August 9, 2005

Dear Chief State School Officers:

Now posted at http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/account/saa.html#guidance 
is the newly released non-regulatory guidance regarding alternate assessments 
based on alternate achievement standards. This guidance is a supplement to the 
Department’s regulations released on December 9, 2003 (which may be found 
at www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/finrule/2003-4/120903a.html). 
I am pleased to be able to make this guidance available to you and anticipate 
that it will be extremely useful as you develop and implement assessments based 
on alternate achievement standards in your State.

This guidance explains the provisions included in that December 2003 regulation. 
  In particular, we have included sections about Individualized Education Program 
  teams (Section D), alignment (Section E), the "one percent cap" (Sections 
  F and H), the exception process (Section G), and reporting (Section I) that 
  provide examples and clear explanations of the regulatory provisions that we 
  think will be particularly helpful as you continue implementing alternate assessments 
  aligned with alternate achievement standards. Other sections, such as the one 
  on alternate assessments (Section B), provide information to connect more clearly 
  statutory and regulatory provisions about assessment, accountability, and the 
  peer review process for standards and assessments with the regulations on alternate 
  assessments based on alternate achievement standards.

The Department will host a number of conference calls to explain various parts 
  of this guidance and answer any questions you may have. These calls will take 
  place on August 17. Additional details about specific times will be forthcoming 
  from the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE).

As you well know, this spring the Secretary announced that the Department will 
  be issuing a new regulation that will permit States to develop modified achievement 
  standards to ensure that there are appropriate assessments for all students 
  with disabilities. The Department will publish a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking 
  later this year for comment, and we look forward to issuing a final rule as 
  soon as possible. When the regulation on modified achievement standards is final, 
  we will develop a separate guidance document to guide its implementation. Until 
  then, we remain committed to providing you with technical assistance and guidance 
  to help you develop standards and assessments that meet the requirements of 
  the law. The enclosed guidance, however, *only* addresses issues related 
  to the December 9, 2003, regulation on alternate achievement standards for students 
  with the most significant cognitive disabilities.

Later this summer we will be providing you with additional guidance on issues 
  related to including all special education students in state accountability 
  and assessment systems.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or staff in 
  OESE, including Darla Marburger at 202-401-0113 or Sue Rigney at 202-260-0931.

| | Sincerely,   
| | -------------
| | /s/          
| | Raymond Simon



|Last Modified: 11/02/2005
|-------------------------