Product Description:
Standards-based instruction, with the aim of grade-level achievement for all students, is undoubtedly the most comprehensive educational reform of the recent past. A hallmark of this reform effort is the measurement of student academic achievement with large-scale assessments that are used for accountability purposes. Assessment results are to be made public as a way of accounting for the academic achievement of all subgroups of students. Just as teachers, parents, and students are interested in individual student achievement, policymakers and the public in general are interested in student group achievement that indicates how specific schools, school
districts, and states are performing. Never before have schools and states been under such scrutiny for demonstrating improved student outcomes for specific subgroups of students - students with disabilities, English language learners, students receiving free and reduced lunch, and students in general education.
Today's widespread emphasis on statewide testing used for accountability purposes has essentially been driven by federal mandates. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1994 included a strong mandate that all students, including those with disabilities, participate in states' standards-based assessments and be counted in states' accountability programs. Following a similar course in policy implementation, the 1997 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act required the participation of students with disabilities in state and district-wide assessments. Most recently, the reauthorization of ESEA, No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001, has refocused states' attention toward ensuring access to challenging, grade-level standards that are designed for the student's grade of enrollment.
Reviewing the chronology of federal law that has strengthened the inclusion of students with disabilities in states' large-scale assessment and accountability programs, and the new emphasis on grade-level standards, does not capture the political and controversial issues that have surrounded the implementation of assessments. This is certainly true for out-of-level testing, which refers to the practice of testing students below their grade of enrollment in states' large-scale assessment programs. It is possible that no approach to testing has prompted such controversy at all levels of the American educational system - local, state, and federal - as has out-of-level
testing.
Available online at: http://www.cehd.umn.edu/nceo/onlinepubs/oolt12report.pdf
