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- Accommodations Toolkit: Noise Reduction: ResearchFormats: Online
This fact sheet on noise reduction is part of the Accommodations Toolkit published by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO). It summarizes information and research findings on the use of noise reduction as an accessibility feature or accommodation.
Published: 2/10/2022 - Accommodations Toolkit: Preferential Seating: ResearchFormats: Online
This fact sheet on preferential seating is part of the Accommodations Toolkit published by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO). It summarizes information and research findings on the use of preferential seating as an accessibility feature or accommodation.
Published: 12/14/2021 - Accommodations Toolkit: Extended Time: ResearchFormats: Online
This fact sheet on extended time is part of the Accommodations Toolkit published by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO). It summarizes information and research findings on the use of extended time as an accessibility feature or accommodation.
Published: 9/13/2021 - Accommodations Toolkit: Word Prediction: ResearchFormats: Online
This fact sheet on word prediction is part of the Accommodations Toolkit published by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO). It summarizes information and research findings on word prediction as an assessment accessibility feature or accommodation.
Published: 8/31/2021 - Accommodations Toolkit: Tactile Graphics: States’ Accessibility Policies, 2020Formats: Online
This summary of states’ accessibility policies for tactile graphics is part of the Accommodations Toolkit published by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO).
Published: 8/31/2021 - Engaging Parents of English Learners and English Learners with DisabilitiesFormats: PDF
This presentation addressed engaging parents of English learners with and without disabilities. It was presented at the 2019 Minnesota Department of Education's Minnesota English Learner Education conference (MELEd).
Published: 2019-11-22 - Successfully Making Decisions about the Use of Scribing and Speech-to-TextFormats: PDF
This presentation addressed how to successfully make decisions about using scribes and speech-to-text. It was presented at the 2019 Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) annual conference.
Published: 2019-02-01 - Accommodations Considerations in Pre-College and Postsecondary Assessments for Deaf IndividualsFormats: PDF
This presentation focused on accommodations considerations in pre-college and postsecondary assessments for deaf individuals. It was presented at the 2019 Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) annual conference.
Published: 2019-01-30 - V2-2: Identifying Students' Accommodation NeedsFormats: Online
A special education teacher interviews a student to learn more about her academic strengths and weaknesses. The special education teacher introduces the idea of using the read-aloud accommodation in math.
Published: 2014-05-05 - A State Guide to the Development of Universally Designed AssessmentsFormats: PDF
Test design strategies for accurately measuring the knowledge and skills of a diverse student population from test conceptualization and item construction, to field-testing, item reviews, statewide operationalization, and evaluation.
Published: 2006-09-01 - NCEO Reports: Universal Design and K-12 Academic Assessments: A Scoping Review of the Literature (#442)
This report summarizes an investigation of literature published in 1985-2023 on universal design (UD) of large-scale assessments. State education agencies, K-12 assessment vendors, teacher trainers, and classroom teachers are increasingly applying the principles of UD to the instruction and assessment of students from special populations. In theory, UD ensures that instruction and assessment are created from the beginning to be accessible to the widest population of students possible. Yet, it is unclear how these UD frameworks and their associated principles and elements are being applied, or even which UD framework is used. This obscurity and lack of defined UD principles in the research literature creates obstacles in research replication and in identification of evidence-based practices. This scoping review identifies how the concept of UD has been applied to the broad range of U.S. district and state large-scale academic assessments. We included literature on the application of UD to the broad range of K-12 district and state large-scale academic assessments in the U.S.
Published: February 2024 - Proceedings of the NCEO Interim Assessment Convening: Measuring What Students with Disabilities Know and Can Do Using Interim Assessments
This report contains the proceeding of the Interim Assessment Convening on Measuring What Students with Disabilities Know and Can Do Using Interim Assessments that was hosted by NCEO, and held on July 26 and 27, 2021. The purpose of the Convening was to share information about how to enable the participation of all students with disabilities, including students with the most significant cognitive disabilities and English learners with disabilities, in interim assessments in ways that support obtaining valid results of what they know and can do. The Convening also provided an opportunity for State education agency (SEA) teams to develop goals and action items, based on the opportunities and challenges identified, that would result in more valid measurement of what students with disabilities know and can do at both the SEA and local education agency (LEA) levels. This Proceedings document was developed to provide a summary of the Convening. It includes appendices and links to resources that were shared by states and others at the Convening.
Published: December 2021 - NCEO Reports: Using Interim Assessments to Appropriately Measure What Students with Disabilities Know and Can Do: Advisory Panel Takeaways and NCEO Recommendations (#427)
A report on a virtual meeting NCEO held on February 16 and 17, 2021 of an Interim Assessment Advisory Panel to tap into the panel members’ collective knowledge about using interim assessments to support valid interpretations of what students with disabilities know and can do. The panel represented psychometricians, researchers knowledgeable about students with disabilities, state education agency (SEA) assessment and special education leaders, local education agency (LEA) leaders, and parents. Interim assessments refer to assessments that are administered several times during a school year to measure student progress. The meeting purpose was to develop and disseminate guidance to state departments of education on how to enable all students with disabilities, including students with the most significant cognitive disabilities and English learners with disabilities, to participate in interim assessments in ways that yield valid inferences of what they know and can do.
Published: May 2021 
A Summary of the Research on Test Accommodations for English Learners and English Learners with Disabilities: 2010-2018The purpose of this literature review is to examine the published English learner (EL) accommodations literature between 2010 and 2018 to provide an updated overview of research trends on this subject. Providing accommodations during assessments for students with disabilities has long been a standard requirement in federal education legislation. Providing assessment accommodations for English learners (ELs), on the other hand, is a newer requirement appearing only over the past few decades. As such, state assessment policies vary widely in terms of what accommodations are permitted for ELs on state assessments. Further, many of the allowable accommodations do not address students’ linguistic needs and there is not a large research base to document their effectiveness. In this review, the researchers examine the purpose of each study, the type of assessment measured, the content area assessed, the type of linguistic support accommodation examined, the characteristics of the research sample and the participants, the type of research design, the findings, and the author-identified limitations.
Published: 1/8/2020
NCEO Reports: 2015-16 Publicly Reported Assessment Results for Students with Disabilities and ELs with Disabilities (#407)This is the nineteenth report by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) that describes how states publicly report online assessment data for students with disabilities in K-12 schools in the United States. The purpose of this report is to examine the extent to which states reported 2015-16 assessment data for students with disabilities "to the public with the same frequency and in the same detail as it reports on the assessment of nondisabled children," as required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It also describes how states report assessment participation and performance data to the public online. It summarizes these data for grades 4 and 8, and high school, with additional analyses that focus on average performance gaps across years. The report also summarizes the extent to which states report participation and performance for English Learners (ELs) with disabilities and examines public reporting of accommodations.
Published: July 2018
NCEO Reports: 2015-16 High School Assessment Accommodations Policies: An Analysis of ACT, SAT, PARCC, and Smarter Balanced (#403)This report provides a snapshot of how accommodations were included in policies across ACT, SAT, Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), and Smarter Balanced during the 2015-16 school year. As required by federal and state legislation, all students, including students with disabilities and English learners (ELs), participate in state assessments used for accountability. Some states use assessments developed by consortia of states. States also are required to ensure that graduating students are college- and career-ready (CCR). Some states use state-administrations of the ACT or SAT as their measure of CCR. Many students with disabilities and ELs use accessibility features and accommodations to access each of these assessments. This report also analyzes differences in the accessibility framework, decision-making process, and terminology across the four assessments.
Published: July 2016
NCEO Reports: 2013-14 Publicly Reported Assessment Results for Students with Disabilities and ELLs with Disabilities (#401)This is the seventeenth report by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) that describes how states publicly report online assessment data for students with disabilities in K-12 schools in the United States. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) require states to disaggregate participation and performance data at the state level. The ESEA flexibility waivers that many states received also require states to report for the "all students" group as well as for all of the subgroups, including students in special education, as long as the number of students in a subgroup is equal to or above the minimum reporting number defined by the state. This report presents information on publicly reported participation and performance data for the 50 regular states and the 11 unique states. Recommendations are offered to states for the public reporting of disaggregated data for students with disabilities.
Published: February 2016
NCEO Synthesis Reports: Science Alternate Assessments based on Alternate Achievement Standards (AA-AAS) During School Year 2014-2015 (#99)A report that analyzes the characteristics of states' science alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS) in 2014-2015. Federal law requires that all students, including students with disabilities, participate in state assessments used for accountability purposes. It also requires states to assess students in several content areas, including science. Most students with disabilities take the general science assessment with or without accommodations, but a few students with the most significant cognitive disabilities participate in AA-AAS. Although federal regulations do allow states to define the complexity, depth, and breadth of the AA-AAS, the apparent lack of consistency in the domains assessed suggests that some students with significant cognitive disabilities may not be getting access to the same rigorous grade-appropriate content.
Published: November 2015
NCEO Synthesis Reports: Graduation Policies for Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities Who Participate in States' AA-AAS (#97)A report analyzing the graduation requirements and diploma options for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities who participate in states' alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS). The authors found that nearly 70% of states' policies indicated that students with the most significant cognitive disabilities who participate in the AA-AAS can receive a regular diploma. The criteria for doing so in these states were extremely varied, from those that have the exact same requirements to those that allow the IEP team to set the criteria. In states with policies that indicated that students with the most significant cognitive disabilities who participate in the AA-AAS could not receive a regular diploma, all but one state indicated that other end-of-school documents (e.g., certificates, special diplomas) were available to these students. The information the authors found and that was provided during the verification process provides important information for the field. Their findings should provide a basis for discussions within states as they consider their policies in light of college and career readiness imperatives.
Published: 2014
NCEO Synthesis Reports: Accommodation Policies for States' Alternate Assessments based on Alternate Achievement Standards (AA-AAS) (#90)A report focusing on accommodation policies for alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS). NCEO has analyzed participation and accommodation policies for students with disabilities on state administered assessments since 1992 and this report is part of that long-term study. In addition to presenting a national overview of policies, this report also addresses the results of NCEO's policy analysis by the four content assessment consortia -- Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC), Dynamic Learning Maps (DLM), and National Center and State Collaborative (NCSC). The researchers' summary of the results of their analysis of accommodation policies for AA-AAS is organized under three areas of focus: the terms states used to describe changes in assessment administration, the specific accommodations addressed in policies overall, the accommodations addressed for ELLs and accommodation guidelines provided by states. Detailed information overall and by the four consortia are provided in the report appendices.
Published: July 2013