Assessment and Accommodations
By Stephen D. Luke, Ed.D. & Amanda Schwartz, Ph.D.

The Big Picture: Expectations, Content, and Testing

Assessment in school is not a casual affair—not for the school, district, or state that must demonstrate adequate yearly progress (AYP) as part of public accountability—and not for students working to meet high performance standards. More than ever before, students with disabilities are included in the high performance standards states establish and in the required testing they conduct. In fact, federal law mandates it. 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. Because of these laws, schools have become accountable in new and significant ways for the education of all students with disabilities.
Three critical elements come together in this new world of accountability . Schools must now carefully consider:

• What students with disabilities are studying. In the past—the recent past, in fact—many students with disabilities did not study the same curriculum as their peers without disabilities. This changed with the reauthorization of IDEA in 1997, which greatly emphasized the involvement of students with disabilities in the general education curriculum. IDEA 2004 has further strengthened this requirement.
• What students with disabilities are expected to know.  Previously, performance standards for students with disabilities were not aligned with the standards established for those without disabilities. Now it’s important that all students with disabilities be held to the highest possible academic standards. States have scrambled in recent years to introduce grade-level content standards into the curriculum for students with disabilities.
• How well students with disabilities are learning. Including students with disabilities in state and district assessments is not only required by NCLB and IDEA, it also is a logical and essential element in improving results for them. Without testing students, how will we know if they are actually learning what they need to know, or what they may still need to master?

Not surprisingly, what’s becoming evident is that “raised expectations can lead to increased participation supported appropriately with individualized accommodations, improved instruction, and, thus, performance” (Ysseldyke et al., 2004, p. 91). Melissa Fincher, Assistant Director of Georgia’s Department of Education’s Testing Division, sums up the emerging reality this way:

Prior to IDEA and NCLB, students were not necessarily included to the fullest extent in instruction based on the curriculum or on grade-level content, or in assessments. Now, with both of these laws indicating that students have to be assessed—that all students have to be assessed and all students have the right to quality instruction on the same curriculum—we're seeing that, if we expose the kids to the curriculum, they can rise to the occasion.

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Assessment and Accommodations:

-Introduction
-The Big Picture: Expectations, Content, and Testing
-Deciding Which Accommodations a Student Needs
-Types of Accommodations
-What Does the Research Say?
-What About Alternate Assessments?
-The Value of Progress Monitoring
-Conclusion
    -References