Should special education students participate in standardized testing?

I was just speaking with a teacher today about this issue. I am a first year Special Education teacher and my dilema is the same as many of you who have previously commented: Hypothetically, let's say I have a 6th grade student who is almost a non-reader, but throughout the year makes gains and, close to the end of the year, is on a 2nd grade reading level. In my view, the student has made successful gains, but it seems neither fair nor ACCURATE to require that he/she is assessed on a state standardized test at a 6th grade level. How can this be a true measure of student learning? If education for this student is individualized, shouldn't testing to measure learning be individualized as well? Again, I am a first year teacher, and I have soooo much to learn. I am looking for insight into this issue and am still feeling my way around. I absolutely love my job and couldn't imagine doing anything else from now on!

Special ed teachers are accountable. It is called and IEP with goals that are to be monitored and met.

Special ed students are held accountable. It is called an IEP. It is to be monitored progress proven and goals met. I believe that when we require a special ed student with a reading disabilty to READ a reading test their civil rights are being denied.

Seems to me that we have consensus about testing.
This will be the second year our kids are taking the California Modified Assessment (CMA). But I still have concerns about testing - especially if the Powers That Be link teacher evaluations (and pay) to performance on these tests. Will modified tests be "graded down"? It's going to be a real battle. I've had students make significant improvements over a year, only to test as FBB yet again.

I just got my NEA Today magazine in the mail, and there is a picture of a poor little boy trying to take the state test on p. 13, with commentary on why state testing doesn't make sense for a lot of our students. It's enough to make me get choked up and hoppin' mad at the same time. As teachers, I think we all really hate having to give this test to the ELL and Sped students who just aren't prepared to take it. I think that is one thing that is really infuriating about NCLB, but for the time being, that is what we do as public school teachers. We have only a handful of students who "qualify" to take the state alternate assessment, and they are those with severe needs who do not read, write, or speak. One change I would like to see in the "new and improved" NCLB (whatever that means) is some kind of portfolio assessment or other measure for students who have unique needs and just don't "fit" the standardized testing model. (Hopefully when we get through with Healthcare, we'll be able to focus on Education.) I think their English proficiency scores and IEPs should be used to prove they qualify for this kind of alternate testing. I think a school should not be penalized for having a high population of second-language students and other students with special needs, and that these tests should not count as "non-participating" students for the schools AYP score, etc. It just doesn't make sense, but hey, as public school teachers we all have to accept some level of hypocrisy, and/or make an effort to help get the politics of education to change for the kids we serve.

Our student take the standardized test with help....

I think all student should be tested on their reading level.

Here's a novel idea --
Why can't all students be assessed on Academic Growth? Surely some agency can come up with a Standardized way to measure Growth...

Should students with disabilities be required to take the same standardized tests as their non-disabled peers? No. Should they be given the opportunity to take the same tests? Of course. Way back when, I had to fight to have one of my students take the state exams at the high school level, so that he could earn a regular diploma. (He did take them, pass,graduate and get a decent job). Is it appropriate for all students. No. How ridiculous is it that a student with a 65 IQ is forced to take the same exam as the class valedictorian?

Why should I give a kid who cant read a test on their grade level? I teach CDC and we never teach the general curriculum but we still have to give a state assessment test to kids who cant even understand the curriculum. And of course our kids are not proficent. I teach my kids how to bubble B when they dont know an answer. Law makers have no idea what they are forcing us to do by testing these kids. I think before a law maker can make these laws they should be required to spend a day in our class. It is wrong to force these kids to frustration when we should be teaching life skills. I have wrote senators but no one listens.