TELPAS Alt

About TELPAS Alt.

TEA has developed the TELPAS Alternate assessment to meet the federal requirements mandated under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which requires states to administer an alternate English language proficiency (ELP) assessment for students, English Learners (ELs), with the most significant cognitive disabilities who cannot participate in the general ELP assessment, even with allowable accommodations.

Texas definition of a student with a significant cognitive disability is a student who:

exhibits significant intellectual and adaptive behavior deficits in their ability to plan, comprehend, and reason, and ALSO indicates adaptive behavior deficits that limit their ability to apply social and practical skills such as personal care, social problem-solving skills, dressing, eating, using money, and other functional skills across life domains;
is NOT identified based on English learner designation or solely on the basis of previous low academic achievement or the need for accommodations; and
requires extensive, direct, individualized instruction, as well as a need for substantial supports that are neither temporary nor specific to a particular content area.

Grades, Subjects and Courses Assessed

Students in grades K-12th that have been identified as an EL are required to take TELPAS. This includes ELs whose parents have declined bilingual or English as a Second Language (ESL) program services.