Why are there different rates of exclusions and accommodations for NAEP in each state?
Accommodation and exclusion rates on NAEP vary because of state-to-state differences in demography, school policies, and testing practices. For students designated by their schools as disabled, NAEP generally provides the same testing accommodations or non-standard administration procedures as state exams. Where NAEP does not allow a particular accommodation, such as having the reading exam read aloud to students or permitting calculators on all parts of the math exam, students may be excused from participation in NAEP. For students designated by their schools as English language learners, NAEP offers math and science exams in Spanish to students tested in that language by their states. For most other subjects, NAEP allows bilingual dictionaries in whatever language a student needs. However, students may be excluded from the assessment when NAEP does not offer an accommodation or translation, such as in reading, which NAEP tests in English only. Thus, differences in NAEP exclusion and
