Which Toolkits and Resources Does NCEO Offer?

Updated

NCEO (the National Center on Educational Outcomes) offers a set of practical toolkits, data resources, and reference collections for states, districts, schools, and families working on the inclusion of students with disabilities—including English learners with disabilities—in instruction and assessments. The resources below are the ones listed on NCEO's site; use the toolkit or data page that matches your task rather than browsing the whole site.

Toolkits for policy and classroom practice

NCEO's Quick Links group several toolkits by audience and problem:

Resource Best for What it addresses
1% Toolkit State and district assessment staff The 1% cap on participation in the alternate assessment based on alternate academic achievement standards (AA-AAAS)
Accommodations Toolkit IEP teams, test coordinators Selecting and applying assessment accommodations
ELs with Disabilities Toolkit Teams serving English learners with disabilities Assessment and instruction decisions for this group
Special Education Directors Toolkit Special education administrators Program-level assessment and inclusion decisions
Participation Communication Toolkit Agencies communicating with families and staff Messaging about statewide assessment participation
School Leader Series Principals and school leaders Leading assessment participation and inclusion work

If your question is about who takes the alternate assessment, start with the 1% Toolkit. If it is about a specific student's access needs, start with the Accommodations Toolkit.

Data and reporting resources

NCEO publishes data tools for comparing and tracking participation:

  • Assessment Snapshot Data — summary participation data across states.
  • Annual Performance Reports (APR) — state performance reporting tied to assessment participation.
  • Data Analytics — analysis-oriented views of the same participation data.

These are reference resources, not interactive student-level systems; expect to read and compare published figures rather than query individual records.

Research, bibliography, and training materials

For background reading and citations, NCEO maintains:

  • Searchable Research Summaries — short summaries you can search by topic.
  • AA-AAAS Bibliography and Accommodations Bibliography — citation lists for the alternate assessment and accommodations literature.
  • Videos — recorded presentations and explainers.

Recent publications worth knowing about

Two current briefs show how the resources connect to real decisions:

  • Resources Supporting Statewide Assessment Participation (in the "Participation Matters" series) links policymakers to NCEO tools for improving assessment policies so students with disabilities can show what they know.
  • More Than a Score: Asking about Assessment When Choosing a School for Your Student with a Disability explains why families should ask how a student's learning will be measured and reported, suggests questions to ask, and defines key assessment terms.

The June 2026 NCEO newsletter also points to conference sessions and a post-conference forum on process data, plus five recently published resources.

How to choose

  • You set state or district assessment policy: 1% Toolkit, Participation Communication Toolkit, APR data.
  • You make decisions for an individual student: Accommodations Toolkit, ELs with Disabilities Toolkit.
  • You lead a school: School Leader Series.
  • You need evidence or citations: Searchable Research Summaries and the two bibliographies.
  • You are a family choosing a school: start with More Than a Score and its list of questions.

The site does not state pricing or login requirements for these resources, so confirm access terms on each page before planning to rely on one.