Welcome
Fall is definitely in the air, and school is well underway! This October issue of NCEO’s e-newsletter highlights the news of NCEO’s continued funding. It also summarizes several new reports. These include a report on the pre-session to the National Conference on Student Assessment, a forum on Common Language for States and Assessment Vendors. Consistent with the need for common language is the Accessibility Manual developed through the Council of Chief State School Officers. Information on the contents and tools in this new manual is provided here, along with links to the manual that is available to all states to adapt as desired. Another report highlighted here is the recent NCEO report that examines high school assessment accommodation policies of ACT, SAT, PARCC, and Smarter Balanced; this report raises issues of differences in policies and procedures that are likely to affect many students with disabilities. Finally, in this issue we highlight recent snapshot reports of assessment and accommodations data submitted by states’ special education divisions to the U.S. Department of Education. These snapshots highlight assessment participation, use of accommodations, and performance on assessments. Enjoy!
– Martha Thurlow, NCEO Director
NCEO Work to Continue and Expand!
NCEO has been awarded a five-year grant by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, to continue its work as a national technical assistance center. Starting October 1, 2016, NCEO’s knowledge development and technical assistance activities focus on increasing the participation and improving the results of students with disabilities on state and districtwide assessments.
Forum on Common Accessibility Language for States and Assessment Vendors
With the paradigm shift away from providing only accommodations to instead providing three or more tiers of accessibility features that include a variety of accessibility supports and different ways of executing and labeling them, educators, parents, and students may be confused by the differences in terminology from one assessment to the next.
On June, 20, 2016, NCEO, the Assessing Special Education Students (ASES) State Collaborative on Assessments and Student Standards (SCASS), and the English Language Learners (ELL) SCASS held a joint forum on the need for common accessibility language across assessment platforms.
New CCSSO Accessibility Manual
An accessibility manual was recently published by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). It establishes guidelines for states to use for the selection, administration, and evaluation of accessibility supports for instruction and assessment of all students, including students with disabilities, English learners (ELs), ELs with disabilities, and students without an identified disability or EL status.
The High School Accommodations Policies of ACT, SAT, PARCC, and Smarter Balanced
NCEO recently published a new report on high school accommodations policies, 2015-16 High School Assessment Accommodations Policies: An Analysis of ACT, SAT, PARCC and Smarter Balanced. Many students with disabilities and ELs use accommodations to access the ACT, SAT, PARCC, and Smarter Balanced assessments. This report analyzes differences in the accessibility framework, decision-making process, and terminology across the four assessments.
Dig into the APR Data Using NCEO’s Data Snapshots
States annually report through an Annual Performance Report (APR) on their progress toward meeting the targets in their State Performance Plan (SPP). NCEO recently published several APR Snapshots that use 2013-14 APR data to look at how students with disabilities are included in assessments used for Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) accountability.
NCEO’s National Assessment Center is supported through a Cooperative Agreement (#H326G110002) with the Research to Practice Division, Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education. The Center is affiliated with the Institute on Community Integration at the College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota. The contents of this report were developed under the Cooperative Agreement from the U.S. Department of Education, but do not necessarily represent the policy or opinions of the U.S. Department of Education or Office within it. Readers should not assume endorsement by the federal government.
NCEO recently launched its Facebook page. NCEO hopes that being on Facebook will Increase visibility of NCEO and its work, share with wider audiences its products, inform audiences on upcoming activities, and keep TA partners engaged with NCEO.
Recent surveys of teachers found that students with disabilities like many of the features of the new college- and career-ready (CCR) assessments that were recently rolled out by states and consortia. Still, teachers identified assessment challenges that need to be addressed to improve student outcomes.
NCEO released an updated version of its Principles report, one that recognizes a dramatically changing assessment landscape. The report, titled Principles and Characteristics of Inclusive Assessment Systems in a Changing Landscape, is an update of the 2008 Principles. It reflects the broader perspective that acknowledges that the Principles apply to English learners (ELs) and ELs with disabilities, as well as to students with disabilities. The principles also apply to all types of assessments, not just those used for accountability purposes.
NCEO just published a new Data Analytics, State and National Demographic Information for English Learners (ELs) and ELs with Disabilities, 2012-13. There is wide variation across states in the most common home languages, and the percentage of ELs and ELs with disabilities.
The 2016 National Conference on Student Assessment (NCSA) is the premiere forum for assessment practitioners to discuss what is happening in the real world of educational assessment—what is new, what is going on at the state and federal level, what works, and what does not. This year, the NCSA meeting will be held in Philadelphia, PA, on June 20-22, and NCEO staff members will participate in several sessions.
Recent surveys of teachers found that students with disabilities like many of the features of the new college- and career- ready (CCR) assessments that were recently rolled out by states and consortia, but that there are challenges related to instructional issues that need to be addressed to improve student outcomes. To address this issue NCEO and the National Center on Systemic Improvement recently co-published a Brief on Lessons Learned About Instruction from Inclusion of Students with Disabilities in College and Career Ready Assessments.
This year, NCEO is launching a new Enhanced Assessment Grant project titled “Data Informed Accessibility – Making Optimal Needs-based Decisions (DIAMOND).” The DIAMOND project is a collaboration between Minnesota, Alabama, Connecticut, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Virgin Islands, and the National Center on Educational Outcomes.
Most English learners with significant cognitive disabilities are not included in assessments of English language proficiency. As a result, there is little evidence of how these students are progressing toward English mastery to ensure their success in school and on the path to college, career, and community readiness. One new project underway at NCEO, the Alternate English Language Learning Assessment (ALTELLA) Project, aims to change this.
NCEO developed a white paper to address approaches that states might take for an alternate assessment of English Language Proficiency (ELP) for students with significant cognitive disabilities. The development of this paper was accomplished through the work of NCEO staff with the English Language Proficiency Assessment for the 21st Century (ELPA21) consortium, which is developing an assessment of ELP.
If you plan to attend this year’s Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) annual convention (April 13-16) held in St. Louis or the American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual meeting (April 8-12) held in Philadelphia, we invite you to attend conference sessions delivered by NCEO staff members.
