States Vary on Students Excluded From NAEP Tests

The latest reading and mathematics results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress suggest that, despite federal efforts to curb the practice, states still vary widely in the numbers of students with disabilities and English-language learners whom they excuse from taking the tests.

States’ “exclusion rates” for the 4th grade reading test, for example, range from a high of 14 percent of students in Louisiana to as low as 2 percent in Wyoming and Alabama. On the 4th grade math tests, the rates were lower and a little less variable, ranging from 1 percent to 6 percent.

Keeping a check on how many students in each state are excluded from the congressionally mandated tests is important, experts say, because the practice can lead to an inaccurate picture...