The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter Balanced) strives to provide every student with a positive and productive assessment experience, generating results that are a fair and accurate estimate of each student's achievement. Further, Smarter Balanced is building on a framework of accessibility for all students, including English…

The purpose of this brief is to examine disproportionality with respect to student group participation in Alternate Assessments aligned with Alternate Academic Achievement Standards (AA-AAAS). This paper is a companion to another National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) brief, "Guidance for Examining District Alternate Assessment…

This document discusses specific learning disabilities identification (SLD ID) determination implications and considerations with distance learning and school reentry due to COVID-19.

This manuscript presents findings from a study of the contributing factors and details of special education due process hearings in the United States that involved students with emotional and behavioral disorders. The study examined 101 due process hearings conducted over a three-year period in a five-state sample: California, Illinois,…

The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter Balanced) strives to provide every student with a positive and productive assessment experience, generating results that are a fair and accurate estimate of each student's achievement. Further, Smarter Balanced is building on a framework of accessibility for all students, including English…

The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter Balanced) strives to provide every student with a positive and productive assessment experience, generating results that are a fair and accurate estimate of each student's achievement. Further, Smarter Balanced is building on a framework of accessibility for all students, including English…

This guide was developed by the Louisiana Department of Education to help parents navigate the complex system that oversees special education in Louisiana's public schools. Each school year, local education agencies (LEAs) are required to provide parents a copy of the procedural safeguards. These safeguards are used to inform parents of the…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires 95% participation in state achievement testing. Students with the most significant cognitive disabilities participate in states' alternate assessments based on alternate academic achievement standards (AA-AAAS). A growing number of these students are also English learners (Christensen et al., 2018).…

This white paper outlines factors in the general education setting that contribute to equitable success for all students. The paper addresses elements of equity, inclusion, and opportunity that can minimize or eliminate success gaps that exist among groups of students. Success gaps are those differences in a variety of educational factors and…

Accessibility is a hot topic in online education these days. Despite the increased focus on accessibility, most discussions of creating "accessible" online courses and elearning simply focus on adding alternative text to images and captions to video. In this article, we argue that online educators and workplace learning professionals…

A primary focus of recent educational policymaking has been on improving measures of teaching effectiveness, attributable in part to recent federal policies such as the Race to the Top initiative and Investing in Innovation. To date, neither researchers nor practitioners have arrived at a consensus on the best methods for evaluating special…

A comprehensive search identified 31 state statutes and regulations specific to functional behavioral assessments (FBA) and behavior intervention plans (BIP) in the special education context. A systematic tabulation of the state law provisions that exceed the rather narrow foundation requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act…

In 1997, the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act of 1990 was amended to require that assistive technology be considered when preparing an individual education program (IEP). This study explored involvement of Midwestern music educators in the IEP development process as well as their knowledge and attitudes regarding use of assistive…

The detection of cognitive patterns in children with learning disabilities (LD) has been a priority in the identification process. Subtest profile analysis from traditional cognitive assessment has drawn sharp criticism for inaccurate identification and weak connections to educational planning. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to use a new…

The Study of Monitoring and Improvement Practices under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) examined how states monitored the implementation of IDEA by local special education and early intervention services programs. State monitoring and improvement practices in 2004-05 and 2006-07 were the focus of the study. Prior to the…