The challenge for educators and families is to decide which accommodations will help students learn new skills and knowledge—and which will help them demonstrate what they've learned (Shriner & DeStefano, 2003).  The Online Accommodations Bibliography at the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) is an excellent source of information on the range of possible accommodations (http://cehd.umn.edu/nceo/AccomStudies.htm) as well as the effects of various testing accommodations for students with disabilities. What accommodations are “allowable,” however, may vary from state to state (see the sidebar “What Do States Allow?”). Moreover, what helps one student may not address another's needs at all. Decisions about accommodations must be made on an individualized basis, student by student.

What Do States Allow? IDEA 2004 mandates that all students with disabilities participate in statewide and districtwide testing “with appropriate accommodations and alternate assessments where necessary and as indicated in their respective individualized education programs” (IDEA, 2004b). As part of implementing this requirement, state education agencies have been working to establish policies to guide IEP teams and schools in making accommodation decisions for students with disabilities, especially with respect to their participation in large-scale testing programs and the types of accommodations that are allowed. The National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) has been tracking and analyzing these state policies since 1992 and reports that considerable variability exists from state to state (and even within states and individual schools) in the ways in which accommodations are selected and applied, making it imperative that IEP teams know their current state and local accommodation policies. Fortunately, an increasing number of documents, training manuals, and guidelines are available online for teams to consult (Lazarus, Thurlow, Lail, Eisenbraun, & Kato, 2006). You can find out more about accommodations in your state by visiting: The National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO), at: http://www.education.umn.edu/ nceo/TopicAreas/Accommodations/ StatesAccomm.htm The Education Commission of the States, at: http://www.ecs.org/html/IssueSection. asp?issueid=12&subissueid=32&ssID= 0&s=What+States +Are+Doing Your state education agency’s website, identified on NICHCY’s state resource sheets, at: www.nichcy.org/Pages/StateSpecificInfo.aspx

Who's responsible for making such decisions for a given student? The team that develops that student's individualized education program (IEP), that's who—otherwise known as the IEP team. A thoughtful and customized IEP serves as the foundation for providing each student with a disability access to a free appropriate public education (FAPE), as required under federal legislation (IDEA, 2004a). The IEP team is also responsible for listing in the IEP all the accommodations to be provided to the student in the classroom and in statewide or districtwide testing.

When an IEP team gathers to decide whether or not a student needs accommodations in the classroom or in testing, team members must consider the specific strengths, challenges, and routines of that student. This will help the team determine which accommodations will support the student across a range of school situations and activities as well as help the student access instruction designed to meet educational standards established by the district and state. Further, the team must also know what types of accommodations their state or locale allows, especially in testing situations. Many states make a distinction between standard accommodations, those that don’t alter the nature of what a test is designed to measure, and nonstandard accommodations, those with the potential to significantly change what is being tested (Thurlow & Wiener, 2000).

In the end, the team may determine that no accommodations are needed or that a combination of individualized accommodations is necessary to meet the student's specific needs. Students can also help inform these decisions by talking with the team about what works best for them (Thurlow, Thompson, Walz, & Shin, 2001). Involving students in the process of determining goals and respecting their voices about which accommodations might best help them achieve those goals recognizes them as valued participants and can ultimately lead to feelings of increased control and responsibility in their education.  

When taken alone, accommodations themselves may not result in much of an impact, but when thoughtfully integrated with other components in the IEP and implemented in the classroom, they can help students reach and demonstrate their full potential (Fletcher et al., 2006). It is also important to note that accommodations are most effective when they are based on individual strengths and needs rather than disability type (American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, & National Council on Measurement in Education, 1999). Further, accommodations chosen for testing situations can be most effective when they are adopted as an integral part of day-to-day instruction, to ensure that students have ample opportunity to practice their use prior to a mandated testing situation. This sentiment is reflected in the comment from Dr. Lynn Boyer, Executive Director of West Virginia’s Office of Special Education, “There certainly is an expectation that the accommodations that are used on our state assessment are also used daily in the classroom. You would not have a student introduced for the first time to a scribe, for instance, or a calculator on a state assessment, when such an accommodation has not been used during instruction.”

 

Choosing and Using Accommodations: IEP Team Considerations

The questions below are brought to you by Special Connections (2005a) at the University of Kansas and are designed to serve as a tool to help the IEP team discuss and determine what accommodations a student needs in the classroom or in assessment. Visit Special Connections at: http://www.specialconnections.ku.edu

• What kinds of instructional strategies (e.g., visual, tactile, auditory, combination) work best for the student?
• What learning strategies will help the student overcome challenges?
• What accommodations increase the student's access to instruction and assessment?
• What accommodations has the student tried in the past?
• What has worked well and in what situations?
• What does the student prefer?
• Are there ways to improve the student's use of the accommodation?
• Does the student still need the accommodation?
• What are the challenges of providing the student's preferred accommodations and how can these be overcome?
• Are there other accommodations that the student should try?
• Are there ways the student can use preferred accommodations outside of school (e.g., at home, on the job, in the community)?
• Are preferred accommodations allowed on state and district assessments of accountability?
• How can the student learn to request preferred accommodations (e.g., self-advocacy)?
• Are there opportunities for the student to use preferred accommodations on practice tests?
• What arrangements need to be made to make sure the student's preferred accommodations are available in assessment situations?
• How can actual use of accommodations be documented?