Testing Accommodation

Provisions of IDEA mandates fair testing practices, provides increased parental support involving evaluation and placement recommendations of students with special needs. In compliance to IDEA legislation, parents must receive contact from the school regarding inadequate academic progress. Parental information must be provided in the parent's native language using their typical mode of communication. IDEA regulations also define fair testing practices in regarding student referral to Special Education Services. Fair testing practices include tests administered by trained specialists in the student's most common mode of communication, adhering to strict testing guidelines to minimize testing errors. Multiple data points must be analyzed by

The two options for identifying students with disabilities are RTI model and the IQ-Achievement discrepancy model. The RTI model is a multi-tiered approach to identifying students with disabilities. With this approach the amount of students who are identified as having a learning disability has decreased because of the support students receive at different tiers and it eliminates inadequate instruction as the reason for reading problems. Universal screening and high quality teaching is done for all students. Students who show that they need additional help receive tier 1 services where frequency and intensity increases. Students are monitored and receive research based instruction in the general education classroom. Some students may still struggle and have to receive more intensive and frequent service. Those students will receive supplemental support from an educational professional. Tier 3 services are provided to students who still struggle and need even more intensive service. Students may also qualify for special education services. The IQ-Achievement discrepancy model is used to determine if a disability is present. Standardized tests are used to eliminate low intellectual ablity as a determining cause for reading problems. With this model, a professional assess whether there is a discrepancy between a student’s scores on an iq test and scores obtained from areas

he most fundamental responsibility of schools is teaching students to read. Indeed, the future success of all students hinges upon their ability to become proficient readers. Recent scientific studies have allowed us to understand more than ever before how literacy develops, why some children have difficulty, and what constitutes best instructional practice. Scientists now estimate that fully 95 percent of all children can be taught to read. Yet, in spite of all our knowledge, statistics reveal an alarming prevalence of struggling and poor readers that is not limited to any one segment of society:

Informal Reading Inventory (IRI) are diagnostic assessment administered individually to evaluate different aspects of students’ reading. After reading the text, students orally are answering the questions following the text. Teachers take into the consideration additional factors,, such as fluency, students’ prior knowledge, and determine students’ reading levels. This information may to choose appropriate reading material for students, to form reading groups, and to plan future reading instruction taking into the considerations students strengths and needs. According to Chall (1983), the greatest value of IRI is to help educators to diagnose the gaps in the abilities of readers who struggle the most. For teachers, who looking for the better way to address students instructional needs of children, who have reading difficulties, IRI is a very valuable diagnostic tool.

These DIBELS screening assessments were developed to help educators identify struggling, at-risk readers, so that appropriate types and levels of support can be implemented within the school system. They were designed to support efforts at the primary grade levels (K-6th) to prevent reading struggles as the learn progress through the school system. Furthermore, this test was to aid in the elimination in remediation lessons inside of the classroom.

Wilson, Faggella-Luby, & Wei (2013) present a cogent plan for Tier 3 Response to Intervention (RTI) for secondary students with reading disabilities, content, and pedagogy planning tools, content instruction, and instructional method implementation. Both research application lacks concerning Tier 3 RTI in high schools (Wilson et. al). RTI is curriculum that addresses the learning needs of all students that also includes screening and monitoring progress. Continuing, Wilson et. al define Tier 1 RTI, core curriculum for all students serving the needs of 80% of students, Tier 2 RTI, small group instructional intervention, serving the needs of 15% of students, and Tier 3 RTI, an intense one to one intervention for students who continue to struggle beyond Tiers 1 and 2, serving 5% of students. Wilson et al. provides information the reader needs to understand in the article without clutter, expressing their writing with economy (Zinsser, 2013). The article is unified in theme, gives enough information without giving too much, and follows a clear progression (Zinsser). “More simple, than complex” (Henson, 1999, p. 58), Wilson et. al’s article is an example of good writing.

Analyzed below are the two journal articles about special education assessments entitled, Predictors of Assessment Accommodations Use for Students Who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing from the Journal of Educational Research & Policy Studies (Cawthon & WurtzBest, 2010) and A Methodology for Assessing the Functions of Emerging Speech in Children with Developmental Disabilities from the Journal of Applied Behavioral Analysis (Parten, et al, 2005). The analysis revolves around the following areas: nature of research, summary, critique, personnel, future practice, and future research.

Students with disabilities may require accommodations in order to find success. Some accommodations may include additional time to complete assignments and/or assessments, oral presentation of content or instructions, or allowing the student to type work vs. writing it. Accommodations must be individualized and reasonable based on the needs of the student.

An accommodation is considered standard when a change in the routine conditions under which students take MCAS tests and does not alter what the test is intended to measure. MCAS defines a nonstandard accommodation as an accommodation that changes the way an MCAS test is presented or changes the way a student responds to test questions; and alters a portion of what the test is intended to measure. Nonstandard accommodations, such as a test administrator reading aloud the English Language Arts Reading Comprehension test, are intended for use by a very small number of students with disabilities who meet certain

High Stakes Testing has been overly integrated in the education systems. High-stakes testing are used to determine grade retention, school curriculum, and whether or not students will receive a high school diploma (Myers, 2015). Since the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001, high stakes testing has become the norm and mandating that students must pass a standardized test before moving up in grade. As a special education director, the focus is to ensure the student’s accommodations are being followed. Accommodations help increase students’ academic performance. “Both the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) of 2004 and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) call for students with disabilities to participate in the general education curriculum and in testing programs to the maximum extent possible for each student (Luke and Schwartz, 2010).” Throughout the years, high stakes testing is becoming more common than ever before. The reality is high stakes testing is one indicator in evaluating children with specific needs. This paper will discuss, the violation of the statutory language regarding assessment based on IDEA, the strategies and goals of a remediation, staff training, common Core and PARCC assessment, and funding for the remediation plan under IDEA.

This report compromises evidence surrounding the use of standardized testing for students with disabilities. Testing protocols for minority students necessitates a great deal of reform. Yielding a corroborated framework, two powerful research professionals join forces; producing pragmatic analysis and improvement ideals in regards to assessing students with disabilities, a vastly marginalized minority in regards to standardize testing. Karen Barton, lead Principal Research Scientist for Power of U, McGraw-Hill, obtained her Ph.D. in Educational Research and Measurement from the University of South Carolina preceding Barton achieved her M.S. in Special Education at Longwood College. Offering unique and extensive research abilities, she consults often regarding education-based research. Barton’s co-collaborator, Daniel Koretz is an expert on educational assessment and the impact of high-stakes testing. His research has includes the assessment of students with disabilities. Koretz obtained a doctorate is in developmental psychology from Cornell University. Koretz maintains fifteen national affiliations with educational associations and forty, globally referenced publications. Prudent to my research, by utilizing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and policies pertaining to students’ Individualized Education Program (IEP) these two authors and their publication assists in supplementing validity to this essay as these sources along with additional methodically integrated

There are three categories for accommodations used on standardized tests. The three categories are timing and scheduling accommodations, presentation accommodations, and response accommodations. With timing and scheduling accommodations, students on IEPs can have extended time to complete their assessment. The time in which a test is taken can also be organized differently that traditional tests. Students can also be allowed frequent breaks during their test taking time. The presentation in which the test is given to a student can also be changed. Some students may need differentiation in test presentation due to needing an alternate mode of access; ex. auditory, multi-sensory, visual, or tactile.

Students with disabilities are at a higher at-risk for dropping out of high school at a greater rate than typically developing peers (Pyle & Wexler, 2012). Students with identified disabilities are required to a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) according to law, and these students have unique needs that general education curriculum cannot meet on its own. However, there is abundant research that discusses various literacy interventions and strategies that can be effective. These interventions can be used in a school setting by any certified teacher (regular education or special education). This literature review will discuss some of the various reading and writing strategies as well as best practices for literacy in order to ensure students with disabilities are given the best chance for success. By providing timely interventions, monitoring progress, and analyzing data, it can be possible to increase achievement for those students with identified disabilities.

On the other study conducted by Waldron, the results show that children with learning disabilities did poor on math compared to children without learning disabilities. Programs to help children with learning disabilities improve in math should be enforce in every school to help these children succeed. The dropout rate on children with learning disabilities was 14.1 percent on a longitudinal study conducted by Doren. The reason for dropouts was that children with learning disabilities felt they were not compatible academically as children without learning disabilities. They felt disadvantaged compared to the other children. This shows that children with learning disabilities are in greater danger to dropping out of school. Programs designated for children with learning disabilities to help them on their reading, math, and writing would drop the rate and help those students graduate

In today’s educational environment, all students expect to receive the same level of instruction from schools and all students must meet the same set of standards. Expectations for students with learning disabilities are the same as students without any learning difficulties. It is now unacceptable for schools or teachers to expect less from one segment of students because they have physical disabilities, learning disabilities, discipline problems, or come from poor backgrounds. Standardize testing has resulted in making every student count as much as their peers and the most positive impact has been seen with the lowest ability students. Schools have developed new approaches to reach these previously underserved students while