Resources
Search Filters
Search Results
NCEO APR Snapshot Briefs: 2008-2009 APR Snapshot #1: State Assessment Participation and Performance of Special Education Students (#1)Formats: OnlineThis year 2012 report summarizes the participation and performance of eighth grade students with disabilities, in reading and math assessments used for federal accountability in the 2008-2009 school year.
Published: January 2012
A Guide to Educational Acronyms: What's in the Alphabet Soup?Formats: PDFA resource guide providing a glossary of the "alphabet soup" of educational acronyms. NCEO developed this "acronym handbook" as a resource to define, clarify, or remind anyone involved legislative and policy discussions of definitions of routine educational acronyms. This pocket guide will be a useful tool for participants, whether they are state legislators, teachers, parents, or others.
Published: 2012
IVARED WebsiteFormats: OnlineA website presenting the Improving the Validity of Assessment Results for English Language Learners with Disabilities (IVARED) project, which aims to answer three questions:
-
Who are English language learners with disabilities?
-
How do they learn best?
-
How can teachers most effectively support their learning?
Published: 2012-
- Moving Your Numbers WebsiteFormats: Online
A website presenting Moving Your Numbers, which provides examples of real districts -- from small rural communities to large urban centers -- that are positively affecting the performance of all children, including students with disabilities, through collective and focused actions of adults. While different in demographics, each of these districts has publicly committed to improving teaching and learning for every child through effective data use and changing the ways in which adults across the system work and learn together.
Published: 2012 
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 ImprovementFormats: PDFA 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:
- Use data well;
- Focus your goals;
- Select and implement shared instructional practices;
- Implement deeply;
- Monitor and provide feedback and support; and
- 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
Moving Your Numbers: District Self-Assessment Guide for Moving Our Numbers: Using Assessment and Accountability to Increase Performance for Students with Disabilities as Part of District-Wide ImprovementFormats: PDFA guide for use by district leadership teams and school-level leadership teams in gauging the district's degree of implementation and scale of actions associated with effective practices identified in the Moving Your Numbers series.
Published: 2012
Moving Your Numbers: Higher Education Guide to Moving Your Numbers: Guide for Administrator Preparation ProgramsFormats: PDFA guide connecting the report, Moving Your Numbers, to the curriculum of administrator preparation programs. It makes the connection by (1) showing how the booklet fits with curricula in such preparation programs (i.e., programs to prepare candidates for various administrative roles), (2) providing discussion questions based on the case studies presented in the booklet, (3) suggesting activities that draw on and extend the content of the case studies, and (4) presenting additional resource materials for exploring the essential educational practices that the booklet targets. Moving Your Numbers provides administrator preparation programs with real-world examples of districts in which a focus on the education of all children--including those with disabilities--guides educators' thinking and practice. These exemplar districts contrast with other districts in which low expectations about certain students' capabilities limit those students' opportunities for learning and eventually depress their academic achievement. Recent policy language characterizes this outcome as the achievement gap, and remedying achievement gaps has become a critical concern in many school districts.
Published: 2012
Moving Your Numbers: Higher Education Guide to Moving Your Numbers: Guide for Teacher Preparation ProgramsFormats: PDFA guide connecting the report, Moving Your Numbers, to the curriculum of teacher preparation programs. It makes the connection by (1) showing how the booklet fits with curricula in such preparation programs (i.e., programs to prepare candidates for various teaching roles), (2) providing discussion questions based on the case studies presented in the booklet, (3) suggesting activities that draw on and extend the content of the case studies, and (4) presenting additional resource materials for exploring the essential educational practices that the booklet targets. Moving Your Numbers provides teacher preparation programs with real-world examples of districts in which a focus on the education of all children--including those with disabilities--guides educators' thinking and practice. These exemplar districts contrast with other districts in which low expectations about certain students' capabilities limit those students' opportunities for learning and eventually depress their academic achievement. Recent policy language characterizes this outcome as the achievement gap, and remedying achievement gaps has become a critical concern in many school districts.
Published: 2012
Moving Your Numbers: Key Practices GuideFormats: PDFA guide describing six essential practices for increasing achievement of students with disabilities and other at-risk learners as part of whole-district reform efforts. All six practices are described within the context of the district achievement profiles included in this publication. They are also organized for easier reference as a pull-out insert that provides suggestions for state education agency personnel, district and school personnel (including regional technical assistance providers), and parents/family members who might be interested in learning more about what questions to ask, or how to initiate and/or contribute to a conversation in their state, region, or district that supports all students to learn at higher levels.
Published: 2012
Moving Your Numbers: Parent/Family Companion Guide: Using Assessment and Accountability to Increase Performance for Students with Disabilities as Part of District-wide ImprovementFormats: PDFA guide, based on the report Moving Your Numbers: Improving Learning for Students with Disabilities as Part of District-wide Reform, providing an in-depth examination of how five school districts with vastly different student populations increased the performance of students with disabilities. While the report was developed primarily for use by those working at the state, school district, and school levels, it provides powerful information that can be used by parents and families interested in working to improve the academic performance of students with disabilities. Because of the very specific requirements of the federal special education law, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), parents of students with disabilities engage with school personnel frequently via the formulation of their child's Individualized Education Programs and progress reports throughout the year. These parents are in a unique position to recognize, understand, and participate in key practices that improve learning. The findings presented in Moving Your Numbers can help pave the way for parents to become even more effective.
Published: 2012
Moving Your Numbers: Regional/Intermediate Unit Providers: The Critical Role of Regional Providers in Facilitating School District Capacity to Improve Learning and Achievement for Students with DisabilitiesFormats: PDFA guide, based on the Moving Your Numbers report, offering insights into the direction regional providers should take to more effectively support districts and schools in improving outcomes for all students.
Published: 2012
Moving Your Numbers: State Education Agencies: The Critical Role of SEAs in Facilitating School District Capacity to Improve Learning and Achievement for Students with DisabilitiesFormats: PDFA guide offering insights into the direction state education agencies should take to more effectively support districts and schools in improving outcomes for all students.
Published: 2012- NCEO APR Snapshot Briefs: 2008-2009 APR Snapshot #2: Assessment Accommodations Use by Special Education Students (#2)Formats: Online
This year 2012 report provides information on the number of students with disabilities using accommodations on statewide reading and math assessments used for federal accountability purposes. Using federally submitted data from the 2008-2009 school year, the authors present information on accommodations for reading and mathematics statewide assessments administered to grade 8 students (and grade 4 to show a comparison to grade 8 data).
Published: January 2012 
NCEO Brief: Performance of Special Education Students: Implications for Common State Assessments (#5)A brief -- the fifth in a series for the Race to the Top Assessment Consortia -- presenting information on the performance of special education students, highlighting the range in performance of these students in the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) Consortia states, as well as the nature of gaps between special education and non-special education students. Changes in the percentage of special education students proficient and above on state tests over time are also provided. This brief provides concluding thoughts about the performance of special education students and suggestions for steps that Consortia and states might take to look at their own data. This is one of a series of NCEO Briefs for the Race to the Top (RTTT) Assessment Consortia that address the opportunities, resources, and challenges facing cross-state collaborative assessment efforts as they include students with disabilities and English language learners.
Published: January 2012
NCEO Synthesis Reports: Learning Progressions in K-8 Classrooms: How Progress Maps Can Influence Classroom Practice and Perceptions and Help Teachers Make More Informed Instructional Decisions in Support of Struggling Learners (#87)A report describing perceptions and practices of Hawaii teachers using progress maps (learning progressions) to inform their understanding of how struggling learners progress during the school year in language arts or mathematics. Participants included (K-8) elementary and middle school teachers from six Hawaii public schools. Each teacher selected five students in his or her classroom to document progress and collect work samples from at least two quarters during the 2010-2011 school year; several of these students were ones who might have been eligible for and participated in an Alternate Assessment based on Modified Achievement Standards (AA-MAS) if Hawaii had developed one. Multiple data collection tools and processes were developed for use in this project and are described in the report. Findings from the year-long effort addressed (a) teachers' reflections on practice (instruction, assessment, and instructional decisions), (b) teachers' perceptions on learners and learning pathways, (c) facilitated collaboration sessions), and (d) unanticipated activities. This report addresses each of those, as well as the implications of the project for professional development support.
Published: January 2012
NCEO Technical Reports: Tennessee Special Education Teacher Survey: Training, Large-scale Testing, and TCAP-MAAS Administration (#61)A report explaining how Tennessee developed an Alternate Assessment based on Modified Academic Achievement Standards called the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program-Modified Academic Achievement Standards (TCAP-MAAS), that was first administered in 2010. This report from the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) presents the results of a survey of Tennessee special education teachers regarding this assessment option. The authors sought to learn more about the teachers' perceptions of student experiences and outcomes with the TCAP-MAAS. They asked questions about how the teachers received training about this assessment, sought to measure the extent to which information about the new TCAP-MAAS had reached teachers across the state, and asked about accommodations selection and implementation for instruction and assessment. One section of the survey contained a knowledge quiz that was designed to assess teachers' knowledge of the TCAP-MAAS. The perceptions of teachers whose students took the TCAP-MAAS can provide insights into what is working well and where there were challenges.
Published: January 2012
Moving Your Numbers: Moving Your Numbers: Five Districts Share How They Used Assessment and Accountability to Increase Performance for Students With Disabilities as Part of District-wide ImprovementFormats: PDFA report examining how school districts can increase the performance of students with disabilities and other at-risk learners as part of whole-district reform efforts. It includes case studies of featured districts that provide evidence that students with disabilities, like all other students, can learn at higher levels when adults focus their collective efforts on improving instructional practice, consistently implement core work across the district, and use assessment and accountability as a lever for ongoing system and student learning and improvement.
Published: 2011
NCEO Synthesis Reports: Educating Struggling Learners: Reflections on Lessons Learned about Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment (#86)A report presenting a first-person account of someone on the front lines of school reform, specifically focusing on inclusive assessment practices as they influence curriculum, instruction, and assessment at the local and state levels. The author, Valerie Kurizaki, works within the Hawai'i State Department of Education to ensure systemic standards implementation that supports all students, especially struggling learners. Her story suggests many themes that are similar to those in districts around the country where systematic reform has improved outcomes for all students, including students with disabilities.
Published: December 2011
NCEO Synthesis Reports: 2009 State Policies on Assessment Participation and Accommodations for Students with Disabilities (#83)A report updating information on the state policies on assessment participation and accommodations that NCEO has been tracking and analyzing since 1992. NCEO last reported this information on these policies in 2008 (based on 2007 data). Policies from all 50 states and the District of Columbia are included in the report. In addition, current state accommodations policies were analyzed by grade and content area.
Published: September 2011
NCEO Synthesis Reports: Characteristics of States' Alternate Assessments Based on Modified Academic Achievement Standards in 2010-2011 (#85)A report tracking test design changes between the alternate assessment based on modified academic achievement standards (AA-MAS) and regular assessment, whether states' AA-MAS were computer-based, whether states with computer-based tests (CBTs) included tutorial and practice test opportunities, and whether states' documents included considerations for English Language Learners (ELLs) with disabilities. Federal regulations introduced AA-MAS as another assessment option for students with disabilities in 2007. Eligible students may be from any disability category, and they must be considered unlikely to achieve grade-level proficiency within the time period covered by their Individualized Education Program (IEP) and have IEP goals based on grade-level content standards. NCEO has been tracking the characteristics of states' AA-MAS since 2007. According to the 2009 NCEO update on test characteristics, 13 states had developed what they considered to be an AA-MAS, and three states (Texas, Kansas, and Louisiana) had received federal approval. The further study reported in this publication found 17 states that by the 2010-11 academic school year had developed, or were developing, what they considered to be an AA-MAS, and one additional state (North Carolina) had received federal approval.
Published: September 2011