Textual Silences in Alternate Assessment Resources for Parents

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: Family and Community Social Capital

Abstract

The creation of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 1997) and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA, 2002) established the first federal requirement for each state to develop alternate assessments for students who cannot participate in regular assessments even with accommodations. However, no research has yet addressed how alternate assessment is explained to the parents, and whether parents are informed of their rights to participation in the alternate assessment process in compliance with the federal regulations. In this study, website documents and texts from all state Departments of Education (DOEs) were collected and analyzed to reveal huge textual silence on the parents’ right to participate in this assessment process.

Author

• Sunghee Choi, University of California - Santa Barbara