Framing Statement
As understood by the task force, the goal of NAEP is to provide high-quality indicators of performance for well-defined populations of students enrolled in selected grades of U.S. schools. Under current NAEP protocols, some students with disabilities (SD) and some English language learners (ELL) may be excluded from assessment. Inclusion rates differ across states. The task force believes that as a result the goal of NAEP is difficult to meet under current protocols, and they will become increasingly difficult to meet in the future. The task force further believes that NCES must ultimately choose between two alternatives:
1. Adjust reported NAEP findings to include estimates of the performance of SD and ELL students who were not tested, but reasonably could have been.
2. Redefine the population that NAEP claims to cover so that it does not include some SD and ELL students. This report contains the task force’s recommendations regarding this choice and related issues.
The task force strongly supports NCES’ continuing to take a proactive approach to the problem of variable inclusion practices. Otherwise, important comparisons (state-to-state, year-to-year and subgroup-to-subgroup) may be distorted by differences and changes in inclusion practices.
tr172.pdf