nceo.info

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:

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.

NCEO's latest news and publications are collected in the "Latest News and Publications" section of its homepage at nceo.info. That section is the fastest way to see what the National Center on Educational Outcomes has just released: recent briefs, newsletter issues, and highlighted resources. Use it when you want current material on including students with disabilities—including English learners with disabilities—in instruction and assessments; use the site's Quick Links when you already know which toolkit or data resource you need.

What the Latest News and Publications Section Shows

The section is a running feed of new work rather than a full archive. Recent entries described on the site include:

• "Resources Supporting Statewide Assessment Participation" — a brief in the "Participation Matters" series that connects policymakers with NCEO resources for ensuring students with disabilities fully participate in statewide assessments. It is aimed at state and local agencies improving assessment policies.
• "More Than a Score: Asking about Assessment When Choosing a School for Your Student with a Disability" — a family-facing brief on why to ask about assessment during school choice, with suggested questions about how a student's learning will be measured and reported, definitions of key assessment terms, and links to more information.
• The NCEO June 2026 Newsletter — covers NCEO's June NCSA conference sessions and a post-conference assessment forum on process data, and highlights five recently published NCEO publications and resources.

Two things follow from this. First, the feed mixes audiences—policymakers, state and local agencies, and families—so check the brief's framing before forwarding it. Second, newsletter issues are themselves publication announcements, which makes them a good periodic catch-up if you don't want to monitor the page.

Quick Links: When You Need a Specific Resource

If your question is "where is the tool for X" rather than "what's new," the Quick Links list on the homepage points directly to NCEO's standing resources:

The site describes NCEO's scope as accessibility across the comprehensive assessment system—formative, classroom-based, diagnostic, interim, and summative assessments—so expect new items to land anywhere in that range rather than only on large-scale testing.

A Practical Way to Keep Up

1. Check the homepage feed first. Open nceo.info and read the Latest News and Publications entries; each names the publication and its purpose in a sentence or two.
2. Open the newsletter for the roundup. A newsletter issue bundles conference sessions, a featured topic (such as process data), and a list of newly published resources—useful if you've been away for a month.
3. Follow the link from the brief to the underlying resource. Briefs in series like "Participation Matters" are entry points; the linked NCEO tools are where the operational detail sits.
4. Fall back to Quick Links once you know the resource category you need.

A common snag: the feed highlights only recent items, so an older toolkit won't appear there even though it's still live. Go through Quick Links or the searchable research summaries instead of scrolling for it. Also note that the site does not state pricing or access terms for its publications on the pages described here—if you need to confirm reuse permissions or availability, check the individual publication page rather than assuming.

States can improve participation by treating it as a policy and communication problem, not just a compliance count. NCEO's "Participation Matters" brief series connects policymakers with practical resources for reviewing assessment policies, so that students with disabilities—including those who are also English learners—have the opportunity to show what they know. The approach suits state and local agencies that want to move from tracking participation rates to changing the conditions that shape them.

Start with the policy review the brief supports

The "Participation Matters" brief is aimed at state and local agencies and is framed around improving assessment policies. Use it as a discussion document with the people who own the relevant decisions: assessment directors, special education leads, and staff who handle accommodations and accessibility. The expected result is a shared list of policy barriers—unclear participation criteria, inconsistent accommodation practices, or communication gaps with families—rather than a single participation target.

Use NCEO's toolkits to address specific barriers

NCEO's Quick Links page lists resources that map onto common participation problems. Match the tool to the barrier you identified:

These are starting points for review, not prescriptions; the right combination depends on which barrier your state or district has documented.

Make the family and school-choice connection explicit

Participation also depends on families understanding what assessments measure. NCEO's brief "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. Agencies can use it in family engagement materials so that school-choice decisions do not inadvertently separate students from the assessments that document their progress.

Verify progress with participation data

After policy changes, check whether participation patterns actually shift. NCEO's Annual Performance Reports (APR) and Assessment Snapshot Data provide the reporting context; compare participation before and after your changes, and look specifically at students with disabilities who are also English learners, a group NCEO names within its scope. If rates do not move, revisit the barrier list—communication problems and accommodation confusion often persist after formal policy is updated.

Common sticking points

• Treating the 1% alternate assessment cap as a target rather than a ceiling can distort placement decisions; the 1% Toolkit addresses this directly.
• Accommodation policies that exist on paper but are inconsistently applied in classrooms usually require training, not new documents.
• Family-facing materials that omit assessment information leave school-choice decisions uninformed; the "More Than a Score" brief is designed to fill that gap.

For background on the organization behind these resources, see NCEO's About page and the overview of what NCEO is.

NCEO is the National Center on Educational Outcomes, a center focused on including students with disabilities—including students who are also English learners—in instruction and assessments. It is a research and resource organization, not a school, test provider, or enrollment service: its site offers briefs, newsletters, toolkits, data, and research summaries that states, districts, educators, and families can use to improve assessment policy and participation.

What NCEO works on

NCEO's stated scope covers accessibility across a comprehensive assessment system. That means its work is not limited to year-end state tests; it spans:

• Formative assessment practices
• Classroom-based assessments
• Diagnostic assessments
• Interim assessments
• Summative assessments

The common thread is making sure students with disabilities can participate meaningfully and show what they know, rather than being excluded from how learning is measured.

What you can find on nceo.info

The site organizes its material into publications and quick links. Current examples from the homepage include:

Who it is for and how to use it

NCEO's audience is broad: state and local education agencies, policymakers, school leaders, special education directors, educators, and families. The right entry point depends on your task:

• If you set or interpret state assessment policy, start with the participation briefs and APR/snapshot data.
• If you are a school leader or special education director, the role-specific toolkits and accommodations resources are the most direct fit.
• If you are a parent choosing a school, the "More Than a Score" brief gives you questions to ask about how your child's learning will be measured and reported.
• If you need research, use the searchable research summaries and the two bibliographies.

What NCEO is not

NCEO does not administer tests, enroll students, or sell assessment products based on the site's description. It produces research, publications, and toolkits. If you need to register for a state assessment or request a testing accommodation for a specific student, those actions go through your state or district assessment office; NCEO's material is best used to understand the policy and ask better questions of those offices.

Ask how your child's learning will be measured, how those results will be reported to you, and how the school uses assessment data to adjust instruction—not just what test scores the school advertises. NCEO's brief More Than a Score: Asking about Assessment When Choosing a School for Your Student with a Disability makes the case that assessment questions belong in every school-choice conversation for families of students with disabilities, and it supplies both sample questions and plain-language definitions of key terms.

Why assessment belongs in the school-choice conversation

A school's overall proficiency averages say little about whether your child will be included in instruction and assessment. For students with disabilities—including those who are also English learners—the more useful questions are about participation, accessibility, and reporting:

• Participation: Will your child take the same statewide assessments as peers, with accommodations or an alternate assessment as appropriate?
• Accessibility: Are formative, classroom-based, diagnostic, interim, and summative assessments designed so your child can show what they know?
• Reporting: Will you receive results that are meaningful and explained, rather than a single number without context?

NCEO's work centers on the inclusion of students with disabilities in instruction and assessment across the full assessment system, which is why its family brief frames assessment as a school-choice issue rather than a compliance detail.

Questions to ask during a school visit or enrollment meeting

Use these as a starting list and adapt them to your child. Ask for concrete examples, not general assurances.

About how learning is measured

• Which assessments will my child take during the year—classroom, diagnostic, interim, and statewide—and what is each one for?
• How will the school decide whether my child takes the general statewide assessment, the general assessment with accommodations, or an alternate assessment?
• What accommodations are available, and who decides which ones my child receives?
• How does the school monitor progress between formal test windows?

About how results are reported

• How and when will I receive my child's results, and who will explain them to me?
• Will reports show my child's progress and instructional needs, or only a proficiency level?
• How are results for students with disabilities reported separately, and what do those numbers include?

About how results are used

• What happens instructionally after an assessment shows my child is struggling?
• How are families included in meetings where assessment results are discussed?

Key terms to know before the meeting

The NCEO brief defines assessment-related terms and links to further information so families can follow the conversation. The distinctions that matter most in a school-choice discussion:

Where to find more

NCEO publishes family-facing and practitioner resources on participation and accessibility, including its Participation Matters series, which connects policymakers and agencies with tools to improve assessment policies so all students can show what they know. The 1% Toolkit and Accommodations Toolkit address participation and accommodation decisions, and NCEO's searchable research summaries and bibliographies cover accommodations and alternate assessments. Start with the More Than a Score brief for the family question list, then use the toolkits when you need detail on a specific decision.