National Assessment of Educational Progress Exclusion Rates for Students with Disabilities

In July 2005, we issued a report entitled No Child Left Behind Act: Most Students with Disabilities Participated in Statewide Assessments, but Inclusion Options Could Be Improved (GAO-05-618) in response to a Congressional request for information about inclusion of students with disabilities in the statewide assessments. We found that most states were including these students in the assessments. In addition, we reviewed the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) data to determine the extent to which students with disabilities were included in this assessment. Also called "The Nation's Report Card," the NAEP has been used to track trends in student achievement over time or to compare student performance in a particular state with the national average. With the assistance of Department of Education (Education) officials, we interpreted that in 2002 five percent of students with disabilities were excluded from the NAEP reading assessment.