State of the States

The purpose of the 2001 State Special Education Outcomes: A Report on State Activities at the Beginning of a New Decade, published by the National Center on Educational Outcomes is to document the activities of states as they build the participation and performance of students with disabilities in state and district standards, assessments, and accountability systems.

State directors report increased participation rates of students with disabilities in state assessments, and in many cases, improvement in performance as well. This first year of alternate assessment implementation has been challenging, but most states now have systems in place and are grappling with how to include the results in their accountability systems in ways that show the progress of every student toward state and district standards.

Some of the findings are the following:

• More states listed positive consequences of inclusive standards, assessments, and accountability than listed negative consequences.
  
  
• More than half of the states reported increases in participation rates.
  
  
• In two-thirds of the states, directors reported stable or increased performance levels of students with disabilities on state tests.
  
  
• Nearly 60% of states keep track of the use of accommodations, and half of these reported increased use of accommodations.
  
  
• Most states are using a "body of evidence" approach for their alternate assessments.
  
  
• While students may use accommodations whether or not they are approved, nearly half of the states do not report the scores of students who use non-approved accommodations.
  
  
• Twenty-five states include alternate assessment participants in all components of their accountability systems.

A positive theme throughout this report is that the benefits of inclusive assessment and accountability systems are beginning to outweigh the challenges, and many states are taking positive approaches as they face the challenges ahead. The cost of this publication is $15, available from NCEO.

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