Resources
Search Filters
Search Results
- Selected filters():
NCEO English Language Learners (ELLs) with Disabilities Reports: Delphi Study of Instructional Strategies for English Language Learners with Disabilities: Recommendations from Educators Nationwide (#21)A report from NCEO's national research spanning seven years that has focused on identifying and validating instructional strategies for ELLs with disabilities. In recent work, educators from five states with large ELL populations and five states with small ELL populations generated sets of reading, mathematics, and science instructional strategies and weighted their importance in focus group-like settings using the Multi-Attribute Consensus Building method. The research described here is a confirmatory Delphi study of the strategies identified in an earlier study and is based on polling teachers about strategies identified in the earlier work.
Published: September 2008
NCEO English Language Learners (ELLs) with Disabilities Reports: Reading, Mathematics, and Science Instructional Strategies for English Language Learners with Disabilities - Insights from Educators Nationwide (#19)A report studying instructional strategies at middle and junior high schools. Middle school teaching and learning is especially challenging, perhaps because the curriculum places greater cognitive demands on emerging adolescents at a developmental stage when students, especially those who have already been struggling, can be at higher risk for academic failure. ELLs with disabilities could be at particular risk, given the combination of learning challenges they may encounter in middle school. The study aimed to identify teacher-initiated instructional strategies that are preferred by practitioners who work daily with ELLs with disabilities.
Published: September 2008
PARA Accessible Reading Assessment Reports: What Do State Reading Test Specifications Specify?A report examining state assessment blueprints or test specifications for state reading assessments. The No Child Left Behind Act requires all states to assess student reading, but each state is responsible for selecting what will be tested and how in its large-scale statewide assessments. As part of this process, states develop standards with which both instruction and assessments are expected to align. State standards for reading vary by definition and focus from state to state. The authors of this paper looked at:
- Themes related to the purposes and constructs of assessments
- How those themes related to state standards
- The number of items assigned to particular constructs
- The types of items typically found in statewide assessments
Published: June 2007
NCEO Synthesis Reports: A Comparison of IEP/504 Accommodations Under Classroom and Standardized Testing Conditions: A Preliminary Report on SEELS Data (#63)This year 2006 report uses SEELS data to examine accommodation use across different education conditions, comparing IEP and 504 Plan accommodations to what students reportedly received in the classroom and on standardized tests. Findings show a lack of alignment in accommodation use among IEP/504 plans, classroom conditions, and state testing situations. Further, some variability is seen for students with different categorical labels. The author notes that continued monitoring of alignment should continue.
Published: September 2006
NCEO Technical Reports: Using the Think Aloud Method (cognitive labs) to Evaluate Test Design for Students with Disabilities and English Language Learners (#44)This year 2006 report describes research on think aloud methods used to detect design issues in large scale assessments. Students included in this study were students with learning disabilities, hearing impairments, cognitive disabilities, English learners, and students without disabilities proficient in English. Findings address the ability of specific student groups to participate in the think aloud procedure and the level of mathematics items with most informative data.
Published: August 2006
NCEO Synthesis Reports: Alternate Assessments Measured Against Grade-Level Achievement Standards: The Massachusetts "Competency Portfolio" (#59)This year 2006 report discusses Massachusett's alternate based on grade-level achievement standards. It describes the students who require these alternate assessments based on grade-level achievement standards (structured portfolio), and how such alternate assessments can reliably measure achievement in an equivalent manner to those students taking regular assessments for a grade level, and how the assessment may fulfill both system accountability and diploma purposes. The author also discusses how the model for a competency portfolio was developed and validated.
Published: January 2006
NCEO Technical Reports: State Graduation Requirements for Students With and Without Disabilities (#24)This year 1999 report documents state graduation requirements based on a survey study of assessment directors of 50 states and the District of Columbia. The National Center on Educational Outcomes and the National Transition Network collaborated in this study. The report describes what is required for students with and without disabilities to earn exit documents in each state, including standard diplomas, certificates of completion, IEP diplomas and honor diplomas, and provides details about exam and coursework modifications that states allow for students with disabilities. The report offers recommendations for policymakers as they consider setting policy for graduation requirements.
Published: April 1999- V3-2: Implementing Instructional AccommodationsFormats: Online
The special education and math teacher develop a plan to implement and evaluate a student's accommodations for instruction.
Published: 2014-05-05 - IEP/Transition Planning Participation and Future Goal Aspirations of Students with Intellectual and Developmental DisabilitiesFormats: PDFPublished: 2021-04-09
- V4-1: Preparing for Assessment AccommodationsFormats: Online
The special education and math teacher talk about a student's accommodations needs for an upcoming state test.
Published: 2014-05-05 - A Truly Inclusive Society: Encouraging the Ability in DisabilityFormats: PDF
This testimony was presented at a congressional briefing to the Helsinki Commission (Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe).
Published: 2018-09-24 - A Truly Inclusive Society: Encouraging the Ability in DisabilityFormats: PDF
This testimony was presented at a congressional briefing to the Helsinki Commission (Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe).
Published: 2018-09-24 - Hearing on ESEA Reauthorization: Standards and AssessmentsFormats: PDF
This testimony was presented at a Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) United States Senate Hearing.
Published: 2010-04-28 - NCEO Parent Fact Sheets: State Testing of Your Child with a Disability (Parent Fact Sheet #3)
This Fact Sheet summarizes the resources that are available specifically to students who have a disability, an Individualized Education Program (IEP), or a 504 plan when they take state tests. The more parents know about these test resources, the more they can ensure that their child’s test performance contributes to measures of how well the school has met the needs of all children in the school. This Fact Sheet offers tips on how to be involved in decisions about providing resources to one’s child, and also how to prepare a child for state tests in academic subjects. It is part of a set of Fact Sheets developed by NCEO to provide accessible materials for parents about state assessments.
Published: 8/14/2023 - NCEO Reports: The Relationship between Student Placement and AA-AAAS Participation Rates (#439)
This report presents the findings of a study that looked at the relationship between states’ percentage of students participating in the alternate assessment based on alternate academic achievement standards (AA-AAAS) and the percentage of students in more restrictive learning environments. The 2015 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), known as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), placed a 1% cap for states on student participation in the AA-AAAS. This meant that states, districts, and individualized education program (IEP) teams need to carefully consider which students should be included in these assessments. Data used in this analysis were for 2018-19. This study found that states with higher percentages of students in more restrictive environments tended to have higher percentages of students participating in the AA-AAAS for both mathematics and reading.
Published: June 2023 
1% Toolkit: Who Should Participate in Your State’s Alternate Assessment? A Slide Presentation Tool for Administrators (NCEO Tool #6)This Slide Presentation tool is designed to support the needs that administrators have for brief but substantive information about who should participate in the state’s alternate assessment on academic achievement standards (AA-AAAS). In addition to serving as an information resource for administrators, it may be used for in-person or webinar trainings for educators, and as a handout for educators and parents. Developed during NCEO’s Peer Learning Group 3 (PLG 3), they highlight the purpose of the AA-AAAS, the implications of a student taking the AA-AAS, strategies for talking with parents, and identification of students who should participate in this assessment. The slides may be customized.
Published: May 2020
TIES Center Briefs: Developing IEPs that Support Inclusive Education for Students with the Most Significant Cognitive Disabilities (#3)This Parent Brief focuses on developing Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) that support inclusive education for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. IEPs that support inclusion are especially critical for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities who participate in a state alternate assessment aligned to alternate academic achievement standards (AA-AAAS), as well as for those in grades PreK-2 who may not yet take state assessments. The purpose of this Brief is to identify specific ways in which the IEPs of students with the most significant cognitive disabilities can be written to support inclusion in the general education curriculum and, ideally, the general education classroom.
Published: 2/5/2020
1% Toolkit: Developing a 1% Cap Waiver or Waiver Extension Request (NCEO Tool #1)The Every Student Succeeds Act allows for states to request a waiver from the 1% cap on alternate assessment participation requirements. Waiver request requirements are described in this Tool (the first of several 1% tools NCEO is developing), along with examples of how states responded to each requirement. The Tool also includes a section on Additional Considerations (reporting on stakeholder involvement; addressing approaches to take when the 95% participation requirement for requesting a waiver is not met). This Tool was developed through a collaborative process with the 44 states participating in the 1% Cap Community of Practice (CoP) during its bi-weekly webinar calls in 2018. Although the CoP was formed at the request of states to be for private state conversations, it was with mutual agreement that this Tool should be shared publicly.
Published: September 2019
NCEO Brief: Guidance for Examining Disproportionality of Student Group Participation in Alternate Assessments (#18)The purpose of this brief is to examine disproportionality with respect to student group participation in Alternate Assessments aligned with Alternate Academic Achievement Standards (AA-AAAS). It is a companion to the NCEO brief, Guidance for Examining District Alternate Assessment Participation Rates. This brief provides a more detailed examination and illustration of a particular issue, disproportionality. The companion brief outlined a broad framework and general principles to guide the examination of AA-AAAS participation rates, particularly in light of the challenge of small n-sizes and associated uncertainty. It begins by reviewing the framework with respect to its application to address disproportionality in participation in the alternate assessment aligned to alternate academic achievement standards. This is followed by an illustration of specific analytic steps, and concludes by providing guidance for further inquiry that links back to the guiding principles in the framework.
Published: August 2019
NCEO Reports: Guidance Manuals for Educators of English Learners with Disabilities: Ideas and Lessons from the Field (#410)This report describes ideas and lessons learned from leaders who developed state education agency guidance manuals for identifying, assessing and referring English learners (ELs) to special education. To ensure that students are receiving optimal instruction, appropriate interventions, and assessments, state, district, and school leaders need to develop or improve the systematic processes educators and administrators work through. Providing manuals with consistent and practical guidance (and appropriate professional learning on their use) is a means to do so. This report presents findings from telephone interviews conducted with the authors of six state manuals, probing the impetus for getting started; the manual development process; dissemination and professional learning; and lessons learned during manual development. The report concludes with implications for state and local leaders.
Published: April 2019