{"id":2239,"date":"2025-05-28T14:41:43","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T19:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nceotacenter.org\/newsletter\/?page_id=2239"},"modified":"2025-05-28T14:41:43","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T19:41:43","slug":"revisiting-the-meaning-of-reduced-depth-breadth-and-complexity-for-aa-aaas","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/nceotacenter.org\/newsletter\/june-2025\/revisiting-the-meaning-of-reduced-depth-breadth-and-complexity-for-aa-aaas\/","title":{"rendered":"Revisiting the Meaning of \u201cReduced Depth, Breadth, and Complexity\u201d for AA-AAAS"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nceo.umn.edu\/docs\/OnlinePubs\/NCEOReport441.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\" noreferrer noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"194\" src=\"https:\/\/nceotacenter.org\/newsletter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/NCEO-Report-441-cover-thumbnail.png\" alt=\"Revisiting the Meaning of \u201cReduced Depth, Breadth, and Complexity\u201d for AA-AAAS\" class=\"wp-image-2256\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>As states revise or refine their alternate assessments based on alternate academic achievement standards (AA-AAAS), one question continues to surface: What exactly do we mean by \u201creduced depth, breadth, and complexity\u201d? Published in 2024, NCEO Report 441, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/nceo.umn.edu\/docs\/OnlinePubs\/NCEOReport441.pdf\">Revisiting the Meaning of \u201cReduced Depth, Breadth, and Complexity\u201d for AA-AAAS<\/a><\/em>, provides the clarity states continue to need on this topic. The resource reviews the historical, legal, and practical roots of these terms. It also offers key questions state education agency staff can ask to sharpen their understanding and documentation of how the AA-AAAS reflects these concepts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although often mentioned in guidance and assessment discussions, the terms\u2014especially \u201cdepth\u201d\u2014are not clearly defined. Yet they continue to shape the development and evaluation of AA-AAAS. This report traces how terms like \u201ccomplexity\u201d and \u201cbreadth\u201d emerged in regulations and non-regulatory guidance and explains how they are often interpreted in assessment design. For instance, \u201ccomplexity\u201d is connected to performance expectations that differ from grade-level standards, while \u201cbreadth\u201d may relate to the scope of content covered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As states prepare for peer review or develop new AA-AAAS systems, they must be able to explain how their assessments meet federal expectations and uphold technical quality. The report\u2019s guiding questions help states clearly articulate how they conceptualize and apply \u201creduced depth, breadth, and complexity\u201d in a way that strengthens the validity argument for their assessments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As states revise or refine their alternate assessments based on alternate academic achievement standards (AA-AAAS), one question continues to surface: What exactly do we mean by \u201creduced depth, breadth, and complexity\u201d? Published in 2024, NCEO Report 441, Revisiting the Meaning of \u201cReduced Depth, Breadth, and Complexity\u201d for AA-AAAS, provides the clarity states continue to need [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":2228,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2239","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nceotacenter.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nceotacenter.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nceotacenter.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nceotacenter.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nceotacenter.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2239"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nceotacenter.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2257,"href":"https:\/\/nceotacenter.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2239\/revisions\/2257"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nceotacenter.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nceotacenter.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}