The Purpose of these materials are to help users:

• engage various stakeholder groups in the construction of a coherent and effective system of instruction and assessment for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities.
• articulate the learning characteristics of the target population for whom an alternate assessment on alternate achievement standards is appropriate.
• articulate the available research in the theory of learning for this population in the academic areas of reading, mathematics, and science.
• identify historical perspectives that have resulted in what students in this population should know and be able to do.
• apply strategies for linking to grade-level content instruction.
• identify student work that reflects appropriate constructs in reading and mathematics.
• apply strategies for selecting reading and mathematics grade-level constructs to include in an alternate assessment.