NAEP Panels Propose More ELL, Spec. Ed. Inclusion

Guidelines would try to check disparities in participation rates.

Washington

The board that sets policy for the exam known as “the nation’s report card” has begun consideration of proposals aimed at setting new, more uniform standards for testing English-language learners and students with disabilities on the widely scrutinized assessment.

A pair of draft proposals , unveiled here last week at a meeting of the National Assessment Governing Board, seek to encourage as many of those students as possible to take part in the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

The guidelines aim to curb the broad disparities among states in the rates of students who are excluded from the federally sponsored assessment or provided with special testing accommodations. To critics, those differences undermine NAEP’s role as a uniform—and prized—measuring stick of student achievement...