High Stakes Testing for Tracking, Promotion, and Graduation (1999) / Chapter Skim
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8 Students with Disabilities
8 Students with Disabilities
Pages 188-210
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From page 188... ...
Several other federal statutes anc3 regulations, including the Inclivicluals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) , Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, anc3 Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
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From page 189... ...
Because about 50 percent of students with disabilities have been excluclec3 from state- anc3 clistrict-wicle assessments in the past, there has been a shortage of key indicators of success for many of these children, including performance on assessments, dropout rates, graduation rates, anc3 regular reports to the public on progress toward meeting goals for their educational improvement. Many school systems have therefore not established meaningful educational goals for children who, it is now clear, can achieve at higher levels than society has historically assumed.
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From page 190... ...
Cognitive, physical, sensory, anc3 behavioral disabilities are covered. Educatir~g Orate arid All describes the diversity of this population anc3 their school experiences (National Research Council, 1997~: · Although 13 disabilities are mentioned in the federal IDEA anc3 ciefinec3 in the regulations, 4 categories of disability account for about 90 percent of all special education students: speech or language impairment, serious emotional disturbance, mental retardation, anc3 specific learning disabilities.
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From page 191... ...
The number of students in this category is not known.1 Nevertheless, the legal rights accorciec3 them could affect large' scale assessment programs, especially those with high stakes for incli' viclual students, by increasing the number of students receiving accom' monitions and raising questions about the extent to which the scores of students with disabilities should be aggregated with other students' scores. Educatir~g Orate arid All describes the provisions of the IDEA ciesignec3 to ensure the fair, nondiscriminatory use of tests in identifying students who qualify for special education services (National Research Council, 1997:69~70~: 1Data on children with disabilities are collected for IDEA-eligible children and thus do not include other students with disabilities.
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From page 192... ...
The Congress nonetheless expressed serious concern about racial disproportions in special education when it reauthorized the IDEA in 1997.2 lEP Process Testing thus plays a critical role in determining who qualifies for special education services, but traditionally accountability in special eclucation has not relied mainly on assessment. Rather, it has centered on the incliviclualizecl education program, an essentially private document that lays out the educational goals and curriculum of an incliviclual stucient.
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From page 193... ...
In several states, where special education students may be exempt from state or local graduation requirements, completion of IEP goals is a sufficient condition for receipt of a high school diploma or its equivalent (Thurlow et al., 1996~.
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From page 195... ...
In abolition, education reforms anc3 the allocation of resources anc3 extra services are increasingly driven by these test results; if students with disabilities were not incluclec3, then the resulting reforms would be less likely to meet their needs. Finally, recent federal legislation has manciatec3 that students with disabilities be incluclec3 in large~scale assessments anc3 that accommocia' tions anc3 alternate assessments be proviciec3 when necessary.
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From page 196... ...
, and that no research exists on "either the ability of alternate assessments to measure students' educational progress validly or to encourage greater accountability for students with disabilities. We JO know, however, that the design of alternate assessments poses all the same technical challenges as the development of valid accommodations for the common assessment" (National Research Council, ~ 997: ~ 75 )
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From page 197... ...
Relationships between disabilities and assessed constructs have important implications for the validity of inferences based on test scores. For exam' pie, if a new assessment includes communication skills as an important part 197
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From page 198... ...
All three also require that, when a test is given to a student with impaired sensory, manual, or speaking skills, the results accurately reflect the chills achievement level or whatever other factors the test purports to measure, rather than reflecting the stuclent's clisabilities. These statutes anc3 regulations also require accommodations.
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From page 199... ...
The effects on test scores of providing aciclitional time warrant empirical in' vestigation (pp.
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From page 200... ...
A number of research studies are uncler way, including efforts to include more students with disabilities in the National Assessment of Educational Progress.4 A recent report from the National Center for Education Statistics describes many of these efforts (Olson anc3 Goldstein, 1997~; they are summarized in the appendix to this chapter. Another problem raised in Educatir~g Orate arid All, which may make scores on large- scale assessments hard to interpret for some students with 4More complete discussion of the issues of including students with disabilities in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
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From page 201... ...
To enable participation of students with clisabili' ties, high~stakes tests should represent performance accurately at all points across a rather broac3 continuum. This not only implies breadth in terms of difficulty and the content assessed, but also requires that reporting methods provide sufficient and adequate information about all levels of student performance.
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From page 202... ...
Item response theory offers potential for including students with clis' 5This section is taken from pp. 182-183 of Educating Orle arid All (National Research Council, 1997~.
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From page 203... ...
However, as Baxter and Shavelson (1994) have shown, come puterizec3 simulations of Hanson tasks can yield results surprisingly un' like those generated by the original tasks, so this approach will require careful evaluation.
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From page 204... ...
National Center on Educational Outcomes This center has issued a collection of reports that include recommenciations for the inclusion anc3 accommodation of students with disabilities in state assessments and guidelines for states' use of assessments (National Center on Educational Outcomes, 1994b, 1995a, 1995b, 1996~. Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI)
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From page 205... ...
· SCASS Consortium ore Assessing Special Educatiorr Studer~ts. In this consortium, states share methods anc3 criteria for accommodating special education students in large~scale assessments anc3 plan a research program to develop criteria anc3 procedures to assess the performance of all stu' clents.
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From page 206... ...
REFERENCES American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, and National Council on Measurement in Education 1985 Standards for Educational arid Psychological Testing. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
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From page 207... ...
Roeber 1996 The Status of State Student Assessment Programs ire the Urrited States. Oak Brook, IL: North Central Regional Educational Laboratory and Council of Chief State School Officers.
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From page 208... ...
1994b Recommer~datior~s for Making Decisions about the Participation of Students with Disabilities ire Statewide Assessment Programs. Synthesis Report 15.
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From page 209... ...
All Students, Same Test, Same Standards: What the New Title I Legislation Will Mearr for the Educational Assessment of Special Education Students. Oak Brook, IL: North Central Regional Educational Laboratory.
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From page 210... ...
Mislevy 1990 Item response theory, item calibration and proficiency estimation.
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