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No Child Left Behind and Student With Disabilities

Public Law 107-110, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB—pronounced nickelbee) amends Title I (Improving the Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The US Department of Education lists four themes:

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) of 2004 attempts to bring IDEA into line with NCLB.

The No Child Left Behind Act requires that each State implement yearly academic assessments, which are to be valid and accessible for all students, including those with disabilities or limited English proficiency. The ISAT, or Idaho Standards Achievement Test, is Idaho’s approved assessment tool.

Performance results from these assessments in each state are to be disaggregated, or separated, so that the progress in six areas or populations can be looked at:

Reasonable adaptations and accommodations, as determined by the IEP team, must be provided for students with disabilities to measure their academic achievement related to state standards. The IEP team also determines when a student cannot participate in all or part of the State assessments, even with accommodations.

For students with the most significant cognitive disabilities, assessments measure their achievement relative to alternate academic achievement standards. Idaho Alternative Assessment, or IAA, is Idaho’s approved alternate assessment tool. The state has clear guidelines to determine a child’s need for alternate standards. Parents must be informed when their child’s achievement is based on alternate standards. Each State must report on how many students take alternate assessments based on alternate standards, alternate assessments on grade level, and regular assessments.

States that use alternate assessments must promote appropriate accommodations so that more students are tested against grade-level achievement standards, and must assure that staff is trained in doing the testing and in applying accommodations. To find out more about Idaho’s assessment tools and results, visit the Idaho State Department of Education website at www.sde.state.id.us/dept/ and click on “Assessments and Accountability” on the left side of the page.

National assessment of educational progress (NAEP) measures each State’s progress in having students make adequate yearly progress (AYP). AYP is a State’s measure of progress in meeting its academic standards. AYP applies the same goals to students in the six groups listed above and looks at their progress each year in reading/language arts and in mathematics. AYP must also look at high school graduation rates, and in elementary schools must look at some other indication of achievement, such as attendance rates or grade- to-grade retention.

All States that receive Title I, Part A funds must prepare and distribute annual report cards showing how well students have done in each school, each grade, and subject, as a whole and separated into the subgroups listed above, and including information on whether teachers of core subjects are highly qualified. This includes special education teachers who teach core subjects. (There are also standards for paraprofessionals.)

Schools whose students do not make adequate yearly progress for two years in a row must put in place a school improvement process to improve students’ achievement, and must also provide public school choice to all students in the school. These schools must offer supplemental educational services(SES)—tutoring or other supplemental academic enrichment services—to eligible low-income students who remain in the school.

Supplemental Educational Services must be consistent with a student’s IEP, but are not considered part of the IEP. Parental consent is required before developing the supplemental services agreement, and the providers used must be able to serve students with disabilities, including the provision of accommodations in providing services.

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