Reporting for General Assessments

Federal laws require states to confirm that all students with disabilities, English learners, and English learners with disabilities participate in state and districtwide assessment systems. Most students participate in the general assessment. Laws also require separate public and federal reporting for students with disabilities and English learners in comparison to their peers. Federal laws do not explicitly require reporting of data on English learners with disabilities for the general assessment.

At this time, most states publish public reports on the participation and performance on statewide assessments of the overall student population and of subgroups, such as English learners and students with disabilities. Reports are usually available on state department of education websites. They include, as required by federal law, the number of students who took the assessments, along with student performance.

English learners with disabilities are included in these reports under the subgroups of English learners and students with disabilities, but only a few states report the participation and performance of English learners with disabilities as a separate subgroup.

States are required to report assessment data for students with disabilities and English learners separately to the federal government as a condition of receiving federal funds. They must report the progress they intend to make toward established achievement targets. State reports to the federal government also describe how states plan to improve student participation and performance in state assessments.

States submit detailed data on general assessment participation and performance online to the U.S. Department of Education via a tool called EdFacts.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the reporting requirements for tests that include students with disabilities, English learners, and English learners with disabilities?

States are required to report assessment data for students with disabilities and English learners separately to the federal government. They are also required to produce public reports for these groups for some assessments.

Public reports provide information on all students and on particular subgroups of students, such as students with disabilities and English learners. These reports are usually available on state department of education websites. The reports include the number of students with disabilities or English learners who took an assessment, and how those students scored as a group. The reports may also include the number of students who took an assessment with accommodations. Information from the alternate assessment based on alternate academic achievement standards (AA-AAAS) must also be publicly reported.

In addition to public reports, states must also submit federal reports to the secretary of education. The Annual Performance Report (APR) for students with disabilities describes student progress toward state targets on reading and math assessments. Detailed data on participation and performance in these assessments are submitted to the U.S. Department of Education by states online via a tool called the EDFacts Initiative. 

How do states use the data they report?

Generally, state-level performance data are used to determine the extent to which educational programs are helping students to achieve positive results from their education. Poor assessment scores are used to indicate the need for improved programs and services.

Will individual students be identified in public reporting?

States do not report public data that identify individual students. In circumstances where there are very few students participating in a particular assessment, a state will set a minimum number below which it will not publicly report results. This minimum number, which varies by state, is intended to protect student confidentiality.

How should the performance of students with disabilities, English learners, and English learners with disabilities be reported when they may take tests under different conditions from other students?

Some students from special populations take assessments of reading, math, and other academic content areas under different accessibility conditions, such as with accommodations. Also, some students with the most significant cognitive disabilities take alternate assessments based on alternate academic achievement standards (AA-AAAS). It is possible to combine scores from the general assessment taken with accessibility features (including accommodations) because the features have been determined to not change what the test measures. When a student uses modifications that change what the assessment measures, the state makes a policy decision on whether or how to report the scores. States also make policy decisions about how to combine results from AA-AAAS with general assessment results. Most states combine scores by proficiency level indicating that a proficient score on one test counts the same as a proficient score on another test.

Why should data on English learners with disabilities be publicly reported?

It is important to report data specifically for English learners with disabilities when there is a large enough group to protect the identity of individual students. English learners with disabilities have a unique set of educational needs, and states will not know how well the needs of these students are being met if their assessment data are not examined separate from the data of other students. States should report the data in four ways. Data on English learners with disabilities should be:

• aggregated with data from the total student body
• included in the students with disabilities subgroup
• included in the English learners subgroup
• disaggregated into a separate English learners with disabilities group

For public reporting, states should clearly report both participation data and performance data, so that performance data can be interpreted in light of participation rates. States should explain how participation rates or percentages are derived. States also should indicate whether any scores are removed when reporting on performance. For example, states should clarify whether scores were removed from students who did not take the test under standard procedures.

How can reading, math, and science test performance of English learners and English learners with disabilities be reported when these students may not speak English?

English learners, including those who also have a disability, vary widely in their levels of English proficiency. In addition, each student’s proficiency levels in listening, speaking, reading, and writing may be different. Despite these variations, it is important to report on the performance of English learners and English learners with disabilities in reading, math, science, and other academic content areas. It may also be informative to report their performance as a function of their English proficiency level to provide data on how well this population is being served.

Can publicly reported data for students with disabilities, English learners, and English learners with disabilities be used to compare their performance across states?

There are many reasons why cross-state comparisons of performance are not possible. Generally, assessments of reading, math, and other academic content have differed across states. For example, states may use different procedures for identifying students who are eligible for special education and for defining disability categories. States may also use different procedures to determine which students are eligible for English learner services, and also may use different English language proficiency assessments to identify students' language proficiency levels. Similarly, data on English learners with disabilities likely are not comparable across states because each state may use different criteria for identifying these students.