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TIES Center Briefs: 10 razones para apoyar a las comunidades escolares inclusivas para todos los estudiantesFormats: PDFEducators, students, and families have found many compelling reasons to support inclusive education for students with and without disabilities. This Brief, translated into Spanish, delineates ten reasons that supporting inclusive school communities for ALL students is important, but in a nutshell, inclusive learning communities are better, richer, and more effective when all students, including those with disabilities, are full participants. Content is in Spanish.
Published: June 2020- Multi-Attribute Consensus Building ToolFormats: PDF
This tool gives step-by-step guidance on how to conduct a Multi-Attribute Consensus Building (MACB) session with educators, administrators, parents, advocates and other stakeholders. MACB is a structured decision-making process that asks small groups to generate, discuss and prioritize a list of items.
Published: 2013-09-01 - Developing and Improving Modified Achievement Level Descriptors: Rationale, Procedures, and Tools
Procedures and tools to develop and continuously improve achievement level descriptors for alternate assessments based on modified achievement standards (AA-MAS). This is an archived report because this assessment option is no longer allowed.
Published: 2010-06-01 - Hints and Tips for Addressing Accommodations Issues for Peer ReviewFormats: PDF
Information and examples that states can use in responding to accommodation criteria in the Standards and Assessment Peer Review process, and to address the need for continued improvement after approval.
Published: 2007-04-02 - A State Guide to the Development of Universally Designed AssessmentsFormats: PDF
Test design strategies for accurately measuring the knowledge and skills of a diverse student population from test conceptualization and item construction, to field-testing, item reviews, statewide operationalization, and evaluation.
Published: 2006-09-01 - Universal Design Online ManualFormats: Online
Steps that states can take to ensure universal design of computer and paper-based assessments. Including any step in the design and review of tests may improve the design features of a state assessment.
Published: 2006-09-01 
NCEO Brief: Making Accessibility Decisions for ALL Students (#11)A Brief presenting information on steps to take in the transition from a focus on making decisions about accommodations for students with disabilities and English language learners (ELLs), to a focus on decisions about accessibility and accommodations required by the new assessment approaches of states and collaboratives of states. These new approaches include making decisions for students without an identified disability or ELL status. Seven steps are highlighted that will be useful for states in organizing professional development for educators who will be making accessibility decisions, and for educators themselves who are seeking information on making optimal decisions about accessibility tools and accommodations that meet individual student needs.
Published: June 2015
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
Sign Support Guidelines for Accessible Assessments: Insights From Cognitive LabsFormats: PDFA report observing that students who are deaf or hard of hearing (Deaf/HH) and communicate using American Sign Language (ASL) may benefit from sign accommodations on state assessments. However, there have been challenges in standardizing assessment content including how items should be signed. Technology-enhanced assessment offers the opportunity to provide standardized sign support delivered through the test platform. One goal of the Guidelines for Accessible Assessment Project (GAAP) was to develop research-based sign guidelines that can be used across states, consortia, and assessment vendors to produce reliable and valid signed representations of assessment items and tasks for students who communicate using sign language. This report highlights the findings from cognitive labs conducted with students to gain their input and feedback on the proposed guidelines. A total of 46 elementary-, middle-, and high-school-aged students who were Deaf/HH and communicated using ASL participated in cognitive labs. The research findings point to the students' preferences for the provision of the sign support in general and for this support being grounded in ASL rather than representations aligned with other languages.
Published: December 2014
NCEO Synthesis Reports: Outcome-Based Education: Its Relevance to State and National Decision Making (#9)Formats: PDFThis report was developed to propose a framework for applying an outcome-based approach throughout the education system for students with disabilities. The needs of three major levels of the system were examined: local, state, and national. It is argued that it is necessary to define different uses for the term "outcome" in order to achieve consensus and understanding. Matching uses with the needs of the specific levels of the system will help clarify communications and facilitate the process of identifying expected outcomes.
Published: October 1993
NCEO English Language Learners (ELLs) with Disabilities Reports: Policymaker Perspectives on the Inclusion of English Language Learners with Disabilities in Statewide Assessments (#8)This year 2005 report describes how state educational agencies are including English learners with disabilities in statewide assessments and supporting local education agencies in their communication of assessment results to families. The study involved telephone interviews with state department personnel in the areas of assessment, English learner programs, and special education in states with large and small populations of English learners.
Published: August 2005- TIES Center Briefs: Debunking Myths about Inclusive Education for Students with the Most Significant Cognitive Disabilities (TIES Center Brief #8)
Controversy often surrounds the inclusion of students with the most significant cognitive disabilities in the general education classroom and curriculum. This is the case even though the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is clear in its Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) provisions that the presumed education setting for all students with disabilities is the general education classroom. There are many myths about including students with the most significant cognitive disabilities in general education classrooms. This Brief debunks six of them. At the end of each myth there is a short list of related resources.
Published: 2/22/2022 
NCEO Reports: A Summary of the Research on the Effects of Test Accommodations: 2013-2014 (#402)This report provides an update on the state of the research on testing accommodations as well as to identify promising future areas of research. Previous reports by NCEO have covered research published since 1999. We summarize the research to review current research trends and enhance understanding of the implications of accommodations use in the development of future policy directions, implementation of current and new accommodations, and valid and reliable interpretations when accommodations are used in testing situations. Key issues under investigation include how accommodations affect test scores, how educators and students perceive accommodations, and how accommodations are selected and implemented.
Published: May 2016
NCEO Synthesis Reports: Access Assistants for State Assessments: A Study of State Guidelines for Scribes, Readers, and Sign Language Interpreters (#58)This year 2005 report describes a national study on state guidelines provided for human access assistants that help students who use either a scribe, reader or sign language interpreter accommodation on state assessments. Overall, 22 states had guidelines for one or more of the three access assistants that were the focus of the study. Variations across state guidelines extended from breadth and depth to format and ease of access. Further, 14 states with guidelines also had described the qualifications or characteristics required of these access assistants. The report concludes with a description of several challenges to the development of state guidelines for access assistants, and recommendations for meeting those challenges.
Published: December 2005
NCEO Technical Reports: Achieving Transparency in the Public Reporting of 2006-2007 Assessment Results (#53)A report summarizing States' reports on the participation and performance of students with disabilities by (a) submitting annual performance reports (APRs) to the U.S. Department of Education, and (b) publicly reporting state assessment data via their Web sites and other communication avenues. Both APRs and public reports provide important information, although the two may be slightly different in how the data are presented. This report analyzes the public reporting of disaggregated data for students with disabilities. It is the eleventh such report by NCEO, and this analysis, for school year 2006-2007, also marks the fifth data cycle since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001.
Published: July 2009- NCEO Data Analytics: Number and Percentage of English Learners with Disabilities by Disability Category, 2012-13 to 2020-21 (#18)Formats: Online
This interactive report presents information on the percentage of students with disabilities ages 6-21 who are also English learners (i.e., English learners with disabilities), and the proportion of these students by category for school years 2012-13 and 2020-21. English learners with disabilities are students who receive special education services as indicated in an Individualized Education Program (IEP) and who are also developing English proficiency. The U.S. Department of education receives data from states on the number of these students in each of 13 disability categories, and the number and percentage of English learners with disabilities varies over time, by category, and by state. The data in this report allow users to view one or more disability categories for comparison, and provides data by state.
Published: March 2023 
NCEO Synthesis Reports: Large-Scale Assessment and Accountability Systems: Positive Consequences for Students with Disabilities (#51)This 2004 report examines both empirical and anecdotal evidence for positive consequences of large-scale high-stakes assessments for students with disabilities. The analysis uses multiple methodologies to gather data on positive consequences: a qualitative media survey, an environmental scan of State Special Education Directors, a focus group, and a national survey on state assessment practices. Primary findings show these positive consequences for students with disabilities found consistently across all methodologies: increased participation of students with disabilities in testing programs, higher expectations and standards, improved instruction, and improved performance. Secondary findings found in fewer sources are as follows: improved assessments, improved diploma options, decreased dropout rates, and increased collaboration and communication between parents and special education and general education teachers. The authors discuss the limitations of the study, and address it as a starting point for further research. Overall, the findings suggest that large-scale high stakes assessments can have intended and unintended positive consequences for students with disabilities.
Published: May 2004
NCEO Synthesis Reports: 2001 State Policies on Assessment Participation and Accommodations (#46)Formats: OnlineThis year 2001 report analyzes state participation and accommodation policies nationwide. Among the major findings are: (1) participation options beyond the usual three (participation without accommodations, participation with accommodations, alternate assessment) have become more evident -- generally these are: partial participation, additional alternate assessments, and out-of-level testing, (2)"emotional anxiety" is more frequently noted as a reason for students to not participate in assessments, (3) policies for both participation and accommodations are becoming more specific, often indicating implications for how accommodated students' scores are reported, (4) the number of states that allow accommodations for specific groups (i.e., all students and students no longer on IEPs), and (5) that most controversial accommodations continue to be read aloud, calculator, and scribe. The analyses suggest that states continued to adjust their policies to ensure that students with disabilities have opportunities to participate in statewide assessments, and at the same time to understand the meaning of the scores from their assessments.
Published: July 2002- Predictors of Participation of Transition Planning Participation and Future Goal Aspirations for Secondary ELs with DisabilitiesFormats: PDF
This presentation discussed predictors of participation of transition planning participation and future goal aspirations for secondary English learners with disabilities. It was presented at the 2019 Minnesota Department of Education's Minnesota English Learner Education conference (MELEd).
Published: 2019-11-19