Choosing, Using, and Evaluating Accommodations for Students with Disabilities: Accommodations Manual

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Choosing, Using, and Evaluating Accommodations
for Students with Disabilities Accommodations
Manual and Professional Development Guide
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5 Important Steps

• Expect students with disabilities to achieve
  grade level academic content standards
• Learn about accommodations
• Choose accommodations
• Administer accommodations
• Evaluate and improve accommodations use

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Step One

• Expect students with disabilities to achieve
  grade level academic content standards

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Student Participation in Assessments

• The participation of students with disabilities
  in assessments is required by the following
  Federal and State Laws
• No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
• Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
  (IDEA)
• State Laws (Insert specific state laws here)

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Assessments for Accountability

• Assessments for Accountability help to measure
• How successful schools are in including all
  students in standards-based education
• How well students are achieving standards
• What needs to be improved for specific groups of
  students

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Include All Students in Assessments

• To include all students in standards-based
  assessments
• Provide accommodations to increase access
• Use alternate assessments for students with
  significant cognitive disabilities
• Follow state guidelines for decisions about the
  provision of alternate assessments

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3 Conditions for High Expectations

• Teachers qualified to teach content areas who
  know how to differentiate instruction for diverse
  learners
• IEPs provide specialized instruction (e.g.,
  reading strategies, study skills)
• Accommodations increase access to instruction and
  assessment

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Equal Access to Grade Level Content

• Remember that equal access to grade level content
  is the goal
• Every IEP team member must be familiar with State
  and District content standards
• IEP team members must know where to locate
  standards and updates
• Collaboration between general and special
  educators is key

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Benefits of Collaboration

• Definition General and special education
  teachers working as a team for the benefit of
  students with disabilities
• Promotes understanding of general and special
  education teacher roles and responsibilities
• Provides opportunities to gain new skills (e.g.,
  General educators knowledge of contentspecial
  educators knowledge of specialized instructional
  techniques
• Serves as a support building process that fosters
  the creation of a collaborative school culture

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Step Two

• Learn about accommodations

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Definition of Accommodations

• Accommodations are tools and procedures in the
  areas of presentation, response,
  timing/scheduling, and setting that provide
  equitable instructional and assessment access for
  students with disabilities.
• Accommodations mediate the effects of a students
  disability and do not reduce learning
  expectations.

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Accommodations Applications

• The use of accommodations is linked through each
  of these areas

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Accommodations Categories

• Presentation AccommodationsAllow students to
  access information in ways that do not require
  them to visually read standard print. These
  alternate modes of access are visual, tactile,
  auditory, and multi-sensory.
• Response AccommodationsAllow students to
  complete assignments, tests, and activities in
  different ways or to solve or organize problems
  using some type of assistive device or organizer.
• Timing/Scheduling AccommodationsIncrease the
  allowable length of time to complete a test or
  assignment and may also change the way the time
  is organized.
• Setting AccommodationsChange the location in
  which a test or assignment is given or the
  conditions of the assessment setting.

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Modifications

• Changing, lowering, or reducing learning or
  assessment expectations
• May result in implications that could adversely
  affect a student throughout his or her
  educational career.
• Examples include
• Requiring a student to learn less material
• Revising assignments or tests to make them easier

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State Specific Accommodations Policies

• On this slide, describe state specific
  accommodations policies and procedures

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Step Three

• Choose accommodations

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What Doesnt Work

• Checking off every accommodation available on the
  IEP form, hoping something will work
• What else doesnt work?

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Questions to Consider

• What are the students learning strengths and
  needs?
• How do the students needs affect the achievement
  of grade level content standards?
• What specialized instruction (e.g., learning
  strategies, organizational skills, reading
  skills) does the student need to achieve grade
  level content standards?
• What accommodations will increase the students
  access to instruction and assessment?

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Review Current Accommodations

• Accommodations currently used by the student in
  the classroom and on tests
• Test and assignment results when accommodations
  were used and not used
• Effective combinations of accommodations
• Difficulties of accommodations use
• Students perception of how well accommodations
  worked
• Perceptions of parents, teachers and specialists
  about how well accommodations worked

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Based on this Review

• Decide whether the student should
• Continue using an accommodation as is
• Use an accommodation with changes
• Discontinue an accommodation

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Considerations for New Accommodations

• A list of the students access needs and possible
  accommodations to try
• Of the accommodations that match the students
  needs, consider
• The students willingness to learn to use the
  accommodation
• Opportunities to learn how to use the
  accommodation in classroom settings
• Conditions for use on state assessments

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Planning New Accommodations

• Plan how a student will learn to use each new
  accommodation
• Be sure there is plenty of time to learn to use
  instructional and assessment accommodations
  before test day
• Plan for the ongoing evaluation and improvement
  of accommodations use

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Involve Students in Choice-Making

• Involve students in the process of choosing and
  using accommodations
• The more say students have in choosing their
  accommodations, the more likely the
  accommodations will be used
• Students should see accommodations as adding
  value to their daily lifenot only in schoolbut
  for postsecondary, career, and community life

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Documenting Accommodations

• Accommodations can be documented in 3 areas of
  the IEP
• Consideration of Special Factorsassistive
  technology devices and services
• Supplementary Aids and Servicesaids, services,
  and other supports
• Participation in Assessmentshow a student will
  participate in state and district-wide assessments

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Step Four

• Administer accommodations

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Coordinating the Logistics

• Logistics of providing the actual accommodations
  must be mapped out
• Teachers and other IEP team members are often
  given the responsibility for arranging,
  coordinating, and providing assessment
  accommodations
• Prepare for the implementation of accommodations
  prior to test day, on test day, and after test
  day

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Following Through on Test Day

• A key logistical aspect for providing assessment
  accommodations is following through on test day
• Accommodation request forms and databases can be
  used to monitor the implementation of
  accommodations on test day
• Test administrators must understand the
  importance of
• Standardization
• Test security
• Ethical testing practices

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Ensuring Standardization

• Standardization The adherence of uniform
  administration procedures and conditions
• Strict adherence to guidelines detailing
  instructions and procedures for the
  administration of accommodations is necessary to
  ensure that test results reflect actual student
  learning
• The objective of providing assessment
  accommodations is to make fair comparisons with
  other students taking the test

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Test Security with Special Test Formats

• Test security Ensuring the confidentiality of
  test questions and answers
• Vital in maintaining test integrity and validity
• Can become an issue when accessible test formats
  are used or when someone other than the student
  is allowed to see the test
• To ensure test security and confidentiality
• Keep testing materials in a secure place
• Keep all test content confidential
• Return all materials as instructed

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Ensuring Ethical Testing Practices

• Ethical testing practices Interactions between
  test administrators and students taking the test
• Unethical practices include
• coaching students during testing
• editing student work
• giving clues in any way
• allowing a student to answer fewer questions
• reducing the number of responses required
• changing the content by paraphrasing or offering
  additional information

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Step Five

• Evaluate and improve accommodations use

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Using Formative Evaluation

• Use formative evaluation to turn over useful
  information quickly to make improvements
• Useful information can be obtained from members
  of the IEP planning teamevaluation is a team
  effort.
• Formative is based on the premise of using
  information for continuous improvement

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Why Evaluate Accommodations Use

• To ensure the meaningful participation of all
  students in state and district-wide assessments
• To reveal questionable patterns of accommodations
  use
• To identify IEP/504 team members, test
  administrators, or others in need of additional
  training and support

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Questions to Guide Evaluation at the School or
District Level

• How many students with IEPs or Section 504 are
  receiving accommodations?
• What types of accommodations are being
  providedare some being used more than others?
• Are students receiving accommodations as
  documented in their IEP/504 plans?
• Are there procedures in place to ensure that test
  administrators adhere to directions for the
  implementation of accommodations?

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Questions to Guide Evaluation at the School or
District Level (cont)

• Are there policies in place to ensure that test
  administration procedures are not compromised
  with the provision of accommodations?
• Are there policies to prevent the disclosure of
  test answers to unauthorized persons?
• Are there policies to ensure that ethical testing
  and security practices followed before, during,
  and after the day of the test?

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Questions to Guide Evaluation at the Student Level

• What accommodations are used by the student in
  the classroom and on tests?
• What are the results of classroom assignments and
  tests when accommodations are not used?
• What is the students perception of how well the
  accommodation worked?
• What seem to be effective combinations of
  accommodations?
• What are the difficulties encountered in the use
  of accommodations for a student?
• What are the perceptions of teachers and others
  about how the accommodation appears to be
  working?