NCEO Projects

NCEO has participated in a number of assessment projects and research studies that collect data on the participation and performance of students with disabilities, as well as English language learners, and assess accommodations and alternate assessment approaches that facilitate the participation of all students in statewide assessment programs.

The following are some of the current and most recent of these projects:

• General Supervision Enhancement Grant Project on Behalf of Alabama State Department of Education (Alabama GSEG)
• IEP/LEP Large-Scale Assessment Project
• Improving the Validity of Assessment Results for English Language Learners with Disabilities (IVARED)
• LEP/IEP Instruction Project
• LEP/IEP Strategies Project
• LEP Parents Project
• Minnesota Accommodations Project
• Multi-state GSEG Toward a Defensible AA-MAS
• National Alternate Assessment Center (NAAC)
• The National Center and State Collaborative General Supervision Enhancement Grant (NCSC GSEG)
• National Study on Alternate Assessments
• New Hampshire Enhanced Assessment Initiative
• Georgia Enhanced Assessment Grant
• Partnership for Accessible Reading Assessment
• Technology Assisted Reading Assessments
• Universal Design Project

General Supervision Enhancement Grant Project on Behalf of Alabama State Department of Education (Alabama GSEG)
This project, funded by the Office of Special Education Programs, US Department of Education, is working with the state of Alabama to develop high-quality assessment and instructional systems for students with disabilities whose progress is such that they are not likely to reach grade-level proficiency in the same time frame as other students. Activities include the development of (1) online professional development materials on accommodations decision-making, and (2) a set of strategies/guidelines for universal design for alternate assessments based on modified achievement standards (AA-MAS).

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IEP/LEP Large-Scale Assessment Project
This three-year project, funded by the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), is designed to better understand the performance and participation of students with disabilities and limited English proficiency (LEP) in large-scale assessments nationwide. After completing a comprehensive policy review of all 50 states' large-scale assessment policies written for LEP students with disabilities, research activities will focus on understanding and analyzing states' large-scale assessment data collected and reported for these students. A thorough review of the literature is also underway that will synthesize "the best of what is known" about including LEP students with disabilities in large-scale assessment programs.

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Improving the Validity of Assessment Results for English Language Learners with Disabilities (IVARED)
IVARED is a consortium of states (Arizona, Minnesota, Maine, Michigan, and Washington) working in partnership with NCEO to address the validity of assessment results of ELLs with disabilities in statewide accountability assessments. The project is examining the characteristics of the students and their performance, improving the process for making decisions about participation and accommodations via expert panel input and studies of decision making, and developing principles to guide the assessment of ELLs with disabilities. Through these activities, states will be able to develop validity arguments for their assessments and assessment practices for ELLs with disabilities, and by doing so will enhance the quality of their assessment systems for measuring the achievement of ELLs with disabilities.

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LEP/IEP Instruction Project
The goal of this project, funded by the Office of Special Education Programs, is to investigate ways that limited English proficient (LEP) students with disabilities can participate meaningfully in, and benefit from, grade-level, standards-based instruction. The results of this project will fulfill the basic needs in promoting effective practice for successful participation of students with disabilities who are English language learners (ELLs) by improving the alignment of instructional interventions for these students with the standards-based curriculum. Data will be collected on the participation and performance of ELLs with disabilities in Minnesota's statewide assessments, including the Test of Emerging Academic English (TEAE), which was designed to show growth in academic English that is needed for standards-based instruction and assessment. Data on recommended strategies for delivering grade-level, standards-based instruction to LEP students with disabilities will be collected from teachers as well as students and their parents, and then classroom interventions will be designed based on these recommendations. A nationwide sample of teachers will comment on the feasibility and desirability of the recommended teaching strategies.

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LEP/IEP Strategies Project
The primary goal of this project is to provide research-based knowledge to educators on the topic of instructional strategies that help middle school ELLs with disabilities achieve in standards-based content classrooms. Specifically, this project takes a look at instructional strategy use at the school level and the knowledge that teachers possess, placed within the context of specific state standards.

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LEP Parents Project
Funded by the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, this project will study the participation of linguistically diverse parents in making informed large-scale assessment decisions for their children with disabilities. Three studies will be implemented to:

1. Describe the content of Individualized Education Programs of students with disabilities and limited English proficiency (LEP),
2. Develop principles that educators to support parents in making appropriate large-scale assessment decisions for their children, and
3. Connect students' large-scale assessment performance to their parents' level of participation in making informed assessment decisions.

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Minnesota Accommodations Project
Creates training materials and processes for the state of Minnesota on accommodations for instruction and assessment.

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Multi-state GSEG Toward a Defensible AA-MAS
NCEO joined with five states (Alabama, Hawaii, South Dakota, Tennessee, Wisconsin) to form a consortium whose members share a common interest in investigating the characteristics of students who may qualify for an alternate assessment based on modified academic achievement standards (AA-MAS). This project aims to develop high-quality assessment and instructional systems that improve not only the accountability system, but also the learning of those students whose disability has precluded them from achieving grade-level proficiency and whose progress is such that they are not likely to reach grade-level proficiency in the same time frame as other students.

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National Alternate Assessment Center
The National Alternate Assessment Center (NAAC) is a research center based at the University of Kentucky, in collaboration with the National Center on Educational Outcomes, the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, CAST, and state partners Connecticut, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The primary objectives of the NAAC are:

1. Bring together and build on the current research base on high quality, technically sound alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards and alternate assessments based on grade-level achievement standards,
2. Provide technical assistance to states as they endeavor to design or redesign their alternate assessments, and
3. Demonstrate through the center's partnerships with states high quality design and administration of alternate assessments.

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The National Center and State Collaborative General Supervision Enhancement Grant (NCSC GSEG)
NCEO is leading a partnership of national centers and 19 states that will develop innovative approaches to alternate assessments for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities in grades 3-12. The NCSC GSEG will build a comprehensive assessment system based on the Common Core State Standards that includes project-developed tools and processes to support educators as they plan and provide appropriate instruction for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. These supports will help Individualized Education Program teams accurately identify the learner characteristics and make appropriate decisions about how each student participates in the overall system of assessments. The NCSC partners include NCEO as the host and fiscal agent, along with the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment, the University of Kentucky's Human Development Institute, the College of Education at the University of North Carolina - Charlotte, and edCount. The 19 state partners are Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Wyoming, and six U.S. entities in the Pacific Rim.

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National Study on Alternate Assessments
Describes the status of the development and implementation of alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

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New Hampshire Enhanced Assessment Initiative
The New Hampshire Collaborative Enhanced Assessment Grant is a consortium of nine states (Connecticut, Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and South Carolina) and four primary organizational partners (National Center on Educational Outcomes, National Center on Improvement of Educational Assessment, Inclusive Large Scale Standards and Assessment Center at the University of Kentucky, and Measured Progress). The project has three primary goals:

1. Address the immediate practical challenge each state faces to provide documentation of the technical adequacy of its alternate assessment, along with developing the technical assistance processes and products that will ensure all states get the support they need to document technical adequacy of alternate assessments after the project ends.
2. Enhance fundamental knowledge of what the results of good teaching and learning look like for students with significant disabilities, which in turn will allow educational researchers, measurement experts, and practitioners to identify the kind of evidence of standards-based learning that can yield valid and reliable inferences for accountability and school improvement purposes.
3. Capture lessons learned that will help define areas for improvement of entire assessment systems. The project will target areas where technical assistance is needed to document the technical adequacy of alternate assessments, articulate needs for further research, and integrate the discoveries of how to evidence the learning of students with disabilities to a broader population of students, including possible revisiting of general assessment technical documentation.
    

Georgia Enhanced Assessment Grant
In the context of high expectations for all students and fully inclusive assessment and accountability systems, our consortium of States (Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky), university partners, researchers, and advocates will explore and document effects of multiple methods of assessments that meet identified student needs, to ensure all children are able to show what they know in the grade-level standards-based curriculum, based on appropriate and high achievement standards. The states will partner in three separate but related investigations of assessment options to include every student appropriately in state assessment and accountability systems. Each of the states will learn from the others the potential utility of a range of formative and summative methods of determining what students know and are able to do, in response to identified student needs, and then we will share our understanding nationally.

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Partnership for Accessible Reading Assessment
The Partnership engages in research on and development of accessible reading assessments that provide a valid demonstration of reading proficiency for increasingly diverse populations of students in public schools, and particularly for those students who have disabilities that affect reading. It is operated by a consortium consisting of the National Center on Educational Outcomes; the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST); and Westat. This project works in collaboration with the Designing Accessible Reading Assessment project at ETS through the National Accessible Reading Assessment Projects. These projects are now based in the Institute of Education Sciences.

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Technology Assisted Reading Assessments
Engages in research and development to improve reading assessments for students with visual impairments or blindness, examining the properties of existing assessments for these students and developing an assessment of reading with a particular focus on independent technology assisted reading.

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Universal Design Project
(Development Techniques for Universally Designed Assessments)
This project funded by the Office of Special Education Programs is conducting research on elements of universally designed assessments. The research is being conducted in three parts:

1. Protocol analysis of students with disabilities participating in state assessments,
2. Item analysis of results of a state assessment, and
3. Development of a guide for the development of universally designed assessments.

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