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Transcript for Lesson 3 Presentation: Accommodations for the Classroom |
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Assessment accommodations provide students the means to show what they know without being impeded by their disability. Accommodations provide equal footing for students (i.e., level the playing field), not an advantage. Most states have made provisions for students with disabilities to use accommodations during statewide tests, probably because both statutory law and constitutional law imply that policies should provide students with disabilities the opportunity to participate in assessments with appropriate accommodations. Providing assessment accommodations should be based on what the student needs not what the student would benefit from. Accommodations fall into several categories. Perhaps the easiest way to think about accommodations is in terms of what is changed - the setting in which the assessment is given, the timing of the assessment, the scheduling of when the assessment is given, the presentation or how the assessment is given, or the response the student makes to an assessment item. A final category is other. This is for those accommodations that do not simply fall into the other five areas. There are a number of accommodations that can be provided within each of these categories. See the example in Handout 1. |
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According to IDEA 1997 any student with an IEP is eligible for an assessment accommodation, if in fact it is needed to show what he or she knows. In addition, students with 504 plans are also eligible for accommodations. Several states allow all students to use accommodations as long as they have been used during instruction. Decisions about who receives what kinds of accommodations are important ones. Accommodation decisions are the responsibility of the district IEP teams. It is imperative that all members of IEP teams understand the purpose of the district and State assessment programs and the appropriateness of granting accommodations. Decisions to provide individual students with assessment accommodations and reasons given for their use need to be documented on a student's IEP. |
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Accommodations are provided to students with disabilities to "level the playing field" when they take an assessment. Without accommodations for their disabilities, an assessment may inaccurately measure what they know and are able to do. The measure will reflect the disability rather than the student's knowledge and skills. This premise about the purpose of accommodations in assessments is relatively easy to understand when thinking about common accommodations, ones that are used by most of society today. Take eyeglasses as an example. Glasses are an accommodation for a visual disability. Without glasses, many of us would not be able to read the words in assessments, and many of us would not be able to demonstrate our skills during the most common of all performance assessments -- the driver's license test. Glasses help level the "playing field" for those of us who need glasses. With glasses, the test can measure our ability rather than our disability. Little controversy surrounds accommodations for sensory and physical disabilities. In part, this is due to the visibility of these disabilities. The public can easily see that these disabilities exist and that without some adjustments, those with sensory and physical disabilities will not be able to participate in the assessment at all, or if they can participate, it is likely to be less meaningful without accommodations than with them. The controversy generally arises for those accommodations that are used with less visible disabilities, such as learning disabilities and emotional disabilities. Because these disabilities may be directly related to the content or procedures of assessments, their use becomes controversial. For example, a reading disability is directly related to the content of reading tests, and tests that rely on reading skills to test other content areas. Making accommodations for needs that arise related to the reading disability may seem to give the student an advantage when reading is a part of the assessment. Often it is argued that accommodations that are allowed only for students with disabilities are ones that all students could use to their benefit. This may be true, but in most cases it is not. Many of our assumptions about what accommodations might be beneficial to students are incorrect. Legally, accommodations must be provided to students with disabilities. But the law does not say which accommodations are okay and which ones are not. Most states now have written guidelines to indicate which accommodations are acceptable and which accommodations are not acceptable for use during specific assessments. Some districts also have produced guidelines. Unfortunately, most of these guidelines are not easily applied when making decisions about an individual student and that student's accommodations needs. In order to make good decisions, you will need to think about what happens during instruction. This, and a few other pieces of information will help you make good decisions. Then, you will need to compare these decisions to existing guidelines to make a final recommendation on the accommodations the student will use when participating in a specific assessment. |
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In the early 1980s, research was conducted by two large test development companies - American College Testing (ACT) and Educational Testing Service(ETS). For several reasons, the relevance of this research to state and district tests, is limited. For example, the ACT and ETS research included only limited samples of students, those headed for college, and most of it lumped together disabilities that probably needed to be studied separately, such as physical disabilities and learning disabilities. Commonly cited findings from this research about reasonable time extensions (up to 1 1/2 times the standard testing time), for example, really do not apply to state and district assessments. We need new research involving state and district tests before we can develop guiding principles like those from the college entrance testing work. In the mid-1990s, policymakers realized the need for additional research focused directly on state and district assessments. The U.S. Department of Education provided funds for this research, with the hope that it would answer many of the questions that surrounded the use of accommodations during district and state assessments. While this research is still occurring, to a great extent the research has revealed that the effects of accommodations are complicated, varying as a function of the test, the characteristics of the student, and attitudes about what accommodations should do. Some of the major findings from recent research on accommodations helps us to see the complexities of the research, but it also reinforces the importance of decisions about whether an individual student needs any accommodations, and specifically, which accommodations are needed. Several of the studies point to a tendency toward "over-accommodation" of students with disabilities. What this means, simply, is that there is a tendency for people making decisions about the accommodations a student would use during an assessment to pick nearly every accommodation possible - with the mistaken belief that accommodations might increase the student's score, and the more the better. This tendency was revealed in research conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics, and suggested by others' research as well. The tendency is to be avoided - research has now confirmed that the unneeded accommodations may actually interfere with a student's performance. |
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There should be a direct link between what happens during instruction and what happens during assessment. Accommodations should not be introduced for the first time during an assessment. Then, consideration of what the district or state assessment requires must be linked with what happens during instruction. Finally, it is important to know what accommodations your district or state allows. There should be a link between accommodations a student uses during instruction (to help learning take place) and during classroom tests (to accurately reflect what the student has learned) and the accommodations recommended for the student when taking a district or state assessment. But, how do you know what kinds of accommodations should be used during classroom instruction? There are going to be some accommodations that are used during instruction that may not be appropriate for use during assessment. For example, a student who requires multiple prompts to complete a task might not be provided this during a test, or a student who uses a calculator to complete mathematical problem-solving tasks might not be allowed to use it on an assessment that measures the ability to calculate math facts. It is important to delineate and clarify these exceptions. Virtually no preservice or inservice training is provided on instructional accommodations, even though they are a critical element of the learning of students with disabilities. Some training is provided on accommodations for classroom testing. Surveys of teachers have revealed that there are many possible accommodations that might be used. For example, a national sample of general education teachers perceived the most helpful testing accommodations to be "(a) giving individual help with directions during tests, (b) reading test questions to students, and (c) simplifying wording of test questions" (Jayanthi, Epstein, Polloway, & Bursuck, 1996). The multitude of accommodations that could be used should not be applied haphazardly to individual students. The underlying theme to remember is that instructional accommodations must be related to the student's unique learning needs. It is important also to remember that just because a student needs an accommodation does not mean that the student will be able to use the accommodation. Students may need both training and practice in order to appropriately use accommodations they need during instruction. For example, there is evidence that students with spelling disabilities do not perform better, and may even perform more poorly, when allowed to use a spell checker during a writing assignment. This may be because they have not been taught how to use the spell checker, so it provides them no help at all, or because they have not had enough practice using it, so it actually interferes with their performance. Thus, accommodations are not something that should be considered for the first time just before the assessment is to occur. Nor should they be considered for the first time during the school year in which the student will be assessed. There is a need for systematic consideration of accommodations from the beginning of the student's educational career, which is better, or from the onset of IEP services. |
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Involving others in making decisions about accommodations is the first step, but not the only step, in making good decisions about the use of accommodations in assessments. While nearly all states require that the IEP team be involved in the decision about whether a student will participate in a district or state assessment, only about two-thirds have the same requirement for the decision about accommodations. If your state has this requirement, it is imperative that the team contributes to decisions about, or at least knows about, instructional accommodations. In addition, there is a need to make sure that involvement in the accommodations decisions involves input into the decision, not just signing off on the recommendation made by an individual member of the team. Those who make decisions about accommodations need to know about:
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Nature and purpose of the assessment. To some extent, the way an assessment is designed can have an influence on the need for accommodations. The purpose of the assessment (graduation exam, accountability measure) and whether the assessment is norm-referenced or criterion-referenced also will have an impact on the need for accommodations. Typically, norm-referenced tests are less amenable to the use of accommodations because the norms that were developed were based only on standard administrations of the assessment.
People familiar with the assessment for which accommodations decisions are being made should provide information to decision makers, even if they are not going to be involved in the decision. If you are asked to be involved in decision making without knowing about the nature and purpose of the assessment, it is critical that you obtain this information. It should be available from your local assessment coordinator or the state assessment division. |
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Instructional accommodations students use. Teachers are generally the ones who know best the kinds of accommodations a student needs during instruction. But certainly they are not the only ones. Many parents observe their children making accommodations for themselves as they carry out household tasks, interact with others, and do their homework. This information can be valuable in determining accommodations that the child needs, even though the accommodations may not have been implemented at school. Of course, the time to have this discussion with parents is during initial IEP meetings, so that the accommodations can be used during instruction and then implemented for the district or state assessment.
When making decisions about accommodations, IEP team members need to have information on the reasons students should be provided with accommodations during assessments. In addition, they will need to have a copy of the questions that help determine needed accommodations for individual students. A list of possible accommodations is also helpful for the IEP team to have when making accommodations decisions. It is important, however, that these lists serve as mind ticklers rather than constraints on possible accommodations that the IEP team might consider. Students also will have some valuable insights about needed accommodations. Heightening their awareness of needed accommodations, in fact, should be a goal of their instruction, so that by the time they are into high school and approaching postsecondary education or the world of work, they will know about the accommodations that they need to request. |
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State or district accommodation guidelines. Nearly all states now have written guidelines about the use of accommodations, usually detailed for each test that is administered. When districts have their own tests, they also may have written guidelines about the kinds of accommodations that are allowed. After identifying the accommodations that a student needs, compare these to what the written guidelines say about accommodations. It is especially important to note the following:
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Preparation for optimal use of accommodations. Use of accommodations during instruction is a key element in preparing students for the optimal use of accommodations during assessment. However, consideration must also be given to whether there are ways to assist the student in using accommodations during assessment. The example of students who do not use extended time as an accommodation is a case in point. Students who have directions read to them in class, but who must listen to a tape cassette for the assessment (usually for security purposes), will need to have some experience with managing the tape player before the test. |
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How accommodations might change over time. Accommodations that a student uses may change over time. Two kinds of changes in accommodations are likely to occur. First, different kinds of accommodations might be needed as the child gets older. For example, a young child with disabilities may need directions read, but as the child matures and gains reading skills, this accommodation may no longer be necessary.
Second, the way in which decisions are made about accommodations should change over time, with the student taking more responsibility for knowing what kinds of accommodations are needed. This helps the student to make the transition through high school into postsecondary settings, be they additional training or work. |
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Just as criteria were developed for states to use to evaluate their guidelines on the participation of students with disabilities in assessments, criteria also have been developed for states to use to evaluate their guidelines on accommodations that are allowed during assessments (Elliott, Thurlow, & Ysseldyke, 1996). These accommodations guidelines are easily translated into criteria that local decision makers can use to guide individual decisions about accommodations that students need when they participate in district and state assessments. The translated criteria are as follows:
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Most of the "dos" and "don'ts" of testing accommodations relate to the purposes of the assessment, what happens during instruction, and common sense. But, it is a good idea to run through these lists every now and again. Here are some of the don'ts:
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While the majority of the emphasis in this lesson has revolved around accommodations for students with disabilities, there other students who should also be considered when thinking about instructional and assessment accommodations. There is incredible diversity in today's schools and classrooms. And, the issues surrounding accommodations impacts both general and special education students. Let's take a brief, but closer look at a few additional issues. |
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Students who require no special accommodations. We start with these students because we must never forget that they too need quality instruction. Research has shown us that students are able to survive poor instruction if they are bright, motivated, and have supportive home environments. However, we venture a guess that you know many students who otherwise fit into other situations. It begs the question - are students doing poorly because of instruction or student factors? In the end, the thing that matters most is the quality of instruction and how it is delivered to students. While we can't control student factors, we certainly can control instructional factors. |
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Students who require accommodations. When planning for instruction it is critical to know what students in your classes require or need accommodations for instruction and/or tests. For students with disabilities as well as students with limited English proficiency (LEP) on IEPs, the first place to look is on their IEPs. Even then, you may find that a student may need additional accommodations. If this is the case, notify the IEP team leader in your school and let that person know. An addendum can be made to the IEP.
A few important accommodation realities to keep in mind are that they do need to be documented on a student's IEP in order to ensure they are provided. And, just because they are used in instruction and on classroom tests does not mean they will automatically roll over onto the district/state assessments. As discussed elsewhere, most of these tests have a limited number of accommodations allowed. So, even though you may hear that the best place to start providing accommodations is during instruction (and indeed it is), these same accommodations may not be allowed on the assessment. The important piece is that students indeed receive accommodations. Here's a quick way to find out whether more students need more or different instructional accommodations:
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Students who will take the alternate assessment. These are students for whom the general assessment is not meaningful, even with accommodations. Not meaningful in the sense that these students are learning and working toward standards that focus on life skills. And, the curriculum they are learning is no way tapped by the general assessment. The practice of educating special education students in the least restrictive environment is in full swing (LRE being the federal term indicating students should be educated in the environment that allows them success, and where they would most likely be educated if not in special education). As a result, there are many more students with significant needs receiving instruction in general education classrooms. It is important to know who these students are and be familiar with their instructional goals and objectives. In doing so, you can plan for how to integrate individual goals and instruction within the larger context of a lesson. For example, if a student is learning how to use a calculator - his or her math work can be completed using one while the rest of the students do the assignment without. The key here is to know what the life skills or functional goals are for students taking the alternate assessment and plan for them. Remember, an alternate assessment is not appropriate for students who:
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Students who fall in the middle. There are two ways to look at these kids: (1) these are students who do not qualify for special education, but continue to struggle in school, or (2) these are students with disabilities who do not qualify for the alternate assessment, but are sure to do poorly in the general assessment. Either way, these are students who are in need of special instructional consideration. For students who are truly in the middle (they don't qualify for special services), we must be sure they have the prior knowledge and prerequisite skills to successfully complete the curriculum presented to them. Use of pre-tests is one way to ascertain this. For students who are not candidates for the alternate assessment, but are expected to do poorly on the general assessment, we must look into why this is. These issues begin to look the same. Are they expected to do poorly on the assessment because of poor instruction, lack of opportunity to learn? Once again, we see these as alterable variables, ones we can directly impact with good instruction. |
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Students with Limited English Proficiency (ESL). There are a variety of things that need to be considered for these students. Among these considerations are acculturation, language proficiency, cognitive development and literacy, attitudes about assessment and other schooling variables, and bias that exists in assessments. Collaboration becomes a key aspect of instruction for theses students because general educators, special educators, and ESL/Bilingual staff all must work together to produce the instruction students need to learn English at the same time that they are learning other academic content. Among the key consideration for instruction are the following:
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As we have talked about accommodations, we have on occasion mentioned that controversy surrounds the use of certain accommodations. The controversy is about whether the scores that a student obtains when using accommodations mean the same things as scores obtained by students who do not use accommodations. When scores do not mean the same thing, the integrity of the assessment is compromised. Often, it is said that the accommodation invalidates the test. These kinds of concerns are reasonable in some cases but not in others. How can you know the difference? You probably cannot -- yet. Even the psychometricians working on these issues do not agree with each other. And, like many other issues, most people's views on the use of certain accommodations vary with their fundamental beliefs about the importance of being accountable for all students. Since there is even disagreement on what criteria must be met for an assessment to retain its integrity, it may be some time before the controversy surrounding the use of accommodations abates. It is hoped that research on the effects of accommodations may help reduce the controversy. The issues related to the use of accommodations and threats to the integrity of a test surface when decisions about where and how scores are reported to the public. The way it plays out most typically is that students are allowed to use the accommodations they need, but their scores do not count. Their scores are not included in school or district scores if there are consequences attached to the scores. Sometimes this means that a student is required to take the assessment without accommodations so that the score can count. Sometimes it means that a student is encouraged to use accommodations so that the score will not count, without the student or the student's parents knowing this. |
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Criterion-referenced vs. Norm-referenced Test. Most district and state tests are criterion-referenced tests. That is, they measure the student's performance against a specific criterion. Criterion-referenced tests are more friendly toward the use of accommodation and in turn create the fewest challenges for accommodations. On the other hand, both norm-referenced assessments and graduation exams (even though they are typically criterion-referenced tests), create special challenges for providing accommodations to students who need them.
Norm-referenced tests create special challenges for thinking about accommodations because most of these tests have been developed without consideration of students with disabilities, and usually only a few students with disabilities are included in the normative sample. Those who are included typically do not use accommodations (even if they need them). Almost always, a key aspect of norm-referenced testing is that individuals in the normative sample all take the test under the same "standard" conditions. Anything that deviates from the standard conditions is not included when calculating normative scores. This means that if a student does use an accommodation, that student's scores cannot be compared to scores of the normative sample. Essentially, the result is that the student's score does not count. Some tests do allow for certain accommodations (usually Braille and large print editions of the test). Sometimes when they do so, special norming studies are conducted so that the scores can be used. Often this is not the case, however, so that even when students take the Braille version of the test, for example, their scores are not aggregated with those of other students. |
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Five Principles
What should you do if your district is using a norm-referenced test that does not allow the accommodations a student needs? There are five principles to follow:
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As if making decisions about accommodations was not tough enough, there are several complications that surround the use of accommodations. We identify and address three of these "complications" here: IEP documentation issues, non-approved accommodations, and an appeals process. We provide these primarily to alert you. The specifics for each of these topics will vary with your district and state policies. |
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IEP Documentation Issues. Documenting accommodations to be provided in instruction is no longer an option. This information is required by IDEA 1997 to be documented on the IEP. The accommodations to be provided during district and state assessments also are to be documented.
Because IEP teams typically meet in the fall, in the late spring, or sometimes even year round, decisions often are made far from the time of district and state assessments. Lots can happen during that time period, and one of the things that typically does happen is that different accommodations needs emerge or are identified. This means that the IEP team must meet again, so that the proper accommodations are documented. There are no easy ways to get around this requirement. It is not appropriate to simply indicate that the student can have every accommodation that is allowed by the district or the state policy. We already know that over-accommodation should be avoided, in large part because the use of accommodations that are not needed may actually interfere with the student's best performance. The requirement to document accommodations on IEPs and to re-convene when changes need to be made actually heightens the importance of making good accommodations decisions to begin with. And, this emphasizes the need to have these decisions be data based, as suggested in our discussion of instructional accommodations. |
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Non-approved Accommodations. Every district and state assessment has policies that identify accommodations that are not okay to use during the assessment because it has been determined that those accommodations change the meaning of the test, the score comparability, or some other important test characteristic. Some policies refer to these not-okay changes as "modifications," while others simply refer to them as non-approved accommodations. The specific accommodations that are included in these not-okay lists vary - different districts and states disapprove different accommodations. We know that one state may recommend an accommodation that another state specifically disapproves.
The critical question is, what are you supposed to do if the student really needs one of these non-approved accommodations in order to even have access to taking the test. Should you force the student to not use the needed accommodation so that the student's score will count? Should you provide the needed accommodation, and not worry about whether the student's score counts? And, if counting means not graduating, can you legally do this? We would argue that what you do has to depend on the purpose of the test. If the test has implications for system accountability only, it seems unfair to not allow the student to use the needed accommodation. But, first it is important to make sure that if the student uses the accommodation, that student's score still counts. If the score will not count even if the student does not use the accommodations (which is true in all too many places), then the student should use the needed accommodation. However, it is up to you to demand that you still receive information on how the student performed. Ideally, you should get aggregated data for all students whose scores are not reflected in the district or state reporting system. When it comes to student accountability, the decisions may need to be different. If the use of a particular accommodation is not allowed, and the student's score will not count toward passing a graduation exam if the accommodation is used, then the student and the student's parents need to make some tough decisions. Among their choices are: (1) file a lawsuit claiming unfair disadvantage because the accommodation is not allowed; (2) do not use the accommodation and see whether performance is at a passing level; (3) do #2, then if necessary, #1. Another option, which may or may not be available in your state or district, is to proceed through an appeals process. |
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Appeals Process. Many states, and some districts, now have an appeals process in place for those students who have not been successful in passing a test. Sometimes this appeals process also applies to the use of specific accommodations. It is important to find out about the appeals process in your district or state, and to know what procedures must be followed to file an appeal, and what options a successful appeal provides to you and the student.
Appeals processes should exist for both graduation exams and for promotion tests that determine whether a student moves from one grade to the next. In reality, since promotion exams are only recently becoming more common, the appeals processes that do exist have been developed for graduation decisions. A fairly common approach to an appeals process is to have a criterion for when a student can begin the process (for example, having not passed the graduation exam at least three times). Then, the student typically has to provide alternative evidence of having met the graduation standards. Sometimes this alternative evidence is a portfolio that contains an array of independent student work reflecting meeting the standards. Other times the alternative evidence is an oral presentation, either to a panel or an administrator (principal or superintendent) who then makes a recommendation to the school board, or other authority. Sometimes it takes a bit of digging to find information on an appeals process. Assessment programs do not relish the thought of appeals. They are a challenge to the assessment system - an appeal, particularly a successful one, indicates that the test cannot accurately measure everyone. Thus, the existence of an appeals process is often not advertised or even placed in easily accessed locations. If an appeals process is needed, however, it is well worth the effort taken to find out about it. |
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