A Baseline Perspective on Disability Subgroup Reporting
Abstract
Federal legislation requires states to publicly report on the participation and performance of students with disabilities on statewide assessments. Publicly reporting this information means that it will be more accessible to educators and laypeople, and it can be used in evaluating educational programs for and assessing the progress of this subgroup. In this study, the authors collected disability subgroup assessment information reported by the 50 states for both the 2000—2001 and 2001—2002 school years, essentially establishing a baseline for No Child Left Behind disability subgroup reporting. They examined the information that was publicly reported for general and alternate assessments. In 2001— 2002, 48 states reported either participation or performance information for students with disabilities on at least one state assessment. However, only 35 states reported both participation and performance for all of their assessments, as required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.