address real world experiences and create meaningful assignments for students. VGLA is extremely time consuming. When students are being “pulled out” to complete work samples, they are missing valuable instruction. When we get to this point, they are not receiving quality instruction.