At the AFT Convention, delegates passed a new resolution on NCLB, developed by NYSUT, that covers many of the same concerns raised in the AFT NCLB Task Force Recommendations.  Among the recommendations is one concerning the assessment of students with disabilities--it asks that the AFT to:

urge the [U.S.] Department of Education to develop and establish procedures to implement federal policy concerning the use of an alternate assessment based on modified academic achievement standards for students with disabilities and eliminate arbitrary limitations on the percent of students who would be allowed to be included in a state's accountability system for purposes of calculating adequate yearly progress

States and districts continue to struggle with how to include all students with disabilities in state assessment systems, particularly the "gap kids"--those students who, even with the best instruction, are not able to demonstrate grade-level proficiency.   The December 2005 draft regulations did a poor job of providing guidance in this area, and word on the edustreet is that the department got a plethora of comments--including some from the AFT and NYSUT--on this section of the regulations.

ED has tried to provide additional informal guidance through this IEP decision framework and this paper included in the toolkit on assessing students with disabilities, but these efforts come up short.  Right now, speculation is that the final regs will be released at the end of August.  Just in time to make sure they are implemented in the coming school year, right?  Not.