The head of the board that oversees the National Assessment of Educational Progress - arguably the most important standardized test in the country - has responded to concerns raised by Florida Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson about the big percentages of struggling students that some states exclude from taking it.

There is a problem and we're working to address it, David Driscoll, chair of the National Assessment Governing Board, essentially wrote in a letter to Robinson this week. The state-to-state differences in "inclusion rates" for students with disabilities and English language learners "are still much too large," Driscoll wrote. "The concerns you raise are indeed serious ones that the Governing Board has been trying to respond to for some time," he also wrote.

The Gradebook reported Robinson's concerns last month, which he aired after the latest Education Week rankings showed Florida falling in  part because of stalling NAEP scores.

Both Robinson and Board of Education chair Kathleen Shanahan raised questions about state-to-state comparisons with NAEP, given that some states - like Florida - have high inclusion rates for SD and ELL kids and other states - like Maryland, Ed Week's No. 1 - do not.

Driscoll said policy changes designed to boost inclusion rates will go into effect next year. He also said the governing board will hear more about implementation of the changes at its meeting next month.

His full letter is attached below.

(Image from art.com)