Position Paper of the Learning Disabilities
Association of America
Approved February 16, 2002 by the LDA Board of
Directors
LDA recognizes the important role that state-wide assessment of
learning outcomes have in raising academic standards for students
and documenting educational accountability for the public. For students
with learning disabilities, however, such assessments present both
needed opportunities and new barriers. It is imperative, therefore,
that the needs and rights of students with learning disabilities
are protected whenever state-wide assessments are implemented.
LDA recognizes that each state develops, implements, and modifies
its own state-wide assessment system and process. The specific details
and the practical implications for students with learning disabilities
vary widely from state-to-state. As a result, families and professionals
must become knowledgeable and up-to-date about state-wide assessment
in their own state, if they are to provide vital guidance and support
to students with learning disabilities.
LDA urgently reminds states and districts that they hold the key
to ensuring that students with learning disabilities receive fair
treatment and achieve higher academic outcomes. When states design
or modify accountability processes and schools provide individualized
educational services, the following crucial expectations must be
met:
Opportunity and access to the general curriculum.
Students with learning disabilities must have access to the academic
content to be tested on state-wide assessments. Schools must ensure
access to classes and courses that provide the opportunity to learn
that content. Their teachers must possess knowledge in general curriculum
areas such as science, social studies, and the humanities and the
instructional skills to transmit that knowledge. Providing the needed
individualized combination of general education, collaborative,
remedial, and intensive teaching will often be required in order
for some students with learning disabilities to demonstrate their
actual ability to master needed academic content.
The lifespan impact of high-stakes testing.
For students with learning disabilities, the results of high-stakes
testing should never be used as the sole criterion for decisions
such as promotion, graduation, diploma type, and scholarship eligibilityæmany
of which will, in turn, also determine available post-secondary
schooling and
employment opportunities. Because achievement in students with learning
disabilities is typically uneven across academic subjects and/or
types of tasks, determining school success must be expanded to consider
such factors as class grades, club/service participation, and patterns
of high-stakes testing performance. Similarly, such factors should
be considered in apprenticeship, union, post secondary, and professional
entrance and exit decisions.
The rights of students with learning disabilities.
The rights of students with learning disabilities must be protected
so that high stakes testing criteria are not used to deny appropriate
educational services under IDEA or educational opportunities and
benefits under Section 504. Students with learning disabilities
must be provided with equal opportunity to participate in and benefit
from programs that include high-stakes testing criteria. In addition,
clear and fair due process procedures must be available to students
and families concerning available accommodations, test participation,
flagging, alternate assessment, and related issues.
Appropriate and available accommodations.
Each student with learning disabilities must be provided with the
appropriate accommodations through the IEP or Section 504 processes.
These accommodations should be available, as needed, throughout
the students school and post secondary educational experiences,
and thus also be provided on standardized or alternate assessments.
The accommodations used during testing activities should be based
on:
- advance planning by school and family,
- inclusion of the accommodations in the applicable IEP/504 provisions,
- a reasonable match between accommodations used in classroom
activities and in subsequent types of test items,
- selection from research-supported and empirically accepted
accommodations, and
- a clear appeal process.
The focus should be on achieving a balance between assessment and
accommodations, so that each individual student with learning disabilities.
The goal should be to enable students with learning disabilities
to demonstrate the intelligence, ability, knowledge, and skill that
he or she possesses.
Test characteristics.
Among the states, there is a wide variation in the tests used.
Some are locally developed, while others commercially prepared.
There is variation in the content areas covered; in the use of objective
or open-ended items, and in the emphasis on factual knowledge or
problem-solving processes. Although specific items would not be
available, information about the content areas and type of items
on tests in a given state must be made available so that families,
professionals, and students can facilitate preparation prior to
the tests.
Because cutoff scores are statistically established and applied
to all students, it is especially important that the norms be based
on a population including both students who are non-
disabled and learning disabled. For the same reason, regardless
of the type of test used for state-wide assessment, it should possess
high levels of validity and reliability that are established through
widely accepted methodologies.
Phasing in of requirements.
For most students, state-wide, high stakes tests provide a series
of checkpoints as knowledge and skills build throughout their years
of schooling. Many students with learning disabilities, however,
have only recently been given access to the general curriculum and
begun participating in state-wide tests. These students cannot be
expected to achieve results that accurately reflect their ability.
Clearly established and publicized guidelines should provide an
appropriate transition period for this gradually diminishing group
of students.
The uses and reporting of test results.
The results of state-wide tests can be used for many purposesæsome
constructive and some destructive. For individual students with
learning disabilities, test scores can identify content and skills
that are mastered, as well as suggest areas for remedial or more
intensive instruction. However, patterns of academic skill development
are typically uneven in these students and doubts remain about the
science of testing. Therefore, it is unwise and unacceptable to
rely on test scores, especially composite scores, as the sole criterion
for moving students with learning disabilities through the educational
system.
At district and state levels, test results can constructively guide
areas where in-service training of teachers or allocation of additional
materials and support is needed. In the same way, compilations of
both aggregated and disaggregated data across districts and states
should be used to provide insight into the success of students with
learning disabilities in achieving higher academic success.
Needed research.
Implementation of accountability and high-stakes testing has brought
many new components to the education of students with disabilities,
including learning disabilities. Research should carefully investigate
both the short and long-term impact and effects of access to the
general curriculum, the use of accommodations, the administration
of state-wide assessments, the provision for alternate assessments,
and the use of test performance criteria for educational advancement.
LDA fully supports educational accountability that seeks to improve
the skills, competence, and attitudes of Americas students and
workforce, as well as increase competitiveness within the world
market. However, these efforts must always be balanced by the need
to nurture the unique abilities and talents of each individual with
learning disabilities. LDA is committed to ensuring that such a
balance is achieved and maintained. |
