Becoming a More Inclusive NAEP
NAEP has always endeavored to assess all students selected as a part of its sampling process, including students with disabilities (SD) and students who are classified by their schools as limited English proficient (LEP). In the past, however, special-needs students (SD or LEP) could be excluded from the NAEP assessments, if it was determined that they could not be assessed meaningfully without accommodations. The decision to exclude special-needs students is made by school personnel, who typically make such a decision based on the students' Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). LEP students could be excluded if they had studied academic subjects in English for less than three years. In order to become a more inclusive program, and to remain consistent with testing practices in most states and districts, the NAEP reading assessment explored the possibility of offering accommodations to special-needs students who required them in 1998. (Accommodations were first offered on a trial basis in 1996, in the NAEP mathematics and science assessments.) In both 1998 and 2000, the reading assessment sample was split into two equivalent halves. In one-half of the schools sampled no accommodations were permitted; all students were tested under the same conditions that were the basis for reporting results from the 1992 and 1994 reading assessments. In the other half, accommodations were permitted for special-needs students who normally receive accommodations in their district or state testing program. Most of the accommodations typically provided to students were permitted in the NAEP reading assessment, unless the accommodation altered the construct being tested. For example, NAEP does not permit the selections in the reading assessment to be read aloud. The split-sample design made it possible to report trends in student reading performance since 1992, and at the same time to examine overall student performance when special-needs students are included who require and receive testing accommodations. As a consequence of the split-sample design, the NAEP 1998 and 2000 reading assessments have two different sets of results:
View more information about the percentages of students excluded and assessed in all assessment years. Find out about the percentages of students receiving each type of accommodation in 1998 and 2000. Return to main results.
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