Accommodations

Accommodations are defined as adjustments for variances. As such, educational accommodations, the topic of this entry, are strategies utilized to remove content irrelevant variance from an assignment or test, allowing students to demonstrate what they have learned in relation to the specific academic content standard being targeted, without noise associated with any impairment related to a disability. For example, students with delayed processing may be given extended time on a standardized assessment in order to more accurately assess what they have learned rather than how rapidly the student can process the questions and retrieve the answers.

This entry further defines educational accommodations and looks at some of the issues surrounding the selection and use of accommodations. It then discusses the use of accommodations in classrooms and in testing, strategies for selecting accommodations, and selection of alternative interventions to teach students skills needed to address impairment for which accommodations are typically provided.

Accommodations are often confused with modifications given to students with disabilities. Although these terms are sometimes used interchangeably, they are not the same. Modifications represent a difference in what the student is expected to learn, as in having a student learn multiplication facts up to 5× while the class learns multiplication facts up to 10×. Conversely, the use of accommodations does not lower standards or change expectations. The use of accommodations provides a differential boost between those with and without disabilities. Thus, when students with and without disabilities utilize an accommodation, a greater increase in performance should be evident for students with the disability than for students without the disability. For example, if a student is deaf and communicates with American Sign Language, it is highly probable that the student’s performance will increase with an American Sign Language interpreter interpreting instruction and interactions in the classroom, but it is not likely that the performance of students in the classroom who are not deaf will be affected.

Accommodations typically are changes in how the task or test is presented (e.g., questions read aloud), how the student is expected to respond (e.g., dictating answers), and the time allowed for the task (e.g., time and a half). For testing situations, an accommodation may be granted for students to take the test in a smaller group setting or in a distraction-free room. They may also be situation-specific. That is, the student may be provided extra time on writing tasks but not for math problem sheets.

An increased focus on accountability and use of high-stakes testing in schools, along with greater inclusion of students with disabilities in general education settings and the need to assure equal access to the general education curriculum and grade-level content standards, all heighten the need to understand the process of accommodating for impairment associated with disabilities. Teachers are expected to teach the same content to all students, those with and without disabilities, and students are expected to demonstrate proficiency on all standards. At the same time, assessment scores must represent what students have learned specific to the content being evaluated and not be affected by extraneous variance associated with a disability, such as the effects of a reading disability when interpreting a math word problem assessment. Thus, for students with disabilities served by special education, individualized education program (IEP) teams are charged with selecting appropriate accommodations.

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