How Can We Build Assessment Systems That Work for Students With Disabilities? 

November 24, 2025

Despite 25 years of advocacy and effort, students with disabilities continue to face significant gaps in learning outcomes compared to their peers; but assessment systems designed with intention can help change that trajectory. 

WestEd’s recent Leading Together webinar explored how school and district leaders can create assessment systems that support all students, with a particular focus on closing opportunity and outcome gaps for students with disabilities. 

Led by Jessica Arnold, senior project director for the Assessment for Learning team at WestEd, and Elizabeth Zagata, program manager for the Special Education Policy and Practice team at WestEd, the session provided four key strategies that leaders can use to build more clear and effective assessment systems in their schools and districts

Persistent Gaps in Learning Outcomes for Students With Disabilities 

When one examines the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation’s Report Card, concerning gaps emerge. In 2022, the scores on the NAEP of students with disabilities lagged 28 to 40 points behind the scores of their peers. 

Students with disabilities often have very different school experiences than their peers. While about 67 percent of students with disabilities spend much of their day in regular classrooms, 13 percent spend less than half their time there, missing out on grade-level learning and time with their classmates. 

Discipline patterns are also concerning because while students with disabilities make up about 16 percent of all students, they face disciplinary actions more often than their peers do. They account for about 25 percent of in-school suspensions, 28 percent of out-of-school suspensions, and 25 percent of expulsions. This creates a troublesome cycle in which students spend less time in regular classrooms and more time being disciplined, resulting in fewer chances to learn and show what they know. 

Understanding Assessment as a Lever for Change 

Assessment includes a broad range of tools, like interim assessments or diagnostic tools, as well as processes like asking purposeful questions as part of ongoing classroom practices. Assessment systems are clear and effective when they’re intentionally aligned with a shared vision for teaching and learning, when they yield accurate data about student learning, and when the results are consistently used to guide important instructional and programmatic decisions. A clear and effective assessment system is a matter of intentional design—it doesn’t just happen accidentally. 

However, assessment is not always an effective tool for teaching and learning, particularly when it comes to gathering evidence of learning from students with disabilities. Assessments can be poorly designed instruments that don’t provide reliable information about learning. They may be used in unintended ways or with student populations they aren’t appropriate for. Assessment tools and practices don’t always offer the features that students with disabilities need to accurately show what they know and can do. 

More than representing just a missed opportunity, poor assessment practices can harm students by increasing anxiety, resulting in lost learning time due to overtesting and fostering damaging messages about students’ learning and identities. 

Four Recommendations for Building Accessible Assessment Systems

These recommendations reflect shared thinking from WestEd colleagues with deep expertise in assessment, special education, school leadership, instruction, and improvement practices. They were developed through focus groups with 13 staff members and synthesized through careful analysis.

1. Foster a Culture of High Expectations and Inclusion

• Recognize that students with disabilities are general education students first
• Ensure meaningful participation, not just physical placement, in grade-level content 
• Align assessment tools with both general education curricula and individualized education plans 
• Shift from focusing on what students can’t do to celebrating what they can do 
• Avoid one-size-fits-all approaches because every student with a disability is different 

2. Create Collaborative Systems

• Include special education expertise in all assessment decisions, not just special education meetings
• Create data teams where special education and general education teachers work together
• Consider accessibility and appropriateness from initial planning stages
• Ensure that assessment data are shared and discussed together rather than separately 

3. Address Assessment Systematically

• Evaluate all assessment tools that students experience across the school year
• Pay specific attention to the experiences of students with disabilities
• Review how evidence of learning is used to inform decision-making
• Invest in educator assessment literacy for both general and special educators
• Focus on continuous improvement rather than one-time fixes

4. Create Conditions That Support Effective Data Use

• Implement routines, norms, and expectations that support inclusive data use
• Ensure that data teams consistently include and empower special education educators
• Provide support to develop data literacy skills relevant to each role
• Make decisions based on multiple data sources, including assessment data, opportunity to learn data, and student and family voice

Ready to Strengthen Your Assessment Systems to Support All Learners? 

Learn more about the WestEd Comprehensive Assessment Solutions team’s work on improving instruction while also developing new practices and cultural norms that help students gain the skills and determination to monitor and advance their own learning toward better outcomes. 

Watch the full webinar and view other webinars in the Leading Together series.