Impact of Standardized Testing on Special Education Students
To put this discussion in context, below is a video that informs the viewer about the pitfalls of standardized testing for all students.
Over the past decade, states have been engaged in a variety of education reform efforts designed to improve the quality of public education. One highly visible reform is “high-stakes” testing. The purpose of such tests is to improve student achievement. While students with learning disabilities have a lot to gain from increased focus on student achievement, high-stakes standardized testing can also pose serious obstacles and consequences. This article examines the current state of high-stakes testing and its implications for students with learning disabilities (LD).
The term “high-stakes” is used to describe tests that have high stakes for individual students, such as grade promotion or a standard high school diploma. Thus, high-stakes testing is designed to hold individual students accountable for their own test performance, unlike “system accountability,” which is aimed at the providers of education, such as states, school districts, and schools.
According to data collected by the Center on Education Policy in November, 2009, 26 states are currently using exit exams as a condition of getting a standard high school diploma. Some states have postponed or are considering postponing the dates by which their graduation test requirement would go into effect. These postponements have resulted from public pressure and lack of adequate phase-in time.
There is no federal law that restricts states from imposing high-stakes testing and its consequences on individual students, including students with disabilities covered under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) or Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (Section 504). In fact, to date, lawsuits challenging the applicability of graduation exams to students with disabilities have not been successful. Legal challenges alleging lack of access to accommodations and lack of opportunity to learn the academic content measured by the tests have met with more success, and, in some cases, have resulted in significant changes to state policies. Still, far more states sanction individual students for poor test performance than impose sanctions on the education system.
The Federal special education law, IDEA, requires states and school districts to include students with disabilities in large-scale assessments. In addition, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) requires schools to include students with disabilities in several assessments of student performance and to disaggregate (separate out) the performance data into several subgroups, including special education students, so that the public will know if schools are providing adequate progress to historically low performing groups of students. It is important to note that the testing requirements of NCLB do not involve stakes for students. Many states, however, are using statewide assessments that carry high stakes for students to also fulfill the NCLB testing requirements.
Is Common Core tougher on special education students? Watch the video below for points and counterpoints on the issue.
HIGH STAKES TESTING POSE SIGNIFICANT RISKS TO STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES!
Increased grade retention
We know that large performance gaps exist between students with disabilities and their non-disabled peers. We also know that students with disabilities continue to be retained much more often than the general population – more than one-third are retained at grade level at least once, usually in elementary school, third grade in the state of New Mexico. Promotion tests – the fastest growing area of high-stakes testing – will most likely contribute to even more retention of students with learning disabilities, despite the fact that retention has been shown to be an ineffective intervention to improving academic achievement. More importantly, students who are retained are much more likely to drop out later in school, and those retained more than once are dramatically more likely to drop out. Research on retention shows that grade repeaters as adults are more likely to be unemployed, living on public assistance, or in prison than adults who did not repeat a grade.
Increased possibility of dropping out
Data show that students with disabilities fail large-scale tests at higher rates than other students, especially in the years immediately following the introduction of such tests. One important reason for this is their lack of access to the curriculum on which the tests are based. Failing a high-stakes test, such as a test required for graduation with a standard diploma, can increase the likelihood that low achievers will drop out of school. According to the NCSET, we already know that nearly 30 percent of students with learning disabilities drop out of school (compared to 11% of the general student population), and we know that dropping out of school is associated with poor life outcomes in regard to post-secondary education and employment.
Some students with disabilities may even be encouraged to leave school and pursue alternative routes such as the General Educational Development (GED) exam. Such students are known as “push outs.” Fortunately, the No Child Left Behind Act requires schools to show improved high school graduation rates, a requirement that will help to prevent such activity.
To fight this possibility, Donna Deyhle states it best in her article Listening to Lives: Lessons Learned from American Indian Youth, “A desire-centered research--reflecting wisdom, humor, and hope -- instead of damage, “desired-based frameworks are concerned with understanding complexity, contradiction, and the self-determination of lived lives and desire is about longing about a presence that is enriched by both the past and the future. It is integral to our humanness” (p. 2). Allowing for these reflections within a relevant curriculum is vital to increasing an individuals desire for success which, in turn, would increase graduation rates for students with learning disabilities.
Awarding of alternative high school diplomas or certificates
To compensate students with disabilities who fail high school graduation tests, many states are developing one or more alternative diplomas and certificates. These include nonstandard diplomas such as IEP diplomas, certificates of completion, certificates of attendance, and modified diplomas. There is little research on the value of such alternative diplomas and certificates. Many may not be accepted by colleges and universities. Meanwhile, the existence of such alternatives provides the opportunity for students with learning disabilities to be “tracked” into high school course work that will not provide the necessary credits for a standard diploma, nor provide the student access to the subject matter of graduation tests. Parents need to be well informed regarding the implications of any nonstandard diplomas and should be sure that they are involved in decisions regarding the high school diploma track of their student with LD.
Deyhle, D. Listening to Lives Lessons Learned from American Indian Youth.
http://www.ncset.org/publications/viewdesc.asp?id=425
