National Center on Educational Outcomes N C E O Leaving No Child Behind: Are English Language Learners With Disabilities Considered? Martha Thurlow, Jane Minnema, and Michael Anderson National Center on Educational Outcomes With Charlene Rivera Center for Equity and Excellence in Education CCSSO, 2003

National Center on Educational Outcomes N C E O NCEO’s Mission … To include ALL students in states’ large- scale assessment and accountability programs ALL means ELLs, students with disabilities, and ELLs with disabilities

National Center on Educational Outcomes N C E O No Child Left Behind Act, 2001  Standards-based instruction on grade-level – ALL!  Participation in large-scale assessment and accountability programs – ALL!  English language proficiency assessed annually – ELLs!

National Center on Educational Outcomes N C E O Lessons Learned about Including Students with Disabilities in Assessment Systems Martha Thurlow National Center on Educational Outcomes University of Minnesota

National Center on Educational Outcomes N C E O Three critical aspects of inclusion of students with disabilities in assessment systems  Written guidelines  Public reporting  Accountability +

National Center on Educational Outcomes N C E O Written Guidelines How, not whether Decision making process Principles to guide best practice Must address PARTICIPATION Which ones are okay (research-based?) Decision making process Principles to guide best practice Must address ACCOMMODATIONS

National Center on Educational Outcomes N C E O 1990 Less than half of the states had written policies about participation or accommodations 2000 All of the states had written policies about participation and accommodations

National Center on Educational Outcomes N C E O Policy analyses revealed tremendous variability in practice, thus pushing a research agenda – especially related to accommodations

National Center on Educational Outcomes N C E O Public reporting is essential – without it, children can remain hidden (“left behind”) for a long time! Public reporting probably has to be required!

National Center on Educational Outcomes N C E O 11 states disaggregated data on the participation of students with disabilities 13 states disaggregated data on the performance of students with disabilities

National Center on Educational Outcomes N C E O WAMTND OR NV CA ID WY UT AZ CO NM SD NE KS TX OK MN IA MO AR LA WI IL MI OH KY MS TN FL AL GA SC NC VA PA NY ME WV AK HI VT NH CT NJ DE MD IN MA RI No disaggregated data (n=6) Performance data only for some tests (n=2) Performance and Participation data for some tests (n=10) Performance data only for all tests (n=4) Performance and Participation data for all tests (n=28) Public Reporting 2002 Study General Assessments 38 disaggregated participation 44 disaggregated performance

National Center on Educational Outcomes N C E O 14 states disaggregated data on the participation of students with disabilities 17 states disaggregated data on the performance of students with disabilities

National Center on Educational Outcomes N C E O WAMTND OR NV CA ID WY UT AZ CO NM SD NE KS TX OK MN IA MO AR LA WI IL MI OH KY MS TN FL AL GA SC NC VA PA NY ME WV AKHI VTNH CT NJ DE MD IN MA RI No disaggregated data (n=25) Participation data only (n=10) Performance data only (n=2) Participation and Performance data (n=13) Public Reporting 2002 Study Alternate Assessments

National Center on Educational Outcomes N C E O Reporting has revealed that including the scores of students with disabilities: (1) sometimes raises the average school score (2) can show dramatic improvements in performance

National Center on Educational Outcomes N C E O Accountability + When students count – really count – the attention they receive is increased Retrofitting does not work as well as starting from the beginning – e.g., universally designing assessments What are viewed as assessment issues often really are instructional and expectation issues