1997 Report Process Used to Review State Policies

To update the NCEO files on state participation and accommodations policies, we first made a decision about the conditions under which we would call for more recent information. If we had a policy document with a date more recent than 1995, or if the state did not have a statewide assessment, we did not attempt to update our files. Forty states in all were contacted.

Upon completion of our analysis, all 50 states were provided with copies of summary tables for feedback (including previous information for states that we did not update). We accepted new documents through mid-March, 1997. In total, we updated 34 policies on participation and 32 policies on accommodations. A complete list of the policy documents is in the appendix.

In 1995, the text of all relevant state policies was included in the updates, with highlights presented prior to the actual policies. In this report, we have created tables that summarize the policies. In Table 1, we provide the definitions that we used when deciding whether a state's policy included language referring to a specific category in the tables.

Presenting policy information in tables makes the information easier to use, but sometimes obscures the complexity that underlies the policies. For example, the length and detail of the original source documents, which ranged from one sentence to 40 pages, is not apparent. Another difference is the specificity of the documents to the tests given. Some states, such as Georgia, provide accommodations guidelines, but do not make them specific to the different tests given in the state.

After summarizing in table format the documents received from states, we sent a summary table for states to approve. States could indicate that there were no changes needed, ask for more information in order to decide whether the tables were accurate, or change the tables. If states indicated the need for a change after reviewing the summary table, we requested documentation before making changes.

The information collected is summarized in two sets of tables in this report-one set for participation policies and a second for accommodation policies. Reporting policies, which were addressed previously by Thurlow et al. (1995b) are not included here. Instead a separate analysis of state accountability reports has been conducted by NCEO (Thurlow, Langenfeld, Nelson, Shin, & Coleman, 1997).