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  NCEO Brief: Understanding Subgroups in Common State Assessments: Special Education Students and ELLs (#4)

  Formats: Online, PDF

  A brief -- the fourth in a series for the Race to the Top Assessment Consortia -- presenting information on the characteristics of special education students, English Language Learners (ELLs), and ELLs with disabilities. It highlights the variability in these populations, variability that is multiplied when states are grouped in the Consortia. The brief provides several recommendations for the Consortia to help ensure that they understand the characteristics and variability that exist in their member states. These characteristics and variability should influence their assessment design choices, which in turn will support the validity of the assessment system for all subgroups.

  Published: July 2011
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  NCEO Newsletter: February 2021 issue

  Formats: Online

  This issue highlights a new video series for parents of students with significant cognitive disabilities. The videos focus on various aspects of supporting the learning of their children at home. Currently available videos address routines at home, helping with academics at home, foundations of communications at home, and communications at home. This issue also highlights a new Brief that NCEO published on using pre-assessment to plan instruction for students with disabilities during distance education, as well as a review of the literature on literacy assessment and instruction practices for English learners with significant cognitive disabilities. Additionally, there is an article about eight tools which were developed with states that were members of several Peer Learning Groups (PLGs) organized by NCEO on topics related to addressing the 1% threshold on participation in alternate assessments based on alternate academic achievement standards (AA-AAAS).  Finally, we have a list of sessions that include NCEO staff who will be participating in the upcoming virtual Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) Convention and Expo.

  Published: February 2021
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  NCEO Newsletter: June 2015 issue

  Formats: Online

  An issue providing a preview of the National Conference on Student Assessment pre-conference forum that NCEO is holding with the Assessing Special Education Students SCASS - Implementing Accessibility Frameworks for ALL Students. It focuses on the challenges and opportunities of the new context of many assessments - technology based, with new tools available to all students, some accessibility features available to students with documented needs, and accommodations for a defined set of students. The discussion is free and open to the public. Also highlighted in this issue is a new approach that NCEO is taking to present some of its rich data-based reports. NCEO's new series of Data Analytics reports allows the user to obtain customized information about state data and policies. The first report, highlighted in this issue, focuses on graduation requirements for students with significant cognitive disabilities. Look for other topics in the near future! The last article tells how Martha Thurlow was honored at the 2015 Council for Exceptional Children conference in San Diego in April with the CEC Lifetime Achievement Award.

  Published: June 2015
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  Moving Your Numbers: A Synthesis of Lessons Learned: How Districts Used Assessment and Accountability to Increase Performance for Students with Disabilities as Part of District-wide Improvement

  Formats: PDF

  A guide summarizing the lessons learned by school districts profiled in the Moving Your Numbers series. Moving Your Numbers features the work of ten districts with varying demographics that have used assessment and accountability as an impetus for positive change. In each case, districts used the increasing demand for accountability for all students and groups of students to change the conversation and practice across the district, "moving their numbers" in a positive direction for all children as a result. The stories of the ongoing journey of each district, while far from done, describe the actions of adults committed to improving their own practice as a way to support higher levels of learning for all children. While each district had its own framework or set of guiding core beliefs for organizing its work, each of them implemented a set of practices that was very similar. Evidence suggests that these six practices, when used in an aligned and coherent manner, are associated with higher student achievement:

  1. Use data well;
  2. Focus your goals;
  3. Select and implement shared instructional practices;
  4. Implement deeply;
  5. Monitor and provide feedback and support; and
  6. Inquire and learn

  The lessons learned from featured districts are presented in this synthesis guide across each of the practice areas delineated above.

  Published: 2012
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  NCEO Technical Reports: Diploma Options, Graduation Requirements, and Exit Exams for Youth with Disabilities: 2011 National Study (#62)

  Formats: Online, PDF

  A report documenting results from the fifth in a series of similar studies on state graduation policies and diploma options conducted by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO). The present study was undertaken to update the status of graduation policies across the nation. It follows up on previous work, the last study having been conducted in 2006-2007. Three research questions served as the focus of this national study of high school graduation requirements and diploma options for students with and without disabilities: (1) What is the range and variation in state graduation requirements and diploma options across the United States for students with and without disabilities? (2) What are the intended and unintended consequences that result for students when they are required to pass exit exams to receive a high school diploma? And (3) What are the intended and unintended consequences of using single or multiple diploma options for students with disabilities? Results indicated some changes in graduation requirements and diploma options from the previous survey. Trends found include: (a) state and local graduation policies and assessment practices continue to be modified and revised on a regular basis, (b) graduation requirements are increasing in rigor across states, (c) states are continuing to experiment by making available a range of diploma options for students with and without disabilities, and (d) the participation of students with disabilities in high stakes exit exams is increasing and states are granting additional testing allowances and broader use of accommodations.

  Published: April 2012