Assessment of students with disabilities in Kentucky: Inclusion, student performance, and validity

Students with disabilities are increasingly being included in large-scale, high-stakes testing programs, despite a lack of evidence regarding the vali dity of scores from many tests for these students. This study examines Kent ucky's efforts to include students with disabilities in its statewide asses sment. We explore the level of inclusion achieved, the kinds of assessment accommodations offered, the performance of students with disabilities, and the relationships between performance and the Nse of accommodations on both multiple-choice and open-response formats. Results indicate that most stud ents were included in the assessment, bur that the scores obtained by some students may not be trustworthy due to inappropriate use of accommodations. We discuss the implications of these results for research and policy.