Measuring the Status and Change of NAEP State Inclusion Rates for Students with Disabilities

Title:	Measuring the Status and Change of NAEP State Inclusion Rates for Students with Disabilities
Description:	This report examines the relationship between various characteristics of students with disabilities (SD) and the probability that they would be included in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assessments. Characteristics examined included the type of disability, the severity level of the disability, and whether the student requires accommodations not permitted by NAEP. For various reasons, inclusion of SDs varies from state-to-state, and sometimes within states from year-to-year. Some students, for example, cannot participate meaningfully in the assessments due to the nature of their disabilities or because their Individualized Educational Programs (IEPs) specify an accommodation that is not permitted in NAEP assessments. To address the concern that such fluctuations may affect the validity of reports on achievement trends, NAEP has: instituted policies for providing test accommodations for students with disabilities; developed methodologies to correct for the bias resulting from changing inclusion rates, and implemented procedures to increase the number of SDs included in the assessment. In response to a recent study by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) about the inclusion of students with disabilities in large-scale assessments, NAEP used two statistical models--a state-specific and nation-based model--to measure whether these new strategies for inclusion can be reliably associated with higher state-by-state inclusion rates. The statistical analysis examined the changes in inclusion rates from 2005 to 2007 for 4th and 8th grade mathematics and reading assessments. The results of this Research and Development study indicate that although the majority of the states did not experience statistically significant changes in their rates of inclusion, most states that did change significantly were found less inclusive in 2007 compared to 2005. The states whose inclusion rates significantly increased in 2007 had relatively low inclusion rates in 2005.
Online Availability:	Browse the Executive Summary of this report. Download, view and print the entire report as a pdf file (3947KB) Download, view and print the Introduction to the report as a pdf file (532KB) Download, view and print the Methodology section of the report as a pdf file (1411KB) Download, view, and print the Data and Results sections of the report as a pdf file (864KB) Download, view, and print Appendices A-C of the report as a pdf file (1102KB) Download, view, and print Appendix D of the report as a pdf file (593KB) Need Help Viewing PDF files?
Cover Date:	November 2008
Web Release:	November 18, 2008
Publication #:	NCES 2009453
Center/Program:	NCES
Associated Centers:	IES
Authors:	Sami Kitmitto and Victor Bandeira de Mello, American Institutes for Research
Type of Product:	Research and Development Report
Survey/Program Areas:	National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
Keywords:	Achievement (Student) Mathematics NAEP Reading States Students with Disabilities
Questions:	For questions about the content of this Research and Development Report, please contact: NCES WebMaster.