U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today announced $7.5 million in grants to four states and Washington, D.C. to study ways to enhance the assessment of student achievement, beyond what is required under No Child Left Behind.

The Enhanced Assessment Instruments Grants program, which has awarded nearly $50 million since No Child Left Behind was enacted, supports the development of new assessment products or procedures, such as an innovative test format, and is especially aimed at upgrading evaluations of students with disabilities and those with limited-English proficiency.

"I am proud to announce that my department is awarding grants to help develop more innovative and effective tests for students with disabilities and those with limited English skills," said U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings. "These funds will unite educators and researchers to develop better ways to measure progress beyond the requirements of No Child Left Behind. Because the law's requirement of grade-level learning is the least we should expect of our schools."

The grantees are:

• New Hampshire, $1.7 million
• Minnesota, $1.5 million
• Utah, $1.4 million
• Nevada, $1.7 million, and
• Washington, D.C., $1.2 million

States use the grants to collaborate with higher education institutions, research facilities and other organizations to improve the quality, validity and reliability of state academic assessments. For instance, Utah will partner with Idaho, Florida and SRI International on a project for producing a set of guidelines for designing alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards for students with disabilities. Their aim is to increase the reliability and quality of the assessments used for special needs students.

For more information on the Enhanced Assessment Instruments grants, visit http://www.ed.gov/programs/eag/index.html.

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