Reports

Policy Directions 21: Using Growth for Accountability: Considerations for Students with Disabilities
By M. Thurlow, S. Lazarus, R. Quenemoen, and R. Moen
The academic progress of students is an important indicator of educational success. For school accountability systems, using a growth model to report on a student’s academic growth can be viewed as an addition to or a replacement for a status model. Status models compare the performance of a cohort of students in a grade one year with the performance of another cohort of students in the same grade the preceding year. Growth models typically track the achievement of individual students from year to year. This Policy Directions issue provides considerations and recommendations on growth models for students with disabilities. (2010)

Policy Directions 20: Planning Alignment Studies For Alternate Assessments Based on Alternate Achievement Standards
By S. Wakeman, C. Flowers, and D. Browder
A report providing states with information on the components to consider with an external vendor when planning a study of the alignment of alternate assessment based on alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS) with grade-level content standards. It also addresses guidance for maximizing resources spent to determine alignment of the AA-AAS. (2007)

Policy Directions 19: Aligning Alternate Assessments to Grade Level Content Standards: Issues and Considerations for Alternates Based on Alternate Achievement Standards
By S. Wakeman, C. Flowers, and D. Browder
A report providing states with information on issues that complicate alignment of alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards. It also provides information on existing alignment models that can be used for alignment studies. (2007)

Additional Issues of Policy Directions

• Policy Directions 18: Using Systematic Item Selection Methods to Improve Universal Design of Assessments (2006)
• Policy Directions 17: Rethinking Basic Assumptions of Test Development: Assessment Frameworks for Inclusive Accountability Tests (2003)
• Policy Directions 16: Putting it All Together: Including Students with Disabilities in Assessment and Accountability Systems (2003)
• Policy Directions 15: Using Computer-based Tests with Students with Disabilities (2003)
• Policy Directions 14: Universally Designed Assessments: Better Tests for Everyone! (2002)

Archived Issues of NCEO Policy Directions

These older issues of NCEO Policy Directions have been archived because some of the information they contain may be out of date. They may still be useful for some types of research, teaching, or information gathering.

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NCEO Special Reports

A collection of reports addressing educational policies, practices, and outcomes in relation to students with disabilities. Published by the Institute's National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO). • Cost: Free, available only on the Web

A Guide to Educational Acronyms: What's in the Alphabet Soup
By J. Krentz
A report providing a glossary of the "alphabet soup" of educational acronyms. NCEO developed this "acronym handbook" as a resource to define, clarify, or remind anyone involved legislative and policy discussions of definitions of routine educational acronyms. This pocket guide will be a useful tool for participants, whether they are state legislators, teachers, parents, or others. (2012)

 

 

Moving Your Numbers: Five Districts Share How They Used Assessment and Accountability to Increase Performance for Students With Disabilities as Part of District-wide Improvement
By D. M. Telfer
A report recounting the journey of five districts with vastly different demographics in using assessment and accountability as an impetus for positive change. In each case, assessment data were not held up as the reason why teachers couldn’t teach or children couldn’t learn beyond a narrow focus on teaching to the test. Instead, each district used the increasing demand for accountability for all students and groups of students to change the conversation and practice across the district, moving their numbers in a positive direction for all children as a result. This work, undertaken by NCEO, is designed to showcase the work of these districts as an impetus for encouraging people at all levels of the education enterprise to examine what they do and the degree to which their collective actions are making a positive difference for all students, including those identified as special education students, English Language Learners, and other children often characterized as high need. While the conclusions provided through this work are limited to the districts featured, it should be noted that these districts share many of the same demographics and characteristics of large numbers of districts across the country. (2011)

Meeting the Needs of Special Education Students: Recommendations for the Race-to-the-Top Consortia and States
By M. Thurlow, R. Quenemoen, and S. Lazarus
A paper identifying several actions for the Race to the Top assessment consortia to take to meet the needs of special education students. They are consistent with standards and principles for assessments, and reflect evolving research and development activities directed toward supporting better assessments for every student. The paper was authored by NCEO staff and produced in partnership with Arabella Advisors. (2011)

Developing and Improving Modified Achievement Level Descriptors: Rationale, Procedures, and Tools
A paper that provides a rationale, procedures, and tools to develop and continuously improve alternate assessments based on modified achievement standards (AA-MAS) achievement level descriptors (ALDs). As states make decisions on whether and how to develop an AA-MAS, they will also be developing a defense of the choices they make. This paper proposes a process to guide state work so that stakeholders and policymakers can articulate, from the very beginning, the educational rationale for their choices and the implications of this rationale for the specific design choices they make related to their ALDs. (2010)

Rethinking Assumptions about Alternate Assessment Based on Alternate Achievement Standards
A paper that seeks to facilitate the process of rethinking assumptions about alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS). It presents common misperceptions, followed by the assumptions underlying them and a research response to those assumptions. (2010)

The Characteristics of Low Performing Students on Large-Scale Assessments (NCEO Brief)
By S. Lazarus, Y.-C. Wu, J. Altman, and M. Thurlow
This brief reports the findings of a longitudinal analysis of three years of student-level demographic and performance data for four states: the 2004-05, 2005-06, and 2006-07 school years. Data sets were compiled for each state for students who were in grades 5 and 8 during the 2006-07 school year, and included student performance data on the regular Reading/English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics assessment. The goal of this analysis was to learn more about the characteristics of low performing students. (2010)

Improving Accommodations Outcomes: Monitoring Instructional and Assessment Accommodations for Students with Disabilities
By L. Christensen, M. Thurlow, and T. Wang
A document presenting a five-step process for schools, districts, and states to use in monitoring accommodations for instruction and assessment. It was designed to be a companion to the Council of Chief State School Officers’ Accommodations Manual: How to Select, Administer, and Evaluate Use of Accommodations for Instruction and Assessment of Students with Disabilities (2005), which applies to students with disabilities who participate in large-scale assessments and the instruction they receive. Each step provides monitoring questions to ask, current examples from states, samples of forms that might be used, a checklist for evaluating a state’s activities for each step, and space for action planning and questions. Appendices contain a glossary of terms related to monitoring and sample forms that can be adapted for use. (2009)

Thinking About the Students Who May Qualify to Participate in An Alternate Assessment Based on Modified Academic Achievement Standards (AA-MAS): A Tool for Study Groups
By S. Berndt and B. Ebben
A report describing an activity used by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction to learn more about the characteristics of students who may qualify to participate in an alternate assessment based on modified academic achievement standards (AA-MAS). Wisconsin is a member of the Multi-State GSEG Consortium Toward a Defensible AA-MAS, a project of the Institute’s National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) in collaboration with the Departments of Education in Alabama, Hawaii, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Wisconsin. (2008)

Trends in the Participation and Performance of Students with Disabilities
By J. Altman, M. Thurlow, and R. Quenemoen
A brief describing the results of an analysis of trends in the public reporting of state assessment results for students with disabilities. The analysis was conducted on a compilation of publicly reported assessment data gathered from state Web sites and personnel during the data collection for four previous analyses completed by the Institute’s National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO). These data were supplemented with data obtained from current state education Web sites. This trend analysis covered the years 2001-02 to 2004-05, and examined both participation and performance. The goal of the analysis was to determine: (1) Whether progress has been made by states in publicly reporting the participation and performance of students with disabilities on state assessments, and (2) the nature of trends in the four years of participation and performance data for students with disabilities. This Brief is based on the 2008 report, Technical Report 50: Trends in the Participation and Performance of Students with Disabilities, published by NCEO. (2008)

Learning Opportunities for Your Child Through Alternate Assessments: Alternate Assessments Based on Modified Academic Achievement Standards
By C. Cortiella
A guide produced by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) to help parents of students with disabilities understand a new state alternate assessment allowable under No Child Left Behind. While few states are currently offering this assessment option, some will be developing it in the coming years. Parents will need to understand what it is and how to decide if it is the right option for their child. (2007)

NCLB and IDEA: What Parents of Students with Disabilities Need to Know and Do
By C. Cortiella
A guide informing parents of students with disabilities about the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). These are two of the nation’s most important federal laws relating to public education. While NCLB seeks to improve the education of all children – especially children from low-income families – IDEA focuses on the individual child and seeks to ensure specialized services for children with disabilities so they may benefit from education. Lately, these two laws have taken on new importance to parents of students with disabilities. NCLB provisions apply to all students, including those whose disabilities require special education. So parents need to understand the requirements of NCLB. IDEA, in its latest update by Congress, has been more closely aligned with NCLB, making it equally important that parents know how the two laws work together to improve academic achievement of students with disabilities. (2006)

NCLB e IDEA: Lo que los Padres de Estudiantes con Discapacidades Necesitan Saber y Hacer
Original text by C. Cortiella; translated by M. Gonzalez
A Spanish translation of NCEO’s Special Report from 2006, NCLB and IDEA: What Parents of Students with Disabilities Need to Know and Do (above). This tool assists parents of students with disabilities in their understanding of the main provisions of NCLB and IDEA, how these laws intersect, and what the implications are for students with disabilities. 

Hints and Tips for Addressing Accommodations Issues for Peer Review
By L. Christensen, K. Lail, and M. Thurlow
A report examining the key accommodations issues that have arisen for states in the recent federal standards and assessments peer review process. The report by the Institute’s National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) was developed in collaboration with the Assessing Special Education Students (ASES) State Collaborative on Assessment and Student Standards (SCASS), and results from an analysis of peer review comments on accommodations. This publication highlights examples of assessment accommodations that were considered acceptable and unacceptable for peer review and includes NCEO recommendations for best practices with regard to assessment accommodations. (2007)

Additional Special Reports

• A State Guide to the Development of Universally Designed Assessments (2006)
• Universal Design Online Manual (2006)
• How to Develop State Guidelines for Access Assistants: Scribes, Readers, and Sign Language Interpreters (2006)

Archived Issues of NCEO Special Reports

These older issues of NCEO Special Reports have been archived because some of the information they contain may be out of date. They may still be useful for some types of research, teaching, or information gathering.

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NCEO Annual Performance Reports

A series of reports summarizing assessment data from State Performance Plans. Published by the Institute's National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO). • Cost: Free, available only on the Web

Annual Performance Report: 2007-2008 State Assessment Data
By M. Thurlow, J. Altman, D. Cormier, and M. Vang
States and other educational entities receiving Part B funding under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) submitted their Annual Performance Reports and Section 618 Table 6 data together to the U.S. Secretary of Education on or before April 2009. This report summarizes the 2007-2008 state assessment information that was submitted by states in their Annual Performance Reports. It contains information on large-scale assessment participation and performance data for the 2007-2008 school year plus a look at recent trends. (2010)

Additional Performance Reports

• Annual Performance Report: 2006-2007 State Assessment Data (2009)
• Annual Performance Report: 2005-2006 State Assessment Data (2008)
• NCEO State Performance Plans: 2004-2005 State Assessment Data (2007)
• NCEO Annual Performance Reports: 2003-2004 State Assessment Data (2006)
• NCEO Annual Performance Reports: 2002-2003 State Assessment Data (2005)
• NCEO Biennial Performance Reports: 2000-2001 State Assessment Data (2002)

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