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NCEO Synthesis Reports: A Compilation of States' Guidelines for Including Students with Disabilities in Assessments (#17)Formats: PDFThis report provides a listing of states' written guidelines on the participation of students with disabilities in assessments (1993).
Published: February 1995- Assessment Participation of Students with DisabilitiesFormats: Online
This page has links to states with assessment participation policies that include information on students with disabilities.
Published: 2021-02-01 - English Learners with Disabilities Toolkit: Deciding Whether an English Learner with a Disability Should Participate in the State Alternate English Language Proficiency Assessment (Tool 3)Formats: PDF
This tool provides states with components to help ensure that all potential decision makers are informed about the state’s English language proficiency (ELP) assessments. It also provides considerations for making the decision about whether a student who is an English learner with a disability should participate in the alternate ELP assessment or the general ELP assessment. States may customize this tool as needed to meet their needs.
Published: November 2024 
NCEO Technical Reports: Uneven Transparency: NCLB Tests Take Precedence in Public Assessment Reporting for Students with Disabilities (#43)This year 2006 report describes the extent that states publicly reported assessment data for students with disabilities for 2003-2004. It describes the assessment systems of states, reporting practices for participation and performance, and achievement gap data. Recommendations for clear reporting are also provided.
Published: March 2006
NCEO Synthesis Reports: Use of Alternate Assessment Results in Reporting and Accountability Systems: Conditions for Use Based on Research and Practice (#43)Formats: OnlineThis report reviews current (2002) understanding of the technical and policy considerations involved in high quality alternate assessment. Based on research from early implementation and what are considered to be best practice approaches, this synthesis describes five steps in alternate assessment test development processes that allow interpretation and use of results in reporting and accountability.
Published: May 2002
NCEO Synthesis Reports: Principles and Characteristics of Inclusive Assessment and Accountability Systems (#40)Formats: OnlineThis year 2001 report presents six core principles of inclusive assessment and accountability systems with a brief rationale and specific characteristics that reflect each principle. These principles are based on a decade of NCEO's documentation of assessment and accountability systems and on review and comment from multiple stakeholders who share a common goal of improving outcomes for all students.
Published: November 2001- NCEO Policy Directions: Increasing the Participation of Students with Disabilities in State and District Assessments (#6)Formats: Online
This year 1997 report identifies considerations for increasing the participation of students with disabilities in state and district assessments. These include clarifying who should participate in these assessments, what principles should guide decisions about who participates, and how these considerations apply to graduation exams. The report ends with recommendations with steps to follow for aligning the principles to accountability systems.
Published: May 1997 
NCEO Policy Directions: Guidelines for Inclusion of Students with Disabilities in Large-Scale Assessments (#1)Formats: OnlineThis year 1994 report provides background on how students with disabilities have been excluded from large scale assessments and provides recommendations for the development of guidelines and monitoring practices that promote full participation of students with disabilities in large-scale assessment programs. It recommends guidelines for policies that address inclusion, accommodations and adaptations, and monitoring of implementation of these policies.
Published: May 1994
NCEO Brief: State Assessment Decision-Making Processes for ELLs with Disabilities (#9)A brief presenting information on what is known about assessment decision-making processes for English language learners (ELLs) with disabilities. It highlights information that has been collected by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) as well as information from other sources. Topics addressed in the brief include: (a) required assessment decision-making processes, (b) experts' recommendations about assessment decision making for ELLs with disabilities, (c) resources available to guide assessment decision making, (d) standards-based IEPs, and (e) recommended participants on the decision-making team. Conclusions focus on the six key areas in which policymakers should provide guidance for educators.
Published: June 2014
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: 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- Proceedings of the NCEO Interim Assessment Convening: Measuring What Students with Disabilities Know and Can Do Using Interim Assessments
This report contains the proceeding of the Interim Assessment Convening on Measuring What Students with Disabilities Know and Can Do Using Interim Assessments that was hosted by NCEO, and held on July 26 and 27, 2021. The purpose of the Convening was to share information about how to enable the participation of all students with disabilities, including students with the most significant cognitive disabilities and English learners with disabilities, in interim assessments in ways that support obtaining valid results of what they know and can do. The Convening also provided an opportunity for State education agency (SEA) teams to develop goals and action items, based on the opportunities and challenges identified, that would result in more valid measurement of what students with disabilities know and can do at both the SEA and local education agency (LEA) levels. This Proceedings document was developed to provide a summary of the Convening. It includes appendices and links to resources that were shared by states and others at the Convening.
Published: December 2021 
NCEO Reports: 2015-16 Publicly Reported Assessment Results for Students with Disabilities and ELs with Disabilities (#407)This is the nineteenth report by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) that describes how states publicly report online assessment data for students with disabilities in K-12 schools in the United States. The purpose of this report is to examine the extent to which states reported 2015-16 assessment data for students with disabilities "to the public with the same frequency and in the same detail as it reports on the assessment of nondisabled children," as required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It also describes how states report assessment participation and performance data to the public online. It summarizes these data for grades 4 and 8, and high school, with additional analyses that focus on average performance gaps across years. The report also summarizes the extent to which states report participation and performance for English Learners (ELs) with disabilities and examines public reporting of accommodations.
Published: July 2018
NCEO Reports: 2015-16 High School Assessment Accommodations Policies: An Analysis of ACT, SAT, PARCC, and Smarter Balanced (#403)This report provides a snapshot of how accommodations were included in policies across ACT, SAT, Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), and Smarter Balanced during the 2015-16 school year. As required by federal and state legislation, all students, including students with disabilities and English learners (ELs), participate in state assessments used for accountability. Some states use assessments developed by consortia of states. States also are required to ensure that graduating students are college- and career-ready (CCR). Some states use state-administrations of the ACT or SAT as their measure of CCR. Many students with disabilities and ELs use accessibility features and accommodations to access each of these assessments. This report also analyzes differences in the accessibility framework, decision-making process, and terminology across the four assessments.
Published: July 2016
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
PARA Accessible Reading Assessment Reports: Examining Differential Item Functioning in Reading Assessments for Students With DisabilitiesA report examining group differences between students with disabilities and students without disabilities using differential item functioning (DIF) analyses in a high-stakes reading assessment. Results indicated that for grade 9, many items exhibited DIF and these were more likely to be located in the second half of the assessment subscales. After accounting for reading ability, when compared to their non-disabled peers, students with disabilities consistently under-performed on items located in the second half relative to the items located in the first half. These results were seen in grade 9 for data from two different states, but these results were not seen for grade 3. This study has several limitations to the data. There was no access to information about the testing accommodations that students with disabilities might have received, and no information about the type of disabilities. Results of this study can shed light on potential factors affecting the accessibility of reading assessments for students with disabilities, in an ultimate effort to provide assessment tools that are conceptually and psychometrically sound for all students.
Published: January 2007- NCEO Maryland/Kentucky State Assessment Project: A Comparison of State Assessment Systems in Maryland and Kentucky with a focus on the participation of students with disabilities (#1)Formats: Online
A report from the past Maryland-Kentucky-NCEO Assessment Project, a federally funded effort supported, in part, by a grant to the Maryland State Department of Education.
Published: November 1996 
NCEO Synthesis Reports: A Compilation of States' Guidelines for Accommodations in Assessments for Students with Disabilities (#18)Formats: PDFThis report provides a listing of states' written guidelines on accommodations, modifications, and adaptations of assessments for students with disabilities (1993).
Published: March 1995- State Public Assessment Reports for Students with DisabilitiesFormats: Online
This page has links to state pages with assessment reports that include disaggregated data for students with disabilities.
Published: 2021-02-01