Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Accessing the General Education Curriculum: - Coggle Diagram
Accessing the General Education Curriculum:
A First Glance at the Data
First
Look for expected results.
Look for unexpected results.
Examine the errors made by significant numbers of students.
Second
Recognize that most states and districts report only two elements required by law.
Identify the number of students with disabilities who took standardized tests.
Examine performance scores of students with disabilities.
Third
Look for more in-depth information, such as:
The percentages of students with different categories of disabilities; and/or
The number of students receiving accommodations, by category of disability.
Compare Data
An important part of interpreting data is to determine the relative effectiveness of school improvement efforts by comparing scores.
A school attempting to raise math scores among its students with disabilities will find that there are several methods of comparing those scores at the basic level of performance.
A school principal may wish to gauge what percentage of students with disabilities at each grade level is performing to the corresponding benchmark.
A school principal may want to determine whether a newly adopted sixth-grade curriculum is effective.
A school principal may want to compare students who have exited from special education within the past school year to those students with disabilities who continue to receive special education services.
Understand Challenges When Comparing Data
Because state laws require states and districts to report the number of students tested but do not require them to report enrollment numbers, it is often impossible to determine whether all or some students with disabilities participated in the tests.
It is Common for States to:
Not clearly differentiate scores of students with disabilities
Not differentiate scores of students who take the test with accommodations versus students who take an alternate assessment
Aggregate—or include—the scores from tests taken with “nonapproved” accommodations with standard test scores
Not report scores of tests taken with nonstandard accommodations and not indicate that they are not reporting them
Caution must be used when interpreting data for groups
Make Improvements
School improvement plans should use performance data that have been disaggregated—that is, separated by group—to address the specific needs of students with disabilities.
Improvement plans should not include measures that negatively affect instruction for students, such as the narrowing of the curriculum, drill and practice exercises, or other short-term approaches to improving long-term student learning.
For students with disabilities, in particular, a narrowed scope of instruction has resulted in low expectations for learning.