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NCEO English Language Learners (ELLs) with Disabilities Reports: Reading, Mathematics, and Science Instructional Strategies for English Language Learners with Disabilities - Insights from Educators Nationwide (#19)A report studying instructional strategies at middle and junior high schools. Middle school teaching and learning is especially challenging, perhaps because the curriculum places greater cognitive demands on emerging adolescents at a developmental stage when students, especially those who have already been struggling, can be at higher risk for academic failure. ELLs with disabilities could be at particular risk, given the combination of learning challenges they may encounter in middle school. The study aimed to identify teacher-initiated instructional strategies that are preferred by practitioners who work daily with ELLs with disabilities.
Published: September 2008
NCEO Synthesis Reports: A Comparison of IEP/504 Accommodations Under Classroom and Standardized Testing Conditions: A Preliminary Report on SEELS Data (#63)This year 2006 report uses SEELS data to examine accommodation use across different education conditions, comparing IEP and 504 Plan accommodations to what students reportedly received in the classroom and on standardized tests. Findings show a lack of alignment in accommodation use among IEP/504 plans, classroom conditions, and state testing situations. Further, some variability is seen for students with different categorical labels. The author notes that continued monitoring of alignment should continue.
Published: September 2006
NCEO Technical Reports: Using the Think Aloud Method (cognitive labs) to Evaluate Test Design for Students with Disabilities and English Language Learners (#44)This year 2006 report describes research on think aloud methods used to detect design issues in large scale assessments. Students included in this study were students with learning disabilities, hearing impairments, cognitive disabilities, English learners, and students without disabilities proficient in English. Findings address the ability of specific student groups to participate in the think aloud procedure and the level of mathematics items with most informative data.
Published: August 2006
NCEO Synthesis Reports: Alternate Assessments Measured Against Grade-Level Achievement Standards: The Massachusetts "Competency Portfolio" (#59)This year 2006 report discusses Massachusett's alternate based on grade-level achievement standards. It describes the students who require these alternate assessments based on grade-level achievement standards (structured portfolio), and how such alternate assessments can reliably measure achievement in an equivalent manner to those students taking regular assessments for a grade level, and how the assessment may fulfill both system accountability and diploma purposes. The author also discusses how the model for a competency portfolio was developed and validated.
Published: January 2006
NCEO Synthesis Reports: Students with Disabilities in Standards-Based Assessment and Accountability Systems: Emerging Issues, Strategies, and Recommendations (#37)Formats: OnlineA report that addresses emerging issues affecting students with disabilities in standards-based assessment and accountability systems, as of the year 2001. Challenges and possible strategies for addressing the challenges are provided as identified by researchers, policymakers, and practitioners, based on a model developed by the National Center on Educational Outcomes, "Issues Related to Students with Disabilities in Assessment and Accountability Systems." The strategies presented here are concrete approaches to address challenges policymakers and practitioners are seeing in early implementation of inclusive assessment and accountability systems. All of these strategies have potential to increase the positive consequences and minimize the negative consequences of school reform for students with disabilities.
Published: February 2001
NCEO Reports: A Review of the Literature on Measuring English Language Proficiency Progress of English Learners with Disabilities and English Learners (#408)The purpose of this literature review was to identify evidence-based practices used (or recommended for use) to measure progress of English learners (ELs) with disabilities on English language proficiency (ELP) assessments. In this report, we discuss how studies have defined ELP progress and the extent to which studies have examined ELP progress for ELs with disabilities. In addition, we examine the methodologies used to measure ELP progress, the evidence base for the studies, and findings specific to ELs with disabilities. The strength of the evidence base was evaluated based on: (a) transparency of study methods, (b) study samples, and (c) author-identified study limitations.
Published: July 2018- Accommodations for English Learners BibliographyFormats: Online
This searchable bibliographic database presents research on English learner accommodations. You can perform a basic search by keywords related to the accommodation, test content area, or student age. Brief summaries of each study are provided, and include information on the accommodation, participants, dependent variable, and major findings of the study.
Published: 2018 - Accommodations for Students with Disabilities BibliographyFormats: Online
This searchable bibliographic database presents research on accommodations for students with disabilities. You can perform a basic search by keywords related to the accommodation, test content area, or student age. Brief summaries of each study are provided, and include information on the accommodation, participants, dependent variable, and major findings of the study.
Published: 2010 
NCEO Technical Reports: Read-Aloud Accommodations: Effects on Multiple-Choice Reading and Math Items (#31)Formats: OnlineThis year 2001 report examines the effect of a read aloud accommodation on the state reading and math assessments used by the Missouri assessment program. The study used extant test administration data for multiple-choice math and reading test items administered to 3rd and 4th grade students. Four student groups were created to help control for confounding effects. A differential item function (DIF) analysis was run on the data using BILOG-MG, which compared item difficulty estimates across several groups simultaneously. The findings lead to a discussion of how to determine who should benefit from an accommodation, and whether a reading test measures the reading construct differently for students with a reading disability than for students without disabilities. The report recommends further research and suggests that replicating the study is needed to confirm the results.
Published: September 2001
NCEO Synthesis Reports: Recommendations for Making Decisions About the Participation of Students with Disabilities in Statewide Assessment Programs: A Report on a Working Conference to Develop Guidelines for Statewide Assessments and Students with Disabilities (#15)Formats: PDFThis report is a summary of a meeting held in the Washington, DC area on May 17 and 18, 1994. The purpose of the meeting was to: (1) Discuss participation of students with disabilities in state assessment programs, (2) Discuss adaptations in assessments or assessment procedures to accommodate students with disabilities, (3) Attempt to arrive at agreement on a reasonable set of practices in making participation and accommodation decisions, and (4) Identify major technical and implementation issues that might be part of state or federal research agendas on participation and accommodations in assessment programs. This report proposes a set of recommendations for making participation and accommodation decisions, and indicate the fundamental assumptions that underlie participation of students with disabilities in state assessment programs. We describe the rational for the development of a consistent system for making decisions about participation and accommodations in state assessment programs.
Published: July 1994
NCEO Synthesis Reports: Implementation of Alternative Methods for Making Educational Accountability Decisions for Students with Disabilities (#12)Formats: PDFThis report examines some of the issues and challenges in gathering data for purposes of making accountability decisions for students with disabilities (1994). The report (1) describes the alternative methods that are being used, (2) describes the student population and accountability decision-making practices in representative states, (3) describes the kinds of issues State Education Agency (SEA) personnel encounter, (4) identifies the kinds of data SEA and national education policy personnel say would be needed to demonstrate that education works for students with disabilities, (5) describes ways in which SEA personnel have been successful in overcoming barriers, and (6) makes recommendations of promising practices for making accountability decisions.
Published: March 1994- NCEO Reports: The Relationship between Student Placement and AA-AAAS Participation Rates (#439)
This report presents the findings of a study that looked at the relationship between states’ percentage of students participating in the alternate assessment based on alternate academic achievement standards (AA-AAAS) and the percentage of students in more restrictive learning environments. The 2015 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), known as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), placed a 1% cap for states on student participation in the AA-AAAS. This meant that states, districts, and individualized education program (IEP) teams need to carefully consider which students should be included in these assessments. Data used in this analysis were for 2018-19. This study found that states with higher percentages of students in more restrictive environments tended to have higher percentages of students participating in the AA-AAAS for both mathematics and reading.
Published: June 2023 
NCEO Reports: Alternate Assessments for Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities: Participation Guidelines and Definitions (#406)This report documents the status of states' assessment participation guidelines and definitions of students with the most significant cognitive disabilities that were in place just prior to the start of the 2017-18 school year. With the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in 2015, renewed attention was paid to the importance of guidelines for participation in alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS) and to understanding of who the students are who have significant cognitive disabilities. The analysis includes the factors that states indicated should and should not be considered when making decisions about participation in the AA-AAS. It also documents the format of the guidelines that states made available to decision makers. Finally, it examines the extent to which states provided an explicit definition of "students with the most significant cognitive disabilities."
Published: December 2017
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
NCEO Technical Reports: Rules for Audio Representation of Science Items on a Statewide Assessment: Results of a Comparative Study (#64)A report describing a study that investigated an online auditory feature of an assessment designed to provide students who have challenges with print reading with content information. Large-scale educational assessment practice has moved consistently from a paper-and-pencil exercise to online assessments over the past decade. New formats for testing allow for new opportunities to provide students with disabilities access to items so that they may most validly demonstrate their knowledge. In an effort to evaluate the impact of how content is presented in auditory fashion, project personnel at NimbleTools® and the National Center on Educational Outcomes examined three approaches to "scripting" or creating audio representations of items. The results are presented in this report.
Published: June 2012
NCEO Technical Reports: Characteristics of Low Performing Special Education and Non-Special Education Students on Large-Scale Assessments (#60)A report investigating whether the characteristics of the lowest performing students in special education differ from the characteristics of the lowest performing students who are not in special education. The investigation in this report used data from low performing students in four states: Alabama, Hawaii, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Achievement data were disaggregated by three demographic characteristics (gender, race/ethnicity, and income status) for students taking the reading or mathematics assessments in fifth or eighth grade. In addition, researchers tracked data for each student over three years to identify how students moved in and out of the low performing category (low performing was defined as the tenth percentile and below for this report) across time.
Published: March 2012
NCEO Technical Reports: Interpreting Trends in the Performance of Special Education Students (#27)Formats: OnlineThis year 2000 report examines the effect that transitions between regular education and special education across grades had on performance trends for the special education population. It also looks at the effect that changes in exemption rates for students with disabilities had on performance trends. It was found that the reduction in exemption rates from testing as well as the departure of highest achieving special education students returning to general education both contributed to an increase in the performance gap over time. Further, when the same group of special education students were tracked over time, this gap decreased slightly. Findings have significant implications for states in the reporting of disaggregated data on students with disabilities, particularly in tracking performance across time. Recommendations are provided.
Published: October 2000- Alternate Assessment Forum: Connecting into a WholeFormats: Online
A report summarizing the discussion sessions during the Third Annual Alternate Assessment Forum held in 2000. One hundred thirty-five representatives from 39 states plus American Samoa participated in a forum on June 23-24, 2000 in Salt Lake City, Utah to discuss alternate assessment. Representatives were primarily state department of education staff, but also included some local or regional education staff, university staff, parents, and test publisher staff, all of whom have played major roles in helping states develop their alternate assessment systems. The forum, a third annual pre-session to the CCSSO National Large Scale Assessment Conference, was co-sponsored by the Regional Resource and Federal Centers (RRFCs), the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE), and the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO).
Published: 2000 - 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 - Alternate Interim Assessments for Students with the Most Significant Cognitive DisabilitiesFormats: Online
This video 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: July 2021