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Parent Spotlight: Parent Spotlight on Common Core State Standards and Students with DisabilitiesFormats: PDFThis booklet was written to provide information to parents and others about Common Core State Standards for students with disabilities.
Published: April 2014
Parent Spotlight: Parent Spotlight on IEPs and Common Core State Standards and AssessmentsFormats: PDFThis booklet was written to provide information to parents and others about Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) and the newly adopted academic standards, the Common Core State Standards.
Published: April 2014
NCEO Brief: Considerations for Consortia as States Transition Away from AA-MAS (#7)A brief addressing the need for consortia to assist their member states in moving away from the alternate assessment based on modified achievement standards (AA-MAS). It focuses on key considerations for consortia as they address the inclusion of low-performing students in all member states, informed by the lessons learned from the AA-MAS. Topics highlighted in this brief are: including low-performing students in field test designs, customizing non-summative assessments to include low-performing students, and collecting and examining data on this group of students.
Published: February 2014
NCEO Newsletter: February 2014 issueFormats: OnlineAn issue highlighting the findings from NCEO's Improving the Validity of Assessment Results for English Language Learners with Disabilities (IVARED) project that led focus groups with 232 school and district practitioners to better understand issues and challenges educators face in making appropriate decisions for English language learners (ELLs). It also announces the launching of IVARED's learning modules on ELLs with disabilities. Another launch is NCEO's first YouTube channel with videos from NCEO's Online Training to Improve Accommodations Decision Making. This issue also contains a list of sessions delivered, moderated, or chaired by NCEO staff at the NCME, AERA, or CEC conferences in Philadelphia in April 2014.
Published: February 2014
NCEO Policy Directions: Successfully Transitioning from the AA-MAS to the General Assessment (#22)A report exploring how federal policy initiatives such as the flexibility waivers for accountability are requiring that states transition away from the use of an alternate assessment based on modified achievement standards (AA-MAS). It is expected that those students who had participated in that assessment will instead participate in the state's general assessment (or a Race-to-the-Top consortium assessment if the state belongs to one). It is important that this transition be successful. Much has been learned through the development of the AA-MAS and its implementation. These lessons learned form the basis for ensuring the successful transition from the AA-MAS to the general assessment. Indeed, the lessons learned from the AA-MAS provide important information for all states as they strive to ensure that their general assessments are appropriate for a broad range of students. This Policy Directions offers suggestions for strategies to move the students currently participating in the AA-MAS to the general assessment.
Published: February 2014- IVARED Learning ModuleFormats: Online
A set of five online learning modules helping educators make good assessment decisions for students who are English language learners (ELLs) with disabilities. Access to the modules is free and open to all educators. Educators can register for a username and password, and then log in whenever they like and work their way through the modules. Most users take 70-90 minutes to complete all five sections.
Published: 2013 
NCEO Synthesis Reports: Results of a Cognitive Interview Study of Immediate Feedback and Revision Opportunities for Students with Disabilities in Large Scale Assessments (#92)A report covering a study that was part of a larger research project originally designed to investigate an approach to Alternate Assessments with Modified Achievement Standards that provides immediate feedback and revision opportunities for students when they answer test items. After answering an item, students would receive feedback about whether the answer was correct or incorrect and would be given additional chances to correct their answer (for partial credit). This particular study employed cognitive interviews to determine whether: (a) Feedback and Revision had a qualitative impact on student interaction with the assessment (i.e., students' interview responses suggest that the feedback and revision feature had an impact on those students' success on the test), and (b) there were qualitative differences between groups of students with and without disabilities (i.e., students' interview responses suggest that the utility and effects of feedback and revision differ for these two groups).
Published: December 2013
Voices From the Field: Making State Assessment Decisions for English Language Learners With DisabilitiesFormats: PDFA report describing an activity undertaken by the Improving the Validity of Assessment Results for ELLs with Disabilities (IVARED) project, which is a consortium of the five states of Arizona, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, and Washington, led by Minnesota. In collaboration with the National Center on Educational Outcomes, these states sought to understand ways to make state accountability assessments more valid and reliable for English language learners (ELLs) with disabilities. This report describes how IVARED tried to better understand the current assessment and accommodation decision-making process, test score use practices, and issues and challenges educators face in making appropriate decisions for ELLs with disabilities. Online focus groups were conducted in each of the five states with a total of 232 school, district, and state practitioners who had expertise in working with this population of students.
Published: 2013
NCEO Newsletter: October 2013 issueFormats: OnlineAn issue highlighting findings from the 2012 survey of states, information on two new NCEO products--a tool that groups can use to build consensus on a topic, and a report covering current state policies on accommodations for delivering assessments orally. It also profiles an innovative online training for educators to improve decisions made about accommodations for individual students. Finally, this issue focuses on three manuals developed collaboratively by states, the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), and NCEO, and published by CCSSO, to help guide accommodations decision-making.
Published: October 2013
Forum on Addressing Performance Gaps of Low-performing Students: Implications for Assessment and InstructionFormats: PDFA report describing the facilitated discussions and the consensus reached at a forum on June 19, 2013, in National Harbor, Maryland, to discuss the performance gaps of low-performing students and their implications for assessment and instruction. The forum was a pre-session at the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) National Conference on Student Assessment (NSCA) where 62 individuals representing 16 states, three school districts, 11 testing and testing-related companies, and 11 other organizations participated. Summaries of the discussions were developed from notes taken by notetakers, and action plans were synthesized through the consensus-building process. The report also summarizes the introductory information provided to forum participants.
Published: September 2013
Multi-Attribute Consensus Building ToolFormats: PDFA tool that can be used to help groups prioritize strategies, decisions, recommendations, or policies. It has been used by NCEO for over a decade and the use of the Multi-Attribute Consensus Building (MACB) method has been well-received.
Published: September 2013- Multi-Attribute Consensus Building ToolFormats: PDF
This tool gives step-by-step guidance on how to conduct a Multi-Attribute Consensus Building (MACB) session with educators, administrators, parents, advocates and other stakeholders. MACB is a structured decision-making process that asks small groups to generate, discuss and prioritize a list of items.
Published: 2013-09-01 
NCEO State Surveys: 2012 Survey of States: Successes and Challenges During a Time of ChangeA report providing a snapshot of new initiatives, trends, accomplishments, and emerging issues during this important period of education reform as states document the academic achievement of students with disabilities. This is the thirteenth such survey of states conducted by NCEO. States also reported information about the alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS), and on new developments in assessment such as teacher evaluation and how they are contributing to the consortia. In the three years since the previous survey, states continued to make strong progress, though challenges remained and several new issues emerged.
Published: September 2013
NCEO Technical Reports: 2010-11 Publicly Reported Assessment Results for Students with Disabilities and ELLs with Disabilities (#68)A report analyzing public reporting practices for assessment data for students with disabilities in K-12 schools in the United States. This report, which is the fourteenth of its kind by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO), includes information about both the 50 regular states and the 11 unique states (American Samoa, Bureau of Indian Education, Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. Department of Defense Education Activities, District of Columbia, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Palau, Puerto Rico, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and U.S. Virgin Islands).
Published: September 2013- Online Training to Improve Accommodations Decision MakingFormats: Online
A curriculum designed to coach educators on best practices in how to select, administer, and evaluate the use of accommodations. This interactive, multi-media professional development tool contains five modules with case-based video clips on NCEO's YouTube Channel . NCEO developed the training collaboratively with the state of Alabama, but it can also be used in other states.
Published: 2013 
Accommodations for Students with Disabilities on State English Language Proficiency Assessments: A Review of 2011 State PoliciesFormats: PDFA report documenting states' participation and accommodation policies for English language learners (ELLs) with disabilities on their English Language Proficiency (ELP) assessments. The states' online policies from 2011, after state verification, showed that 49 states addressed participation criteria for ELLs with disabilities. Of these states, 36 states allowed for selective participation of students with disabilities on the ELP assessment, meaning that a student may participate in some domains but not others. Most often, ELLs who were deaf/hard of hearing or who had visual impairments or blindness were considered for selective participation. The summary of findings suggests that over time, states have become more detailed in their policies relating to participation and accommodations for ELLs with disabilities on ELP assessments. Continued attention to the participation and performance of ELLs with disabilities in ELP and other state assessments is essential.
Published: August 2013
NCEO Synthesis Reports: 2012 State Policies for Accommodations Used to Deliver Assessments Orally (#91)A report examining the wide variation across states in their accommodations policies for Human Reader, Text to Speech, and Pre-recorded Audio. The results of the analyses in the report can inform states and the general assessment consortia--PARCC and Smarter Balanced--as they plan for the transition to their new assessments. Among other things, the report provides an easy way to develop a crosswalk of policies on these accommodations to the new consortia policies.
Published: August 2013; revised January 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
Learning Modules on English Learners (ELs) with DisabilitiesFormats: OnlineThis free training helps educators look at important issues surrounding students who are ELs with disabilities. Participants follow the story of Emma, a middle school student with a learning disability, while also providing additional case studies of students with other disabilities who need accommodations to access instruction and assessments. The training especially models how educators and parents or guardians can work together to make and implement good decisions about accommodations as members of the featured student’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) team.
Published: 2013-06-06
NCEO APR Snapshot Briefs: 2010-2011 APR Snapshot #5: Assessment Accommodations Use by Students Receiving Special Education Services (#5)Formats: OnlineThis year 2013 report provides information on the number of students with disabilities using accommodations and their performance on general statewide assessments used for federal accountability in 2010-2011. The report focuses on data in reading and math for grades four and eight.
Published: June 2013