The U.S. Department of Education released regulations governing the development of alternate assessments for students with persistent learning problems who are eligible for Modified Academic Achievement Standards (MAAS) in 2007. To date, state regular assessments or alternate assessments based on Alternate Academic Achievement Standards have not provided these students valid test scores for accountability and other inferences. Collecting a representative sample has been a major challenge in developing accurate alternate assessments for MAAS-eligible students because these students comprise a very small percentage of the student population. The present study investigated the sampling procedure used to develop mathematics alternate assessment items for eighth grade MAAS students. Specifically, the test results from general education students in sixth and seventh grades were compared to those from MAAS-eligible students in eighth grade. The results of this study revealed that using data obtained from general education students in lower grade levels may be an appropriate and efficient method for designing alternate assessment items and suggested new procedures for developing MAAS assessments. (Contains 5 tables and 5 figures.)