2020-2021 APR Snapshot #29: Students in Special Education Assigned Assessment Accommodations

Yi-Chen Wu, Kristin K. Liu, Sheryl S. Lazarus, and Martha L. Thurlow

December, 2023

All rights reserved. Any or all portions of this document may be reproduced and distributed without prior permission, provided the source is cited as:

Wu, Y.-C., Liu, K. K., Lazarus, S. S., & Thurlow, M. L. (2023). 2020-2021 APR snapshot #29: Students in special education assigned assessment accommodations. National Center on Educational Outcomes.

Table of Contents

• Background
• Data
• Findings
  • Accommodations Assigned for Reading and Mathematics Assessment
  • Accommodations Assigned in Grades 4 and 8
  • Proficiency and Accommodations Assigned
• Conclusions
• Resources

Background

Assessment accommodations are changes in testing materials or procedures that allow students to show their knowledge and skills rather than the effects of their disabilities. This Brief provides information on the number of students with disabilities assigned accommodations and the performance of these students on the general statewide assessment used for Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) accountability. Using federally submitted data from the 2020-2021 school year, we present information on accommodations for general reading and mathematics statewide assessments administered to grade 8 students (and grade 4 to show a comparison to grade 8 data). Figures displaying statewide accommodations data for other grades are provided in this report via links following each figure. Data tables for all grade levels are available from NCEO at https://nceo.info/Resources/publications/APRsnapshot/data.

Because of the lingering effects of the COVID pandemic on some states’ participation rates in 2020-2021, our analyses included only states with overall participation rates for students with and without disabilities of 80% or more on the general assessment and the alternate assessment based on alternate academic achievement standards (AA-AAAS) combined.¹ We used an 80% participation rate as the minimum rate for including a state in our analyses because this was the lowest participation rate in previous years’ analyses. In addition to low participation rates, some states were not included in our analyses because the U.S. Department of Education had suppressed their data because of either data quality issues or small numbers of students (see data tables).

Calculations for this Brief used only data available in Annual Performance Reports (APRs). APRs are submitted by states to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) as required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Two types of percentages are included in this Brief: the percentage of students assigned accommodations and the percentage proficient. The denominator for calculating the percentage of students assigned accommodations was the number of students with disabilities tested in the general math or reading assessment. The numerator was the number of students with disabilities assigned accommodations for the general math or reading assessment.

The denominator for calculating proficiency rates was the number of enrolled students with disabilities. The number of enrolled students was calculated by adding together the number of students with disabilities participating in each of a state’s assessments, plus any students with medical exemptions and any students who did not participate in an assessment. Typically, the state assessments included the general assessment and the AA-AAAS. The number of enrolled students with disabilities was calculated separately for reading and mathematics assessments for each grade level.

In this APR Snapshot Brief on accommodations, we refer to “assigned” accommodations rather than accommodations “received” or “used.” This clarifies that the data available to us are only the numbers of students who were assigned accommodations. These data do not indicate whether those students actually received or used the assigned accommodations. This distinction is important to make as states begin to gather and report data on whether assigned accommodations were actually received or used.

Throughout this Brief, we use the term “students with disabilities” to refer to students receiving special education services. Thus, students on 504 plans are not included in these analyses.

Table of Contents

Data

The percentage of students assigned accommodations for general reading and mathematics assessments in all grade levels was calculated by type of assessment and type of state (regular state–e.g., Alabama, Wyoming; or unique state–e.g., Guam, Puerto Rico). In the IDEA data set (https://data.ed.gov/dataset/1deabc43-21f9-46a8-b93d-8fbbb6d89d48/resource/8a02388a-bf0f-48aa-9943-37517c3170c1/download/bassessment2020-21.csv), there were four possible data conditions for each state and each content area for the general assessment. These conditions were: (a) data were not available, (b) data were reported, (c) data were reported but were suppressed by the U.S. Department of Education for data quality concerns, and (d) data were reported but were suppressed by the U.S. Department of Education because of the small number of students. Regular states were excluded from our analysis if they met one of the following criteria:

1. The participation or performance data were suppressed due to quality concerns or small cell sizes identified by the U.S. Department of Education.
2. The state’s participation information for the general assessment was not available (meaning that AA-AAAS participation information, even though available, was excluded because of the missing general assessment data).
3. The state’s participation data for either the general assessment or AA-AAAS were not available (meaning that the state’s proficiency data for that assessment were also excluded).
4. The state’s overall participation rate for students with and without disabilities was less than 80%.

We adjusted these criteria for unique states by eliminating Criterion 2 and Criterion 4. Unique states were included in our analyses if they provided data for either the general assessment or the AA-AAAS, as well as if they provided data for both.

Table of Contents

Findings

Students Assigned Accommodations for Reading and Mathematics Assessment

Regular States

Figure 1 shows the percentage of students with disabilities in 34 regular states who were assigned accommodations during both statewide grade 8 reading and mathematics assessments in 2020-2021. These states were ones with data considered valid by the U.S. Department of Education and with overall participation rates for students with and without disabilities of 80% or more.²

The states are ordered in Figure 1 from those that have the highest percentages of students assigned accommodations for the general mathematics assessment to those that have the lowest percentages of students assigned accommodations for this assessment. The figure indicates that visible differences were evident between the percentage of students with disabilities assigned accommodations for mathematics and reading assessments in more than 15 states.

Twelve states reported a difference in accommodation rates between content areas of more than five percentage points, and nine out of 12 states reported smaller percentages of students with disabilities assigned accommodations in reading than in math assessments. The figure also shows that in nine states, more than 80 percent of students with disabilities were assigned accommodations during both the statewide reading and mathematics assessments. In contrast, in four states, 25 percent or fewer students were assigned accommodations during testing in both reading and mathematics (see data available at https://nceo.info/Resources/publications/APRsnapshot/data). The percentage of students with disabilities assigned accommodations in mathematics generally was likely to be equal to or higher than the percentage of students assigned accommodations in reading assessments across all the grades.

Figure 1. Percentage of Grade 8 Students with Disabilities Assigned Accommodations in 2020-2021 Reading and Mathematics General Assessments in Regular States (N = 34)

Grades 3 - 7 and High School. Click the images to enlarge.

Grade 3	Grade 4	Grade 5	Grade 6	Grade 7	Grade HS

Unique States

Figure 2 shows the percentage of grade 8 students with disabilities assigned reading and math accommodations in the unique states in 2020-2021. Seven of the 10 unique states had data available for both assessments at grade 8. Differences between grade 8 reading and mathematics accommodations for these seven states were between 0.0 percentage points and 18.7 percentage points. Four of the seven states showed no difference between the percentages of students assigned accommodations for reading and for mathematics assessments. Five of the states had more than 97 percent of students with disabilities assigned accommodations for both reading and mathematics. (See data tables available at https://nceo.info/Resources/publications/APRsnapshot/data)

Figure 2. Percentage of Grade 8 Students with Disabilities Assigned Accommodations in 2020-2021 Reading and Mathematics Assessments in Unique States (N = 7)

Grades 3 - 7 and High School. Click the images to enlarge.

Grade 3	Grade 4	Grade 5	Grade 6	Grade 7	Grade HS

Students Assigned Accommodations in Grades 4 and 8

Regular States

Figure 3 shows the percentage of grade 4 and 8 students with disabilities who were assigned accommodations during statewide reading assessments in the 34 regular states with data. The figure shows states ordered by their grade 4 rates of students with disabilities who were assigned accommodations for the regular reading assessment. The figure indicates visible differences between the percentages of students with disabilities assigned accommodations in the two grade levels. In the 12 states with differences greater than 10 percentage points, three states had higher percentages of students assigned accommodations in grade 4 than in grade 8. An overall total of 23 regular states had lower percentages of students with disabilities assigned reading accommodations in grade 4 than in grade 8. The figure also shows that five states had more than 75 percent of students with disabilities who were assigned accommodations during the statewide reading assessment in both grade 4 and grade 8 (see data available at https://nceo.info/Resources/publications/APRsnapshot/data).

Figure 3. Percentage of Grade 4 and Grade 8 Students with Disabilities Assigned Accommodations in 2020-2021 Reading General Assessments in Regular States (N = 34)

Slightly different results were found for the percentage of students with disabilities assigned accommodations in grade 4 and grade 8 mathematics assessments in the 36 states with data (see Figure 4). In the 13 states with differences greater than 10 percentage points, three states had higher percentages of students assigned accommodations in grade 4 than in grade 8. In comparison, 26 regular states had lower percentages of students with disabilities assigned math accommodations in grade 4 than in grade 8. The figure also shows that seven states had more than 75 percent of students with disabilities assigned accommodations during the statewide math assessment in both grade 4 and grade 8 (see data available at https://nceo.info/Resources/publications/APRsnapshot/data).

Figure 4. Percentage of Grade 4 and Grade 8 Students with Disabilities Assigned Accommodations in 2020-2021 Mathematics General Assessments in Regular States (N = 36)

Unique States

Figure 5 shows the percentage of students with disabilities who were assigned accommodations during statewide reading assessments in grade 4 and grade 8 in unique states (N=4 out of 10). Two unique states reported that 100% of the students with disabilities at grades 4 and 8 were assigned reading accommodations. One unique state reported that grade 8 students with disabilities were assigned fewer reading accommodations than grade 4 students, and the other reported that grade 4 students were assigned fewer reading accommodations than grade 8 students. On average, the difference in reading assessment accommodation rates in the unique states reporting data was approximately 20.6 percentage points fewer grade 8 students with disabilities assigned accommodations compared to grade 4 students with disabilities.

Figure 5. Percentage of Grade 4 and Grade 8 Students with Disabilities Assigned Accommodations in 2020-2021 Reading General Assessments in Unique States (N = 4)

Figure 6 shows the percentage of grade 4 and 8 students with disabilities who were assigned mathematics assessment accommodations in unique states (N=6 of 10). All except two of the six unique states reported variations across grade levels. Two unique states reported there were fewer grade 4 students assigned mathematics accommodations compared to grade 8 students. Two unique states reported there were fewer grade 8 students assigned mathematics accommodations compared to grade 4 students. The size of differences between grade 4 and grade 8 students with disabilities who were assigned mathematics accommodations ranged from 16.9 percentage points fewer grade 8 students to 89.5 percentage points more grade 8 students assigned accommodations compared to grade 4 students (see data tables available at https://nceo.info/Resources/publications/APRsnapshot/data).

Figure 6. Percentage of Grade 4 and Grade 8 Students with Disabilities Assigned Accommodations in 2020-2021 Mathematics General Assessments in Unique States (N = 6)

Proficiency Rates of Students Assigned Accommodations

Regular States

Figure 7 shows reading assessment performance (i.e., percent proficient or above) for grade 8 students with disabilities in regular states who were assigned accommodations. Only states that reported information for both performance and assigned accommodations are included in the figure (N=34). Fourteen states were excluded because their overall student participation rates (both students with and without disabilities) were below 80%. An additional two states were excluded because their performance data from the general reading assessment were suppressed by the U.S. Department of Education due to data quality issues. There was no evident relationship between the percentage of students with disabilities assigned accommodations and student performance on the reading assessment. This conclusion should be interpreted with caution because it refers only to overall relationships. It does not speak to the performance of individual students who were assigned accommodations.

Figure 7. Percentage of Grade 8 Students with Disabilities Assigned Accommodations and Scoring Proficient or Above in 2020-2021 General Reading Assessments in Regular States (N = 34)

Grades 3 - 7 and High School Reading. Click the images to enlarge.

Grade 3	Grade 4	Grade 5	Grade 6	Grade 7	Grade HS

Grades 3 - 7 and High School Math. Click the images to enlarge.

Grade 3	Grade 4	Grade 5	Grade 6	Grade 7	Grade 8	Grade HS

Unique States

Four out of 10 unique states had information on both accommodations and reading assessment performance of grade 8 students with disabilities (see Figure 8). Assigned accommodations and performance data are available in data tables at https://nceo.info/Resources/publications/APRsnapshot/data. The six unique states excluded from this figure were excluded for a variety of reasons. Three unique states’ performance data were suppressed by the U.S. Department of Education due to small cell sizes. Another three unique states did not report data. The same lack of relationship between the number of students assigned accommodations and performance was found for unique states. The unique state with the highest reading proficiency rate did not have the highest rate of students with disabilities assigned accommodations on regular reading assessments across grade levels.

Figure 8. Percentage of Grade 8 Students with Disabilities Assigned Accommodations and Scoring Proficient or Above in 2020-2021 General Reading Assessments in Unique States (N = 4)

Grades 3 - 7 and High School Reading. Click the images to enlarge.

				No data	No data
Grade 3	Grade 4	Grade 5	Grade 6	Grade 7*	Grade HS*

^* Five unique states in grade 7 and six states in high school had data for the rates of students assigned accommodations, but their performance data were suppressed due to small cell size

Grades 3 - 7 and High School Math. Click the images to enlarge.

			No data	No data
Grade 3	Grade 4	Grade 5	Grade 6*	Grade 7*	Grade 8	Grade HS

^* Seven unique states in grade 6 and five states in grade 7 had data for the rates of students assigned accommodations, but their performance data were suppressed due to small cell size.

Table of Contents

Conclusions

The information presented in this report summarizes the accommodations data submitted by states to the U.S. Department of Education for the year 2020-2021. Considerable variability across states was evident in the percentage of students with disabilities assigned accommodations on grade 8 reading and mathematics statewide assessments. In general, a higher percentage of grade 4 students with disabilities in both the regular and unique states received accommodations in comparison to grade 8 students with disabilities. This was a finding for both reading and mathematics assessments. In many states, more students with disabilities were assigned accommodations for the mathematics assessment than for the reading assessment. No relationship was found between the percentage of students with disabilities assigned accommodations and the percentage of students with disabilities who were proficient on the grade 8 regular reading and mathematics assessments.

Table of Contents

Endnotes

Table of Contents

Resources

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