Alignment to Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS)
Texas has chosen the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) Alternate 2 assessment as a means of tracking progress on the TEKS curriculum for students with significant cognitive impairments. This is the same population that the Styer-Fitzgerald curriculum was designed to be used with.
Both the structure of the STAAR Alternate 2 assessment and the content of the essence statements closely align with the lesson plans, corresponding data system, and content skill areas of the Styer-Fitzgerald Program. The Styer-Fitzgerald Program helps teachers identify each student's present level of performance, develop measurable IEP goals, and assess and report individual student progress throughout the year. The skills taught in the Styer-Fitzgerald Program are sequenced so that as students progress through the curriculum, they are building on prerequisite skills that they continue to "practice" while learning the next (new) skill in the sequence.
As with the STAAR Alternate 2 assessment, the content areas of the Styer-Fitzgerald curriculum identify performance-based standards that are linked from grade level to grade level. Additionally, the Styer-Fitzgerald Program lesson plans and corresponding data sheets track progress over time, determine when to move on to the new skill, and easily connect and evaluate critical data related to each student's IEP goals and objectives.
When administering the STAAR Alternate 2 assessment, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) has specified that the testing questions and materials should be appropriate and based on methods that have been used successfully during instruction and documented on the student's IEP. The presentation and scoring instructions for administering the STAAR Alternate 2 assessment are similar to the structure of the Styer-Fitzgerald Program lesson plans and data collection systems.
For example, the guidelines specified by TEA for "Presenting, Directing, and Communicating" instructions for the STAAR Alternate 2 mirror the prompting and correction procedures in the lesson plans provided in the Styer-Fitzgerald curriculum. Information is presented to the student within the context of a real activity (present); the student is then prompted (e.g., "This says 1:00."); the student is then shown three clock faces and asked to "find the same time" or "find 1:00" (communicate).
In addition, the scoring strategies and student documentation for the STAAR Alternate 2 assessment are similar to those found in the Styer-Fitzgerald Program curriculum. For example, when the student does not answer a question correctly on the STAAR Alternate 2 assessment, the administrator is instructed to model and then ask the question again (retest). A similarly structured correction procedure is clearly presented on every lesson plan for each step of instruction in the Styer-Fitzgerald Program curriculum.
Attached are some examples of how we see the Styer-Fitzgerald Program for Functional Academics skills aligning with the STAAR Alternate 2 essence statements and prerequisite skills in some content areas.
Both the structure of the STAAR Alternate 2 assessment and the content of the essence statements closely align with the lesson plans, corresponding data system, and content skill areas of the Styer-Fitzgerald Program. The Styer-Fitzgerald Program helps teachers identify each student's present level of performance, develop measurable IEP goals, and assess and report individual student progress throughout the year. The skills taught in the Styer-Fitzgerald Program are sequenced so that as students progress through the curriculum, they are building on prerequisite skills that they continue to "practice" while learning the next (new) skill in the sequence.
As with the STAAR Alternate 2 assessment, the content areas of the Styer-Fitzgerald curriculum identify performance-based standards that are linked from grade level to grade level. Additionally, the Styer-Fitzgerald Program lesson plans and corresponding data sheets track progress over time, determine when to move on to the new skill, and easily connect and evaluate critical data related to each student's IEP goals and objectives.
When administering the STAAR Alternate 2 assessment, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) has specified that the testing questions and materials should be appropriate and based on methods that have been used successfully during instruction and documented on the student's IEP. The presentation and scoring instructions for administering the STAAR Alternate 2 assessment are similar to the structure of the Styer-Fitzgerald Program lesson plans and data collection systems.
For example, the guidelines specified by TEA for "Presenting, Directing, and Communicating" instructions for the STAAR Alternate 2 mirror the prompting and correction procedures in the lesson plans provided in the Styer-Fitzgerald curriculum. Information is presented to the student within the context of a real activity (present); the student is then prompted (e.g., "This says 1:00."); the student is then shown three clock faces and asked to "find the same time" or "find 1:00" (communicate).
In addition, the scoring strategies and student documentation for the STAAR Alternate 2 assessment are similar to those found in the Styer-Fitzgerald Program curriculum. For example, when the student does not answer a question correctly on the STAAR Alternate 2 assessment, the administrator is instructed to model and then ask the question again (retest). A similarly structured correction procedure is clearly presented on every lesson plan for each step of instruction in the Styer-Fitzgerald Program curriculum.
Attached are some examples of how we see the Styer-Fitzgerald Program for Functional Academics skills aligning with the STAAR Alternate 2 essence statements and prerequisite skills in some content areas.
| TEKS Matrix |
