States Curb Exemptions on Testing

Autor/in	Shah, Nirvi
Titel	States Curb Exemptions on Testing
Quelle	In: Education Week, 30 (2011) 30, S.1 (2 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0277-4232
Schlagwörter	Elementary Secondary Education; Federal Legislation; Federal Programs; Educational Indicators; Testing Accommodations; Accessibility (for Disabled); Accountability; Alternative Assessment; Educational Policy; Eligibility; Student Evaluation + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Bundesrecht; Educational indicato; Bildungsindikator; Testing process; Accessibility (for disabled); Accessibility; Disabled person; Testdurchführung; Testen; Barrierefreiheit; Zugänglichkeit; Behinderter; Verantwortung; Politics of education; Bildungspolitik; Eignung; Schulnote; Studentische Bewertung
Abstract	Pressure from the U.S. Department of Education has led some states to curb a testing exemption that applies only to the 1 percent of students with the most severe disabilities, but districts that have long used that flexibility to win some breathing room in their accountability systems are bristling. Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, states are allowed to administer exams based on alternate standards to students with severe cognitive impairments and then count those scores toward their adequate yearly progress (AYP) ratings--provided the number of scores counted as passing doesn't exceed 1 percent of the total number of students tested. When more than 1 percent of students take the alternate tests, states or districts must count the scores from exams that exceed the cap as failing. But, for years, the Education Department allowed a handful of states to overstep the 1 percent cap. A cap was used--rather than a strict definition of who should qualify for alternate tests--so that school districts could use their own judgment in determining who should take the tests, which are not intended for children with moderate disabilities. When originally proposed, the cap was one-half of a percent, a proportion some research shows is much closer to the actual share of students who might be in need of tests that may hardly resemble current standardized exams. In guidance published in 2007, the Education Department stopped allowing states overall to exceed the cap, but the department continued to let all states give districts permission to do so and count many more tests as passing without asking the federal government for permission. That states were allowed to continue to give districts leeway on testing bothers advocates who worry that kind of flexibility may become part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) when Congress reworks the ESEA, whose current version is the No Child Left Behind law. The concern is that giving districts and states carte blanche to test some students with disabilities with exams that are too easy for some of them may deprive students of an opportunity to earn a regular diploma. There are few hard and fast rules about exactly which students should take the alternate tests. While some students with Down syndrome, autism, and other conditions may need the alternate assessments, others with the same label may not. (ERIC).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10