Chapter 6: The Role of State Assessment in District-Wide Reform: Improving Results for All Students

In this chapter, we report findings from a study of school districts that are positive outliers because of their success in promoting inclusive education and, as a consequence, improved achievement for students with disabilities and students from other marginalized groups. The study, fittingly called Moving Your Numbers (MYN), investigated district-wide strategies that led to significant improvements in performance outcomes. These strategies notably implicated attentiveness to data from accountability testing in generating improvement. Attention to these data, moreover, contributed to a sense of moral outrage—outrage that prompted district leaders to make decisions and take actions that initiated (and ultimately sustained) meaningful reform.