State Accountability Systems

Education of students with significant cognitive disabilities (SCD) for many years focused on functional and life skills rather than the academic content their peers received. They were often excluded from statewide assessment systems, a key accountability metric states used to ensure all students receive a quality education.  

In the last two decades, reauthorizations of key federal K-12 education legislation have led to dramatically different educational experiences and expectations for this population, with shifting academic expectations more aligned to their peers, and students with SCD take state-required alternate assessments in academic content, based on alternate academic achievement standards and alternate English language proficiency assessments.  

Although students with SCD are now assessed using alternate assessments, growth measures are often not applied to the test scores of students in this population. A new handbook from the Council of Chief State School Officers outlines key questions and approaches to describing academic growth for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities and incorporating those growth measures into accountability indicators. This handbook aims to help states make decisions about how to define and measure growth for students with SCD and how to incorporate growth measures into indicators used in accountability formulas.