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- Accommodations Toolkit: Screen Reader: States’ Accessibility Policies, 2023Formats: Online
This summary of states accessibility policies for screen reader is part of the Accommodations Toolkit published by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO).
Published: 11/8/2023 - 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 - Accommodations Toolkit: Color Contrast: States’ Accessibility Policies, 2022Formats: Online
This summary of states’ accessibility policies for color contrast is part of the Accommodations Toolkit published by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO).
Published: 10/18/2022 - Accommodations Toolkit: Spell Check: States’ Accessibility Policies, 2022Formats: Online
This summary of states’ accessibility policies for spell check is part of the Accommodations Toolkit published by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO).
Published: 10/18/2022 - Accommodations Toolkit: Assistive Technology: States’ Accessibility Policies, 2022Formats: Online
This summary of states’ accessibility policies for assistive technology is part of the Accommodations Toolkit published by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO).
Published: 10/18/2022 - Accommodations Toolkit: Paper Format: States’ Accessibility Policies, 2022Formats: Online
This summary of states’ accessibility policies for paper format is part of the Accommodations Toolkit published by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO).
Published: 10/18/2022 - Accommodations Toolkit: Magnification: States’ Accessibility Policies, 2022Formats: Online
This summary of states’ accessibility policies for magnification is part of the Accommodations Toolkit published by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO).
Published: 6/8/2022 - Accommodations Toolkit: Large Print: States’ Accessibility Policies, 2022Formats: Online
This summary of states’ accessibility policies for large print is part of the Accommodations Toolkit published by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO).
Published: 6/8/2022 - A Framework for Making Decisions about Participation in a State’s Alternate ELP Assessment (NCEO Report 426)
This report provides information on how to identify which English learners who may have a most significant cognitive disability are eligible to take an alternate English language proficiency (alt-ELP) assessment. It does so by summarizing federal assessment requirements for English learners with the most significant cognitive disabilities, describing characteristics of students in this population, offering a framework for identifying students who are eligible to participate in the alt-ELP assessment, and incorporating a list of recommended resources for more information.
Published: 10/28/2021 - NCEO Brief: Alternate Interim Assessments for Students with the Most Significant Cognitive Disabilities (#23)
This Brief offers preliminary guidance for the development of interim assessment options for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. There are federal requirements that all statewide and districtwide administrations of an assessment must have an alternate assessment. Given the importance interim assessments have now when there is an increased need for timely data on student learning and progress, the creation of high-quality alternate interim assessment options for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities requires urgent attention.
Published: May 2021 
NCEO APR Snapshot Briefs: 2017-2018 APR Snapshot #23: Students in Special Education Assigned Assessment Accommodations (#23)Formats: OnlineThis APR Snapshot Brief provides information on the number of students with disabilities assigned accommodations and the performance of these students on the general statewide assessment used for Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) accountability. Using federally submitted data from the 2017-2018 school year, we present information on accommodations for general reading and mathematics statewide assessments administered to grade 8 students (and grade 4 to show a comparison to grade 8 data).
Published: March 2021- 1% Toolkit: Reasons Why Students with Disabilities Should Take State Tests: A Customizable Template for a Flyer for Parents and Families (NCEO Tool #9)
This resource was developed by NCEO to identify and describe reasons why students with disabilities should take state tests. The purpose of the tool is to provide a concise resource that administrators, teachers, and other educators can use when communicating with parents and families about why it is so important that their children with disabilities participate in state assessments. It also provides strategies to reduce student test anxiety.
Published: January 2021 
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 Policy Directions: Considerations When Including Students with Disabilities in Test Security Policies (#23)A report concluding that assessments better measure what students know and can do when states and consortia thoughtfully consider how to balance test security and accessibility. Many states are concerned that their test security policies may not adequately address accommodated tests, alternate assessments, and other related issues. For example, a survey conducted by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (2013) found that 45 states believed that their state test was vulnerable to cheating when testing students in need of accommodations. Test security policies and procedures need to address test administration procedures, accommodations, and other issues related to students with disabilities to help ensure the integrity and validity of a test. A fundamental consideration when evaluating the validity of an assessment is the "fairness" of the test.
Published: February 2015- National Center on Educational Outcomes YouTube ChannelFormats: Online
A YouTube channel displaying videos created by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO), which works with states across the country to provide leadership to include students with disabilities and English language learners (ELLs) in large-scale state assessments.
Published: 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 APR Snapshot Briefs: 2008-2009 APR Snapshot #2: Assessment Accommodations Use by Special Education Students (#2)Formats: OnlineThis 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 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
PARA Accessible Reading Assessment Reports: Disabilities and Reading: Understanding the Effects of Disabilities and Their Relationship to Reading Instruction and AssessmentA report providing common ground on the issues surrounding reading and students with various disabilities to facilitate discussion of accessible reading assessment. The information in this report was obtained through a broad review of literature and Web sites of national agencies and organizations, along with input and feedback from professionals in the disability areas. It is not intended to be a comprehensive research review of disabilities or reading-related issues, but nevertheless should prove useful for understanding the effects of disabilities and their relationship to reading. Seven disabilities are discussed in the order of their prevalence: specific learning disabilities, speech or language impairments, intellectual disabilities, emotional/behavioral disabilities, autism, deaf or hard of hearing, and visual impairments. Although these disabilities do not comprise all of the possible disability categories or even the most common disabilities, they do represent those often considered most challenging for reading assessment. This report provides:
- An overview of the characteristics of students with each disability
- A description of common approaches to reading instruction for students with each disability
- Assessment approaches and issues that surround the assessment of reading for students with each disability.
Published: March 2009
NCEO Technical Reports: Trends in the Participation and Performance of Students with Disabilities (#50)A report describing the first comprehensive analysis conducted by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) of trends in the public reporting of state assessment results for students with disabilities. The study followed NCEO's four analyses of public reporting since the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. More states are reporting assessment data for students with disabilities disaggregated by grade level and content area. States have also improved their data collection systems that make this type of reporting possible but the number of states for which data were available across the four years was relatively small. Based on the states with data across years, average percentages of students with disabilities performing at the proficient or above level showed moderate increases across the four years for both reading and math in elementary and middle schools but not in high schools. Trend data also showed higher percentages of elementary school students demonstrating proficient or above performance in reading and math than their counterparts in middle and high school. Trends in the Participation and Performance of Students with Disabilities is a brief summary of this report.
Published: December 2008