Plan Takes Shape For Special-Ed Tests

New Rules to Aid 'No Child' Goals
By Nick AndersonWashington Post Staff WriterThursday, December 15, 2005; Page B04

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings outlined new testing rules for disabled students yesterday....In a speech at Guilford Elementary in Columbia, which she cited as a model for special education, Spellings fleshed out a plan she first proposed last spring. The plan builds on existing rules that allow alternative testing for the most severely disabled students, a change that raised the scores of up to 1 percent of all students tested in a public school system or state.

Now, the Bush administration will allow modified tests for another group of special-ed students who have significant learning disabilities, emotional disorders or other impairments. That's likely to drive up scores for an additional 2 percent of students tested, state and federal officials said.