The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as amended by Section 3113 of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), requires state educational agencies (SEAs) to establish and implement standardized, statewide entrance and exit procedures for English learners (ELs). WIDA provides the English language proficiency placement and annual…

The 2015 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act placed a 1.0% cap on the participation of students with disabilities in the alternate assessment based on alternate academic achievement standards (AA-AAAS). U.S. Department of Education regulations clarified that states must develop participation guidelines and a definition of…

Assessment is an important part of an overall quality educational program and is, in fact, an integral part of improving classroom instruction. The purpose of educational assessments is to provide an academic check- up and to give educators and parents meaningful information on what students know and can do, and how well they are progressing…

The purpose of this chapter is to review what has happened, and what is likely to happen, as accessibility and accommodations research and practice for content assessments are advanced to ensure the appropriate inclusion and validity of assessment results for English learners (ELs) and students with disabilities. A description of accommodations…

All states have alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS) for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. For accountability purposes, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) allows up to 1% of students to be counted as proficient with this assessment option. In 2011 the U.S. Department of…

West Virginia uses multiple state assessments to measure student achievement and inform program decision-making. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 requires participation of students with disabilities in statewide assessments to be consistent with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 2001 and current with…

During the 2015-16 school year, 25 states used assessments aligned to college- and career-ready standards developed by consortia of states (i.e., Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers--PARCC, Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium--Smarter Balanced) as their accountability assessments. The participation of students with…

The requirement that individualized education program (IEP) teams make decisions about the participation of students with disabilities in general or alternate state- and district-wide assessments is nearly two decades old. The decisions that must be made have become more complicated with the addition, in some states, of alternate assessments based…

West Virginia uses multiple state assessments to measure student achievement and inform program decision making. States are required to provide guidance for appropriate participation of all students, including those with English Learners and those with disabilities, in required state assessments. The West Virginia Department of Education has…

West Virginia uses multiple state assessments to measure student achievement and inform program decision making. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA 2004) requires participation of students with disabilities in statewide assessments to be consistent with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 2001…

Renewal proposals for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the current version of which is the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, are still being discussed by congressional lawmakers and staff. Capitol Hill aides and U.S. Department of Education officials have suggested that a current federal regulation governing alternate testing for…

This is the twelfth annual report by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) analyzing public reporting of disaggregated assessment data for elementary and secondary students with disabilities in the United States. Reporting disaggregated performance data at the state and district level to the public is required of states by the…

This report contains the findings from a survey of 2,336 special education teachers in the state of Alabama on making and implementing decisions about accommodations. Key findings included: (1) When making instructional accommodations decisions 51% of the survey respondents considered student characteristics as an important factor. Only 12% of…

The purpose of this study was to examine the alternative routes to passing the high school exit exam that were available during the school year 2008-09 to students to earn a standard high school diploma. The authors examined alternative routes in the 26 states with active or soon to be active exit exams. They documented the alternative routes…

Special education as practiced today remains firmly anchored in the original logic of the Amendments to the Education of the Handicapped Act (PL 94-142). Subsequent reauthorizations of the statute have included language designed to increase access to the general curriculum by special needs students but have not addressed the underlying…