This brief report highlights the issues, evidence, and first steps toward including students with disabilities in educational data systems. The report notes that if students with disabilities are excluded from educational data collection systems, policy makers do not have an adequate set of information from which to make policy decisions. The…

This report presents the results of the second national survey of state activities in the assessment of educational outcomes for students with disabilities. The report does not contain actual outcomes data on students with disabilities. Survey results are based on responses from 47 state directors of special education and are presented in the…

Reviews present difficulties in the way that states report the participation of students with disabilities in their testing programs. Recommendations for policymakers include the following: identify students with disabilities in statewide assessment programs, standardize procedures for calculating participation rates, and improve lines of…

The ninth in a series of reports of the Michigan Educational Assessment Program, this report contains education profiles for Michigan's geographic regions and community types. Three types of profiles are provided: (1) profiles constructed from district-level assessment results, (2) profiles constructed from school-level assessment results, and (3)…

The purpose of this paper is to outline and explain the evaluation system used by the Rhode Island Department of Education to measure the effectiveness of compensatory education programs. An exposition of how relevant background, program and financial information is collected is presented. In addition, a delineation is made of the methods…

This report summarizes a study that analyzed the inclusion of students with disabilities in the accountability systems of 48 state education accountability reports and that of Washington, D.C. Extreme variability was found to exist in the reporting practices across states and there was little information on students with disabilities. Eleven…

The National Postsecondary Education Cooperative has sponsored two working groups on student outcomes, one exploring the issue from a policy perspective and the other, from a data perspective. This report presents the results of the data perspective case studies, discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the "state of the art" in student…

Based on interviews with state personnel and a review of state documents, this report summarizes activities by the states in assessment of educational outcomes for students with disabilities. The report is divided into six sections addressing: (1) state contexts; (2) special education federally reported data; (3) state assessment of outcomes; (4)…

This technical report describes the methodology, results, and conclusions of a 1991 survey, which was conducted to determine state efforts to develop systems to assess educational outcomes, states' needs for solutions to technical/implementation problems, existing databases, and efforts of states to design a comprehensive system of indicators in…

A study was made to assess followup procedures for gathering information from graduates of public post secondary vocational and technical programs, and to develop an effective procedure involving a minimum of time and money. The procedure developed in this study was designed to supply data requested annually by the U.S. Office of Education. Fifty…

This booklet examines national and state educational reform in the 1990s, noting the ways in which performance assessment is being presented as a mechanism of reform. Three reform initiatives are examined: national education goals, standards, and reform legislation. In conjunction with these reform movements, new methods of assessment are being…

Analysis of several national surveys found that states collect a tremendous amount of data on educational outcomes, but little on the status of students with disabilities. Trends toward increasing local control concerning decisions of testing participation and accommodation strategies were found. The need for carefully planned inclusion of…

The purpose of the Maine Assessment of Educational Progress (MAEP) in 1972 was to complete the first phase of a 10-year comprehensive needs assessment program involving students in public and non-public schools of the state. The total program is designed to provide specific information about knowledge, skills, understandings, and attitudes in 10…

Officials with the National Center for Education Statistics asked the National Research Center's Board on Testing and Assessment to convene a workshop to assist them with their decisions about reporting results for accommodating test takers. The day-long workshop brought together four panels of representatives from state assessment offices,…

School report cards from 11 Southeastern states were studied for similarities and differences in: (1) instruments used to measure student performance; (2) student outcomes reported and the procedures for reporting them; (3) levels of outcome reported; (4) school and community factors reported; and (5) statistical procedures used to evaluate data.…