Iowa Administrative Code › Agency 281 - Education Department › Title V - Nontraditional Students › Chapter 31 - Private Instruction and Dual Enrollment › Rule 281-31.8 - Baseline Evaluation and Annual Assessment

Current through Register Vol. 47, No. 3, July 24, 2024
(1)
When required.
When a
				parent, guardian, or legal or actual custodian of a child who is at least seven
				years old by September 15 provides private instruction to a child without the
				assistance or supervision of a validly licensed Iowa practitioner as required
				by law and these rules and the parent, guardian, or legal or actual custodian
				does not hold a valid Iowa practitioner license, the child is subject to
				initial baseline evaluation and an annual assessment every year thereafter.
A child who is at least seven years old by September 15 and
				  who begins a program of competent private instruction and is subject to the
				  annual assessment requirement shall be administered a baseline evaluation for
				  the purposes of obtaining educational data. The baseline evaluation and annual
				  assessment shall be taken by May 31.
The parent, guardian, or legal or actual custodian may select
				  standardized testing, portfolio assessment, or submittal of a report card from
				  an accredited correspondence school for purposes of fulfilling the baseline
				  evaluation and annual assessment requirements of the law.
(2)
Standardized testing.
a. A child's parent, guardian, or legal or
				actual custodian who chooses standardized testing for the purpose of fulfilling
				the assessment requirements of the law shall select an instrument approved by
				the department. The department shall publish an approved list of standardized
				testing instruments each year. In the event that the parent, guardian, or legal
				or actual custodian of a child subject to the annual assessment requirement
				wishes to have the child take a standardized test not included on the
				department's published list, the parent, guardian, or legal or actual custodian
				shall request permission of the director of the department of education to use
				a different test. The decision of the director shall be final. Braille or large
				print editions of any approved test shall be made available for vision-impaired
				children. Testing norms are available for children with vision impairments or
				children who are deaf or hard of hearing.
b. A child subject to the annual assessment
				requirement who takes a standardized test shall take a grade level form of the
				test that corresponds most closely to the child's chronological age unless
				permission is granted by the test administrator to take another grade level
				form of the test. When a parent, guardian, or legal or actual custodian
				requests another form of the test, the test administrator shall make a decision
				based upon the following:
(1) A review of the
				instructional materials used by the child in the education program;
(2) The results of curriculum-based
				measurement techniques including the administering of probes; and
(3) A review of current samples of the
				child's work product.
The decision of the test administrator as to the appropriate
				  grade level form of the standardized test to be taken shall be final.
A child whose educational program and instructional materials
				  are designed for students in grades 1 through 5 shall, at a minimum, be tested
				  in the areas of reading, language, and mathematics. A child whose educational
				  program and instructional materials are designed for students in grades 6
				  through 12 shall, at a minimum, be tested in the areas of reading or literary
				  materials, language or written expression, mathematics or quantitative
				  thinking, science, and social studies.
If retesting is desired, a different form of the same test or
				  a different test shall be administered to the child sufficiently in advance to
				  allow for processing of the test results prior to the first day of classes of
				  the succeeding school year of the resident school district.
c. Testing times and sites.
(1) Standardized test results are normed
				against a population taking the same test at approximately the same time of
				year. Norms for the tests exist for fall, winter, and spring. Because the
				annual assessment is used, in part, to determine whether the child has made at
				least six months' progress since the previous test, standardized tests used for
				determining whether adequate progress has been achieved shall be taken annually
				at approximately the same time each year.
(2) The school district of residence of the
				child shall annually, by October 1, send notification of the following to the
				parent, guardian, or legal or actual custodian who has selected standardized
				testing:
1. The times and dates when
				standardized tests will be administered by the school district and the area
				education agency over the school year, including all testing times, and that a
				school district or area education agency will administer standardized tests at
				the child's home when so requested;
2. A data sheet showing the costs associated
				with the tests offered by the school district and area education agency;
				and
3. A reply form which the
				parent, guardian, or legal or actual custodian shall complete to indicate the
				date, location, and test selected, including the grade level form of the test;
				whether the parent, guardian, or legal or actual custodian wishes to be present
				for testing; and any special requests such as Braille or large print forms of
				the test.
d.
				Unless the child is under dual enrollment, the parent, guardian, or legal or
				actual custodian who has selected the standardized testing option shall timely
				reimburse the school district for the cost of testing the child.
e. This rule shall not be construed to
				require or prohibit testing on any subject matter at intervals more frequently
				or at grade levels other than those set forth in Iowa Code section
				256.7(21)
"b"
(2).