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NCEO Synthesis Reports: Massachusetts: One State's Approach to Setting Performance Levels on the Alternate Assessment (#48)This year 2002 report describes Massachusetts' approach to setting performance levels on its Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) Alternate Assessment. The state's portfolio approach was based on "expanded" state standards describing academic outcomes appropriate for students with significant disabilities. The report explains the technical phase of standard setting and describes the context of earlier conversations and theoretical debates that came before their decisions in the development process of the alternate assessment. The report further describes how performance levels were calibrated between the alternate and general assessments, due to the alternate being used for high school diploma requirements, and the ways performance levels in each strand were combined to produce an overall performance level.
Published: November 2002
NCEO Synthesis Reports: A Report of a Standard Setting Method for Alternate Assessments for Students with Significant Disabilities (#47)This year 2002 report presents one state's use of the "body of work" approach toward standard setting to determine performance level cut scores for an alternate assessment developed for students with the most significant disabilities. It describes the rationale and design the state used in its portfolio assessment, followed by a detailed description of the standard setting process, including information on time and resource constraints, areas of potential contamination and bias in the approach, and the importance of range-finding and pin-pointing phases for this approach.
Published: October 2002
NCEO Synthesis Reports: 2001 State Policies on Assessment Participation and Accommodations (#46)Formats: OnlineThis year 2001 report analyzes state participation and accommodation policies nationwide. Among the major findings are: (1) participation options beyond the usual three (participation without accommodations, participation with accommodations, alternate assessment) have become more evident -- generally these are: partial participation, additional alternate assessments, and out-of-level testing, (2)"emotional anxiety" is more frequently noted as a reason for students to not participate in assessments, (3) policies for both participation and accommodations are becoming more specific, often indicating implications for how accommodated students' scores are reported, (4) the number of states that allow accommodations for specific groups (i.e., all students and students no longer on IEPs), and (5) that most controversial accommodations continue to be read aloud, calculator, and scribe. The analyses suggest that states continued to adjust their policies to ensure that students with disabilities have opportunities to participate in statewide assessments, and at the same time to understand the meaning of the scores from their assessments.
Published: July 2002
NCEO Policy Directions: Including Alternate Assessment Results in Accountability Decisions (#13)Formats: OnlineThis year 2002 report addresses policy options for including the results of alternate assessments in school accountability systems and provides examples of approaches used in several states.
Published: June 2002
NCEO Synthesis Reports: Use of Alternate Assessment Results in Reporting and Accountability Systems: Conditions for Use Based on Research and Practice (#43)Formats: OnlineThis report reviews current (2002) understanding of the technical and policy considerations involved in high quality alternate assessment. Based on research from early implementation and what are considered to be best practice approaches, this synthesis describes five steps in alternate assessment test development processes that allow interpretation and use of results in reporting and accountability.
Published: May 2002
NCEO Synthesis Reports: Setting Standards on Alternate Assessments (#42)Formats: OnlineThis year 2002 report identifies common standards-setting techniques and how they might be applied to alternate assessments. The techniques addressed are: reasoned judgment, contrasting groups, modified Angoff, bookmarking or item mapping, body of work, and judgmental policy capturing.
Published: April 2002
NCEO Synthesis Reports: Principles and Characteristics of Inclusive Assessment and Accountability Systems (#40)Formats: OnlineThis year 2001 report presents six core principles of inclusive assessment and accountability systems with a brief rationale and specific characteristics that reflect each principle. These principles are based on a decade of NCEO's documentation of assessment and accountability systems and on review and comment from multiple stakeholders who share a common goal of improving outcomes for all students.
Published: November 2001
NCEO Synthesis Reports: Models for Reporting the Results of Alternate Assessments Within State Accountability Systems (#39)Formats: OnlineA report summarizing six models for reporting the scores of students with disabilities participating in alternate assessments that existed in the year 2001. Reporting the scores of students with disabilities participating in alternate assessments raises a number of challenges, including those surrounding concerns about statistical soundness, as well as those related to the different purposes and focuses that characterize current alternate assessments. At the time of this report, across the nation, states had reached different decisions about how to report the results of their alternate assessments.
Published: September 2001
NCEO State Surveys: 2001 State Special Education Outcomes - A Report on State Activities at the Beginning of a New DecadeThis year 2001 report summarizes a survey given to all states that addresses participation and performance of students with disabilities in statewide assessments and the first year of administering alternate assessments and including the results in accountability systems. The report is intended to help states view their own progress.
Published: June 2001
NCEO Synthesis Reports: Addressing Standards and Assessments on the IEP (#38)Formats: OnlineThe purpose of this year 2001 study was to examine state Individualized Education Program (IEP) forms to determine the extent to which they include documentation of standards and assessments. All 50 states were asked to send their IEP forms and to indicate whether they were required, recommended, or simply sample forms. Because IEP forms are a primary source of information to guide decisions during IEP team meetings, the way in which information appears on them is very important. NCEO makes several recommendations for IEP forms that will provide decision-making guidance to IEP teams.
Published: April 2001- NCEO Policy Directions: Recommendations for Addressing Standards and Assessments on State and District IEP Forms (#12)Formats: Online
This year 2001 report provides specific recommendations for how to make IEPs reflect goals and services that support students with disabilities in learning toward high educational standards. The report provides background on IEPs before IDEA 1997 and changes since that time. Recommendations address topics such as adding alternate assessments to IEP forms, including implications of assessment decisions, offering statewide training on standards-based IEPs and assessment options in easily accessed locations, and clearly labeling IEPs so districts know what information is required or recommended.
Published: March 2001 
NCEO Synthesis Reports: Students with Disabilities in Standards-Based Assessment and Accountability Systems: Emerging Issues, Strategies, and Recommendations (#37)Formats: OnlineA report that addresses emerging issues affecting students with disabilities in standards-based assessment and accountability systems, as of the year 2001. Challenges and possible strategies for addressing the challenges are provided as identified by researchers, policymakers, and practitioners, based on a model developed by the National Center on Educational Outcomes, "Issues Related to Students with Disabilities in Assessment and Accountability Systems." The strategies presented here are concrete approaches to address challenges policymakers and practitioners are seeing in early implementation of inclusive assessment and accountability systems. All of these strategies have potential to increase the positive consequences and minimize the negative consequences of school reform for students with disabilities.
Published: February 2001- Alternate Assessment Forum: Connecting into a WholeFormats: Online
A report summarizing the discussion sessions during the Third Annual Alternate Assessment Forum held in 2000. One hundred thirty-five representatives from 39 states plus American Samoa participated in a forum on June 23-24, 2000 in Salt Lake City, Utah to discuss alternate assessment. Representatives were primarily state department of education staff, but also included some local or regional education staff, university staff, parents, and test publisher staff, all of whom have played major roles in helping states develop their alternate assessment systems. The forum, a third annual pre-session to the CCSSO National Large Scale Assessment Conference, was co-sponsored by the Regional Resource and Federal Centers (RRFCs), the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE), and the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO).
Published: 2000 
NCEO Synthesis Reports: State Alternate Assessments: Status as IDEA Alternate Assessment Requirements Take Effect (#35)Formats: OnlineA report describing the approaches states were taking, as of the year 2000, to alternate assessments for the small number of students with disabilities who could not participate in state and district-wide assessment programs. The National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) developed an online survey on the development of alternate assessments and received responses from all 50 states. In addition, five educational units that received IDEA Part B funds (American Samoa, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Marshall Islands, Virgin Islands, and Washington DC) completed the survey. While the presentation in this report of all the approaches states are taking does not imply endorsement of any specific state alternate assessment practices, it does indicate that states were still moving in many directions despite regulations suggesting directions for development.
Published: June 2000
NCEO Synthesis Reports: State Participation and Accommodation Policies for Students with Disabilities: 1999 Update (#33)Formats: PDFThis 2000 report summarizes states' policies on the participation of students with disabilities in large-scale assessment, and the accommodations noted in state policies as available for those students. NCEO also checked for changes in state assessment policies.
Published: April 2000
NCEO Synthesis Reports: Gray Areas of Assessment Systems (#32)Formats: OnlineA 2000 paper clarifying what is meant by "gray areas of assessment" systems, delineating the primary issues that surround and contribute to gray areas, and providing suggestions for developing fully inclusive systems. As part of our nation's educational commitment to equity and excellence for all, we must develop better understanding of what it means to be accountable for all children, and identify more inclusive strategies of assessment and accountability. In response to our national commitment, and to specific legislation such as Title I of the Improving America's Schools Act (IASA) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act 1997 (IDEA '97), states and school districts are in the midst of developing large-scale assessment systems. Some have considered the challenge of students who do not fit into these assessment systems as one of "gray area students." New understanding is emerging that the problem does not lie with the students, but with the systems. This paper provides brief case studies of the assessment practices in two states, thereby highlighting the reality of gray areas as states implement their assessment systems. After a review of the national reform context, it presents a model that provides a basis for defining and addressing gray area concerns.
Published: March 2000- NCEO Maryland/Kentucky State Assessment Project: Accommodations, Modifications, and Alternates for Instruction and Assessment (#5)Formats: Online
A report from the past Maryland-Kentucky-NCEO Assessment Project, a federally funded effort supported, in part, by a grant to the Maryland State Department of Education.
Published: December 1999 
NCEO State Surveys: 1999 State Special Education Outcomes - A Report on State Activities at the End of the CenturyThis year 1999 report summarizes results from a survey given to all states that addresses participation in statewide testing, high stakes attached to testing, and the development of alternate assessments.
Published: December 1999- Forum on Alternate Assessment and "Gray Area" AssessmentFormats: Online
This year 1999 report presents the proceedings of a pre-conference session at the National Conference on Large-Scale Assessment that took place June 1999, where consensus emerged that it is not the students byt the assessments for which gray areas currently exist.
Published: July 1999 
NCEO Synthesis Reports: Status of the States in the Development of Alternate Assessments (#31)Formats: OnlineThis 1999 report describes the results of an online survey to assess the status of states in the development of alternate assessments to be in place by July 1, 2000. In the survey, states were also asked about a variety of developmental features of their alternate assessments.
Published: April 1999