This Brief provides an overview of issues related to the inclusion of students with disabilities and English learners with disabilities in early grade (that is, K-2) assessments and offers strategies for improved practices.

Fluent production of a variety of grammatically correct sentences is essential to overall writing quality across genres. Sentence-production skills become increasingly important as students prepare to transition from the elementary grades to middle-school. Many students in the upper-elementary grades, however, struggle with sentence production…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA; P.L. 108-446) is the primary source of federal funding to states for the identification and education of children with disabilities. The majority of IDEA appropriations are allocated to states by formula to carry out activities under Part B, which covers 14 disability categories. Each state is…

Students with learning disabilities (LD) often face significant difficulties in reading. Research has found a variety of different evidence-based practices to support the reading development of students with LD in areas such as word work, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. However, these practices are most often intended for use in traditional…

The 2020-2021 school year presented unprecedented challenges for States and local educational agencies (LEAs) throughout the country because of the national pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). For successful recovery efforts, it is essential to examine the expectations for children with disabilities, English learners…

The study commences with the introduction of the major Hungarian and international tendencies and the legal background of the inclusive education of children with special educational needs in Hungary, then it presents the strategies and tasks of kindergarten teachers in terms of the inclusive kindergarten education of intellectually disabled…

Teachers of students with or at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) may face obstacles and feel isolated when implementing social and emotional learning (SEL) programming with students. The teacher study group (TSG) offers an effective way to overcome barriers and improve SEL. These groups provide a gathering space for teachers to…

Executive function is an umbrella term involving working memory, planning, organization, social inhibition, self-regulation, and cognitive flexibility. It is an area where many students with disabilities struggle. This column describes practical ways to enhance executive functioning in students with disabilities using the universal design for…

Students with severe and persistent academic or behavioral challenges may benefit from data-based individualization (DBI). Starting with an evidence-based standard protocol and systematic progress monitoring, teachers can evaluate growth and implement individualized interventions to meet students' needs. Specifically, this article addresses the…

In Maryland, one way children's well-being is measured is by looking at the data from the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA). While the data can illustrate how children perform on various indicators across language and literacy, mathematics, social foundations, and physical well-being and motor development, it is really a reflection of the…

In order to make assessments as widely accessible as possible, including to young learners from diverse backgrounds with a wide range of individual needs and characteristics, some developers of standardized tests have resorted to offering accessibility tools (e.g., magnifying/zoom) and accommodations (e.g., extended response time) to test takers.…

In this technical report, implementation strategies from the first two years of Project ICEBERG exploration are described. Over this period of time, a new preschool assessment, curricular activity, and teacher training tool called the Learning Receptiveness Assessment-Greenhouse application, was iteratively developed, refined, and piloted to…

The Dyslexia Pilot Project provided funding to school districts to implement a multitiered system of support (MTSS) framework for the prevention, early identification, and early intervention of reading difficulties. This article describes the evaluation of the multiyear Dyslexia Pilot Project for students in kindergarten through Grade 2. The…

Phoneme discrimination is the ability to detect subtle similarities and differences between phonemes. Phoneme discrimination is a strong predictor of reading development and poor phoneme discrimination may predict reading disabilities (Lyytinen et al., 2004). The ability to discriminate phonemes may be an even more critical skill for Emergent…

In Maryland, one way children's well-being is measured is by looking at the data from the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA). While the data can illustrate how children perform on various indicators across language and literacy, mathematics, social foundations, and physical well-being and motor development, it is really a reflection of the…