What New Special Education Directors Need to Know about Academic Assessments is a toolkit for new state special education directors. It provides them with easy access to information to ensure students with disabilities participate in state, district, and school assessments and do so in a manner that is appropriate for each student’s instructional and assessment needs.

The tool addresses eight critical questions and identifies helpful NCEO resources relating to each question:

1. Which state assessments are required for students with disabilities?
2. Why are state assessments important?
3. Why should students with disabilities participate in state academic content assessments, and what laws require their participation?
4. What are alternate assessments, and for which students are they appropriate?
5. What role do accommodations have in state testing, and how should the IEP team make decisions about assessment accommodations?
6. What special considerations are there for testing English learners with disabilities using English language proficiency (ELP) assessments?
7. What are the requirements and best practices for including students with disabilities in public reporting of assessment results and accountability systems?
8. What help is available for including students with disabilities in other types of assessments?