The purpose of educational assessments is to provide an academic check-up and to give educators, parents, students, and policymakers valuable feedback about students' academic strengths, areas that need improvement, how well they are progressing toward college and career readiness, and the effectiveness of the state's educational system. This…

The Individualized Education Program (IEP) is the heart of providing special education services to students with disabilities. It is a complex document that is supposed to include several required components. IEP teams are required to be composed of certain individuals, including "a representative of the district who is qualified to provide…

This article addresses the inclusion of English learners with disabilities, including those with significant cognitive disabilities, in state and district assessments. The authors provide background information on who these students are and the relationship between academic English language development, content learning, and assessment. The…

The current 2025 American Indian/Alaska Native Students in Oregon Report provides updated data on key indicators for American Indian/Alaska Native students in Oregon to complement the continued conversation and progress towards Native student success. This report provides a comprehensive and inclusive overview of American Indian/Alaska Native…

This article shares the story of Jose, a student that presents an extreme example of what can happen to deaf and hard of hearing children in our nation's schools when assessment data is either inaccurate or ignored and parental input is absent. Presenting a unique challenge to the educational system, each deaf or hard of hearing child is at the…

The primary message of the Supreme Court's ruling in "Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District" (hereinafter "Endrew F.," 2017) was that school districts are obligated to "offer an IEP [individualized education program] that is reasonably calculated to enable the child to make progress appropriate in light of the…

The purpose of this guide is to provide an overview of behavioral progress monitoring and goal setting to inform data-driven decision making within tiered support models and individualized education programs (IEPs). The guide covers: (1) components of quality behavioral IEP goals; (2) how to know which behavior(s) should be addressed through an…

What is Goal Attainment Scaling? In this article, Lee Ann Jung defines it as a way to measure a student's progress toward an individualized goal. Instead of measuring a skill at a set time (for instance, on a test or other assignment), Goal Attainment Scaling tracks the steps a student takes over the course of a year in a targeted skill. Together,…

Occupational therapy practitioners working in school settings must articulate their distinct value in supporting student participation and educational performance. Using a systems-level practice, they weave their knowledge and skills as leaders at the district-, building-, classroom-, and student-levels to achieve "health, well-being, and…

For Wisconsin schools and districts, implementing an equitable multi-level system of supports means providing equitable services, practices, and resources to every learner based upon responsiveness to effective instruction and intervention. In this system, high quality instruction, strategic use of data, and collaboration interact within a…

The ability to significantly increase and sustain gains in early literacy for students with disabilities and a desire to bridge the gap between compliance and results-driven accountability (RDA) led Washington State to innovate a solution. This state spotlight will focus on Washington's improvement strategy to address this early literacy challenge…

The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter Balanced) strives to provide every student with a positive and productive assessment experience, generating results that are a fair and accurate estimate of each student's achievement. Further, Smarter Balanced is building on a framework of accessibility for all students, including English…

In an effort to ensure that all students in grades K-12 received the appropriate supports and services to meet their full potential, the Houston Independent School District (HISD) employs the Intervention Assistance Team (IAT) program to document individualized interventions implemented to support the child and provide, if needed, a bridge to…

This study investigated experiences of primary school teachers with inclusion students in the context of teaching mathematics. In the study the phenomenology design, which is one of the qualitative research designs, was used. The participants were determined by criterion-based sampling method. The participants of the study consisted of 21 primary…

Objectives: The aim of the study was to explore the perspectives of elementary classroom teachers in relation to the academic support that is provided to students with developmental disabilities (DDs) in China. Method: A qualitative research design, using focus groups, individual interviews and document analysis, was adopted to explore classroom…