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Title I assessment
Beginning with the 2005-06 school year, states receiving Title I funds were required to assess reading/language arts and mathematics every year from 3rd through 8th grade, as well as one year in the 10th-12th grade span. States may obtain a one-year extension in implementing this provision. If Congress fails to appropriate sufficient funds to assist states in assessment development, states may obtain additional extensions beyond the one year. Beginning with the 2007-08 school year, states must administer a science assessment annually in at least one grade in each of the following grade spans: 3-5, 6-9, and 10-12. Texas already meets the reading/language arts, mathematics and science requirements, with the addition of a science test for grade 8.
Since the 2002-03 school year, every state has been required to participate in the 4th and 8th grade reading and mathematics sections of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to obtain a national comparison of the rigor of state assessments, provided that the federal government pays the cost of participation. Unlike state assessments, the NAEP is only given to a random sample of students. Texas participated in the NAEP well before the 2002-03 school year.
State accountability requirements
Each state must define what constitutes adequate yearly progress (AYP) in increasing student achievement toward the goal of all students reaching proficient levels on the state assessments by 2014. The law sets out increasingly harsher penalties for failure to meet AYP in subsequent years.
Limited English Proficient (LEP) students
A school is allowed to not count the performance of recently arrived LEP students (enrolled in U.S. schools for less than 10 months) in reading and math in the school’s performance rating the first year they are enrolled in a U.S. school, though they can be included in the district’s participation rate. Another change allows schools to count students as LEP students for purposes of AYP for as long as two years after they have left the LEP program.
Special education students
Federal provisions allow scores on a state assessment using an alternative performance standard to be counted as proficient for AYP for 1 percent of students who are significantly cognitively disabled and an additional 2 percent of students who are not severely disabled but have not been able to reach grade level because of disabilities.
