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NCEO Synthesis Reports: Science Assessments for Students with Disabilities in School Year 2006-2007: What We Know about Participation, Performance, and Accommodations (#77)A report documenting the inclusion of students with disabilities in state science assessments in 2006-2007, the period just before the required implementation of statewide science assessments. The success of all students, including students with disabilities, on statewide assessments in mathematics and reading/English language arts has been examined closely, partly due to the role of these content areas in school accountability for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) known as "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB). States also were expected to establish science content standards by 2005-2006, and to develop assessments in science by 2007-2008.
Published: August 2010
NCEO Synthesis Reports: States' Participation Guidelines for Alternate Assessments Based on Modified Academic Achievement Standards (AA-MAS) in 2008 (#71)A report describing an assessment option permitted by federal regulations that give states the flexibility to offer an alternate assessment based on modified academic achievement standards (AA-MAS). This assessment option is for a small group of students with disabilities who can make significant progress but may not reach grade-level proficiency within the time period covered by their Individualized Education Program. Students who participate in an AA-MAS must have access to grade-level content. States are not required to offer this option. This report compiles, analyzes, and summarizes states' participation guidelines for the AA-MAS.
Published: December 2008
NCEO Technical Reports: An Analysis of Accommodations Issues from the Standards and Assessments Peer Review (#51)A report commissioned by the Accommodations Monitoring Study Group of the Assessing Special Education Students State Collaborative on Assessment and Student Standards. It is the second in a three-part series providing information to states about the monitoring of accommodations to address the question of how states meet the NCLB requirement to routinely monitor the extent to which test accommodations are consistent with those provided during instruction, specifically for students with IEPs. This technical report provides a comprehensive analysis of the peer review guidance information and the methodology used in the research, as well as summarizing themes found across multiple peer reviews of state assessment systems. The first report in the series is Hints and Tips for Addressing Accommodations Issues for Peer Review.
Published: December 2008
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 Technical Reports: State Graduation Requirements for Students With and Without Disabilities (#24)This year 1999 report documents state graduation requirements based on a survey study of assessment directors of 50 states and the District of Columbia. The National Center on Educational Outcomes and the National Transition Network collaborated in this study. The report describes what is required for students with and without disabilities to earn exit documents in each state, including standard diplomas, certificates of completion, IEP diplomas and honor diplomas, and provides details about exam and coursework modifications that states allow for students with disabilities. The report offers recommendations for policymakers as they consider setting policy for graduation requirements.
Published: April 1999
NCEO Synthesis Reports: A Perspective on Education and Assessment in Other Nations: Where Are Students with Disabilities? (#19)Formats: OnlineFindings about the exclusion of students with disabilities in U. S. assessments necessarily lead to questions about the status of students with disabilities in international comparison assessments and in the assessments used in other nations. Are students with disabilities included in these assessments? Are appropriate accommodations used during the assessments? When are "exclusion rates" reported? Do all countries start from the same base of "all" students? The purpose of this 1995 report is to address these kinds of questions. We do this by examining students with disabilities in international comparison studies and in assessments in each of 14 nations, including the U. S., that are among those included in previous or current international comparative studies.
Published: April 1995
NCEO Technical Reports: Inclusion of Students with Disabilities in National and State Data Collection Programs (#2)Formats: PDFThis year 1992 report summarizes the extent to which individuals with disabilities were represented in national and state data collection programs. After 30 different data collection programs were identified for potential evaluation, 9 of them were reviewed. The extent to which students with disabilities were included in state outcomes assessment activities was evaluated through a survey of state directors of special education. Findings include statistics on the percent of students with disabilities being excluded, issues related to exclusion guidelines, and issues stemming from the lack of representation of students with disabilities in national outcome measures.
Published: March 1992
NCEO Technical Reports: State Practices in the Assessment of Outcomes for Students with Disabilities (#1)Formats: PDFThis year 1991 report provides information on what states and territories were doing related to outcomes assessment during the years of 1991 to 1995. It presents the results of surveys and reviews of then current state practices and future plans. The Survey of State Policies was conducted to: (a) produce a data base on state efforts to develop systems to assess educational outcomes, (b) assess states' needs for solutions t technical/implementation problems, (c) identify important state-level information and existing data bases, and (d) assess efforts of states to design a comprehensive system of indicators in general and special education.
Published: October 1991- 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: Guidance Manuals for Educators of English Learners with Disabilities: Ideas and Lessons from the Field (#410)This report describes ideas and lessons learned from leaders who developed state education agency guidance manuals for identifying, assessing and referring English learners (ELs) to special education. To ensure that students are receiving optimal instruction, appropriate interventions, and assessments, state, district, and school leaders need to develop or improve the systematic processes educators and administrators work through. Providing manuals with consistent and practical guidance (and appropriate professional learning on their use) is a means to do so. This report presents findings from telephone interviews conducted with the authors of six state manuals, probing the impetus for getting started; the manual development process; dissemination and professional learning; and lessons learned during manual development. The report concludes with implications for state and local leaders.
Published: April 2019
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