A –– Student Already has this Skill (scored A on Prerequisite Skills training): The assessor's discretion can be used to score an A in the Prerequisite Skills for any skill that in the assessor's judgment the student has already attained this skill.
AA-AAAS –– Alternate Assessment based on Alternate Academic Achievement Standards. AA-AAS are linked to grade level content, but reduced in depth, breadth, and complexity. An alternate assessment is expected to reflect the highest possible standards for students with significant cognitive disabilities.
Assessment Window –– Refers to the dates when the assessments can be administered to students. Found at this website from ODE: http://www.oregon.gov/ode/educator-resources/assessment/AltAssessment/Pages/default.aspx.
BRT –– Behavioral Research and Teaching, University of Oregon: www.brtprojects.org. BRT is the test vendor for the ORExt and also manages this Training & Proficiency website.
CCSS –– Common Core State Standards. Oregon adopted these academic content standards in ELA and Mathematics.
Content Items –– The Content Items represent the critical grade-level content of the assessment and are represented by items that test a student's knowledge and skill surrounding grade level content standards. These items are scored on a scale of accuracy.
C & I –– Curricular and instructional templates, located at the following website: http://lms.brtprojects.org.
ELA –– English language arts. The ELA assessment targets reading, writing, and language standards from the CCSS.
Essentialized Assessment Frameworks –– The documents containing the targeted CCSS, Oregon Science Standards, and NGSS used to effect the test blueprint for ELA, Math, and Science ORExt assessments.
Essentialization –– The systematic and explicit process used by BRT to reduce the depth, breadth, and complexity of the CCSS, the Oregon Science Standards, and the NGSS. The Essentialized Standards resultant from this process were used for all new item development for the ORExt. All items on the new ORExt are designed to align directly with the Essentialized Standards, which are, in turn, linked to the relevant grade level academic content standards.
Full Physical Support (scored 1 on Prerequisite Skills training) –– Student receives support such as hand-over-hand to complete the item successfully.
Independence for Access –– A score which indicates the overall level of support an assessor would expect to provide the student to access an item (used only for training purposes).
Independent (scored 4 on Prerequisite Skills training) –– Student requires and receives no support or prompting during the administration of items.
IEP –– Individualized Education Program, defining the special education and related services needed for a student to access and progress in the general education curriculum.
Item –– A written and/or visual description of a question/problem that a student is expected to solve in order to demonstrate knowledge/skills that are linked to grade level academic content, along with the relevant answer choice options.
Levels of Independence –– The level of support provided to a student, from Full Physical Support, to Partial Physical, to Verbal/Gestural, to Independent (coded 1 - 4, respectively; used only for training purposes).
NGSS –– Next Generation Science Standards. Oregon adopted these academic content standards for assessment purposes in the 2017-18 school year.
ODE –– Oregon Department of Education: http://www.oregon.gov/ode/
ORExt –– The Oregon Extended Assessment. Oregon's AA-AAAS used for Title 1 assessment system accountability purposes.
ORora –– The Oregon Observational Rating Assessment. This assessment is used to document progress for students who are so low functioning that they cannot access the reduced complexity academic items on the ORExt. The test results are used for descriptive purposes and include a Level of Independence domain, as well as a Communication domain.
PLAAFP –– Present levels of academic achievement and functional performance, defining a student's current level of functioning in order to establish a reliable baseline for developing appropriate IEP goals and objectives.
QA –– A Qualified Assessor is a teacher, speech pathologist, school psychologist, or administrator who has received training and passed the proficiency tests on the Oregon Extended Assessments training and proficiency website in the current school year an assessment is administered.
QT –– A Qualified Trainer is a teacher, speech pathologist, school psychologist, or administrator who was a QA and has received additional training from state trainers. A QT trains teachers and others who wish to become a QA.
Partial Physical Support (scored 2 on Prerequisite Skills training) –– In order for the student to be successful, the Assessor provides some physical contact with the student such as a prompting touch to the student's hand or elbow to prompt action etc. during the administration of the item.
Prerequisite Skills –– Skills that are developmental in leading to the Content Items. Prerequisite Skills are not assessed, but should be used to guide Assessors in the provision of support on the operational test Items in a manner that does not violate the item construct.
RDBC –– Reduced in Depth, Breadth, and Complexity. This refers to the process of increasing student access to test content by reducing the complexity of the performance demanded by test items, including a reduction of the scope of content mastery required as well as the overall cognitive demand of the item.
Refresher Proficiency –– A 25 question proficiency test that a QA or QT from the previous school year must pass in the current school year to retain their status as a Qualified Assessor or Qualified Trainer.
Scoring Protocol –– One of the two sets of materials necessary in the physical administration of the ORExt. The scoring protocol is used by the Assessor to read the questions (and directive statements, where appropriate) to the student and to score the student responses.
Student Materials –– One of the two sets of materials necessary in the physical administration of the ORExt. The student materials are those materials that have a visual representation of the assessment items and are presented to the student when a question is asked.
Electronic Administration –– The ORExt is available in a electronic administration for students who can access the test content in this format. Practice tests for tablet/desktop administration will be provided on this website to help QAs and students familiarize themselves with the test format and also to help QAs make test format decisions.
Verbal, gestural, or visual supports (scored 3 for Prerequisite Skills training) –– The Assessor provides any (or a combination) of the following (a) additional verbal prompting (b) more specific gesturing toward the materials to indicate the intent of the item, (c) physical adjustment of the materials so that they are in a optimal visual location for the student's needs.