Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA): Core Principles for Reauthorization - Page 3

Principle 3: Increase Access to Early Interventions & Effective Instructional Practices

Opportunities to improve early literacy instruction and critical interventions must be expanded and infused into ESEA. We know that identifying struggling learners as early as pre-school has a direct impact on future opportunities (e.g. enhanced academic attainment; college progression; improved health; higher wages).³ Because most students identified with learning disabilities have their primary deficit in the area of reading, including a strong literacy component as part of ESEA and supporting professional development for teachers (e.g., the LEARN Act as recently introduced in the House and Senate) will help ensure training and funding for statewide literacy planning and instruction.

School improvement and reform provisions must require the adoption and valid use of proven school-wide educational strategies. By including a ‘multi-tier system of supports’ (MTSS) — which allows for programs such as Response to Intervention, Positive Behavior Support and other research-based instruction and intervention systems — we can prevent academic failure, increase academic achievement and reduce the number of students mistakenly identified as needing special education.

The ESEA must also broadly incorporate Universal Design for Learning⁴ — as recently included in the Higher Education Opportunity Act—to ensure that all students who struggle have better access to grade-level instruction, materials, appropriate assistive technologies, and appropriate teaching methods and assessments. UDL is a scientifically valid framework for guiding educational practice that provides flexibility in the way information is presented, in the way students respond or demonstrate their knowledge and skills, and in the ways students are engaged. A curriculum consistent with UDL principles reduces barriers in instruction and provides all learners with appropriate support and scaffolds while also maintaining high expectations and challenge. Students who are often marginalized in the general curriculum — including those with disabilities, English language learners, and students who are “gifted and talented” — benefit especially from UDL.

Essential Resources

Since the passage of the ESEA/NCLB, NCLD has spearheaded activities in support of key provisions. We have published several reports designed to educate and inform policy makers, parents and other stakeholders about the positive and meaningful impact the law is having for students with learning disabilities (LD). These reports, Rewards and Roadblocks: How Students with Disabilities Are Faring Under NCLB, its companion study on state test accommodations policies provides an overview of the variance and validity of these policies and Challenging Change: How Schools and Districts are Improving the Performance of Special Education Students which includes case studies in states, districts and schools in MA, FL, OH, TX and CA, represent the most ambitious and comprehensive look at how NCLB has impacted students with disabilities. As such, they provide a critical context to any truly informed efforts to revise and improve the current ESEA.

There is widespread agreement that students with disabilities — currently representing 13.5% of public school enrollment — have benefited substantially from the standards-based accountability system put in place by NCLB. While IDEA 2004 reinforced expectations that students with disabilities must have access to the general curriculum and must be included in all statewide assessments, not until NCLB did this begin to become a reality. Since academic improvement must begin with an understanding of a student’s current performance in relationship to educational standards, the inclusion of students with disabilities in state assessments was a critical first step toward improvement student achievement; however, meaningful participation and genuine opportunity to learn flow from a variety of factors. While many challenges remain, the positive impact of NCLB on students with disabilities is undeniable.

In its 2007 survey of states, the National Center on Educational Outcomes reported that more than half of the states attributed positive trends in the participation and performance of students with disabilities in assessment and accountability systems to the following factors:

• Use of student assessment data to inform decision-making
• Emphasis on inclusion and access to the curriculum
• Increased access to standards-based instruction on the grade-level content
• Improved alignment of Individualized Education Programs with grade-level standards
• Increased inclusion of students with disabilities in general education classrooms
• Increased use of research-based “best practices”
• Improved alignment of professional development

Some would suggest that special education designation — in and of itself — precludes a student from achieving proficiency on state standards. Some recommendations have advocated a complete abandonment of accountability for students receiving special education services. Yet, an examination of the data showed that the scores of students with special education status distributed across the performance range (see chart below).


NCLD’s report, Challenging Change: How Schools and Districts are Improving the Performance of Special Education Students, looked deeply inside two schools and three districts to examine a variety of approaches being used to improve the learning and performance of students with disabilities. These schools and districts were prompted to try these approaches primarily because of the poor performance of students with disabilities on NCLB state assessments. The examination identified five approaches common to all schools and districted studied. They were:

• Raising expectations for students with disabilities
• Collaboration between general and special education
• Inclusive practices
• Data based decision making
• Consumer satisfaction

NCLD’s Core Principles are guided by these positive trends and study findings. We strive to work with the Administration, Congress, education stakeholders and parents to improve the results for young people who should have every opportunity to achieve their academic and working potential.

Download your FREE copy of NCLD's Core Principles for the Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).

Download your FREE copy of NCLD's in depth version of Core Principles for the Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) (Provided to the U.S. Senate, May, 2010).

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1. Ketterlin-Geller, L.R. (2008). Testing students with special needs: A model for understanding the interaction between assessment and student characteristics in a universally designed environment. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 27(3), 3-16.
2. Lazarus, S., Wu, Y.-C., Altman, J., Thurlow, M. (2010). NCEO brief: The characteristics of low-performing students on large-scale assessments, Minneapolis, MN, University of Minnesota, National Center on Educational Outcomes.
3. Belfield et al., 2004; Karoly and Bigelow, 2005; Reynolds et al., 2002
4. The description of universal design for learning is drawn from the statutory definition in the Higher Education Opportunity Act (P.L. 110-135). For more information , see Rose, D. H., & Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for learning. Alexandria, VA: ASCD