“…Act 60 and related reform efforts contained language about reforming education for all children, and these efforts were reinforced through the 1997 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requiring states and districts to include students with disabilities in state and district assessments and performance reporting (Thurlow & Johnson, 2002). Yet in spite of the promise of these educational reform efforts to meet the needs of all students, research on the effects of their implementation has identified both intended and unintended consequences for students with disabilities and those placed at risk of academic failure (Furney, Hasazi, Clark/Keefe, & Hartnett, 2003;McLaughlin, 1999;McLaughlin, Nolet, Rhim, & Henderson, 1999;Nolet & McLaughlin, 2000;Shriner & DeStefano, 2003;Thurlow, 2000;Thurlow, House, Boys, Scott, & Ysseldyke, 2000;Turnbull, Turnbull, Wehmeyer, & Park, 2003). Unintended effects include the failure of some states to include students with disabilities and those placed at risk in curriculum reform efforts and state-mandated testing; a focus within assessment on academic content standards as opposed to a broader set of standards including career or vocational skills, the arts, health, and so forth; and the increasingly complex nature of standards-based curriculum and assessments (Nolet & McLaughlin, 2000).…”