ABSTRACT Title: EVALUATING SCHOOLS BASED ON THE PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES: A COMPARISON OF STATUS AND VALUE-ADDED APPROACHES

The purpose of this study was to describe, analyze, and compare the results of five commonly used approaches to measuring school-level performance for the subgroup of students with disabilities. Using the reading and mathematics scale scores of students in grades two, four, and six on the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS) and the California Achievement Tests (CAT/5) within a large school district in the mid-Atlantic, five approaches were applied to classify schools as high-performing or low-performing based on the subgroup students with disabilities. The approaches applied included three status approaches (cross-sectional, cross-sectional with confidence interval, and three-year rolling average) and two value-added approaches (unadjusted and adjusted for student demographics). The characteristics of schools classified as high-performing and low-performing based on the performance of students with disabilities using each of the approaches were explored. Each approach was also examined for its reliability, fairness, inclusiveness, and usefulness. Significant differences in the performance of students with disabilities based on socioeconomic status were observed across all grade levels, but no differences in gai