ABSTRACT
Education reform in this country is dominated by standards-based reform, which seeks to use assessment to upgrade student learning. Within general and special education alike, the history and phenomenon run similar paths. Historically, accountability has focused on documenting the processes or inputs to education; today, by contrast, the press is to demonstrate that students are learning large amounts of challenging content. In special education, for example, accountability used to require that Individual Education Programs (IEPs) were complete and internally consistent descriptions of the services students receive; now schools are expected to demonstrate that students with disabilities are mastering important goals so they will succeed after school. This press on accountability for student outcomes has created many technical and conceptual challenges for special as well as general systems (for discussion of a broader set of issues, see Fuchs & Fuchs, 2000; McDonnell, McLaughlin, & Morison, 1997). In this chapter, we limit our discussion to two related questions: How can we ensure the participation of students with LD within general education’s standards-based reform accountability programs? and Is participation in general education’s system adequate to accomplish better outcomes for students with LD?
