National Assessment of Educational Progress Exclusion Rates for  
Students with Disabilities (28-OCT-05, GAO-06-194R).		 
                                                                 
In July 2005, we issued a report entitled No Child Left Behind	 
Act: Most Students with Disabilities Participated in Statewide	 
Assessments, but Inclusion Options Could Be Improved (GAO-05-618)
in response to a Congressional request for information about	 
inclusion of students with disabilities in the statewide	 
assessments. We found that most states were including these	 
students in the assessments. In addition, we reviewed the	 
National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) data to	 
determine the extent to which students with disabilities were	 
included in this assessment. Also called "The Nation's Report	 
Card," the NAEP has been used to track trends in student	 
achievement over time or to compare student performance in a	 
particular state with the national average. With the assistance  
of Department of Education (Education) officials, we interpreted 
that in 2002 five percent of students with disabilities were	 
excluded from the NAEP reading assessment.			 
-------------------------Indexing Terms------------------------- 
REPORTNUM:   GAO-06-194R					        
    ACCNO:   A40685						        
  TITLE:     National Assessment of Educational Progress Exclusion    
Rates for Students with Disabilities				 
     DATE:   10/28/2005 
  SUBJECT:   Children with disabilities 			 
	     Education						 
	     Education program evaluation			 
	     Educational standards				 
	     Educational testing				 
	     Learning disabilities				 
	     State-administered programs			 
	     Statistical data					 
	     Students						 
	     Developmental disabilities 			 
	     Department of Education National			 
	     Assessment of Educational Progress 		 
                                                                 

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GAO-06-194R

October 28, 2005

The Honorable Edward M. Kennedy

Ranking Minority Member

Committee on Health, Education,

Labor, and Pensions

United States Senate

Subject: National Assessment of Educational Progress Exclusion Rates for
Students with

Disabilities

Dear Senator Kennedy:

In July 2005, we issued a report entitled No Child Left Behind Act: Most
Students with Disabilities Participated in Statewide Assessments, but
Inclusion Options Could Be Improved (GAO-05-618) in response to your
request for information about inclusion of students with disabilities in
the statewide assessments. We found that most states were including these
students in the assessments. In addition, we reviewed the National
Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) data to determine the extent to
which students with disabilities were included in this assessment. Also
called "The Nation's Report Card," the NAEP has been used to track trends
in student achievement over time or to compare student performance in a
particular state with the national average. With the assistance of
Department of Education (Education) officials, we interpreted that in 2002
five percent of students with disabilities were excluded from the NAEP
reading assessment.

Two months after the report's issuance, Education provided us with new
information regarding how the NAEP data concerning the exclusion of
students with disabilities should be interpreted. In reviewing this
information, we determined that the exclusion rate for students with
disabilities was much higher than previously reported, with about 40
percent of the students with disabilities who were part of the 2002 NAEP
reading assessment sample excluded from the actual testing. In addition,
the percentages of students with disabilities who were excluded from the
testing varied by grade. For example:

           o  40 percent of students with disabilities were excluded from the
           grade 4 assessment,
           o  37 percent of students with disabilities were excluded from the
           grade 8 assessment, and
           o  43 percent of students with disabilities were excluded from the
           grade 12 assessment.

This high exclusion rate underscores the importance of the recommendation
in our report that NAEP explore strategies to reduce the number of
students with disabilities who are excluded from the assessment. Education
indicated in its comment letter that it intends to do a better job of
including all students in the assessment.

We provided a draft of this correspondence to Education for review.
Education officials provided technical comments that we incorporated into
the correspondence as appropriate.

For information on the inclusion of students with disabilities in
statewide assessments and NAEP, go to
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-618 or call me at (202) 512-7215.

Sincerely yours,

Marnie S. Shaul

Director, Education, Workforce,

and Income Security Issues
*** End of document. ***