Note:  West Virginia is not included in this table because its data were combined across all grades (3-11).   In addition, Maryland and New York are not included in the high school column because they did not have data at that school level.

Use of Specific Accommodations

Background

With the apparent increase in use of accommodations during state and district assessments, there is interest not only in how many students are using accommodations, but also in exactly which accommodations are being used. This information will help us understand not only which specific accommodations are used most, but also the extent to which combinations of accommodations are used.

Data Sources

Three states that have collected data on specific accommodations that are used by students with disabilities have either analyzed or supplied data on accommodations to NCEO to analyze – Kentucky (Trimble, 1998), Rhode Island (Elliott, Bielinski, Thurlow, DeVito, & Hedlund, 1999), and Missouri (Bielinski, Ysseldyke, Bolt, Friedebach, & Friedebach, in press). The findings of these studies are presented here, and the results examined in relationship to each other and to contextual characteristics of the states. Each of these states has slightly different accommodations policies.

Kentucky is a state with relatively broad accommodations policies. Districts are instructed that assessment accommodations should be aligned with instructional accommodations – those accommodations used during instruction may be used during assessment. The exception is that reading the test aloud to students is not appropriate when the test is a measure of reading decoding skills.

Rhode Island is one of a handful of states that allows accommodations for all students. Students or their teachers must be able to demonstrate need for a specific accommodation before it can be incorporated into the testing procedures for the student. As a result of this uniquely inclusive approach to accommodations, Rhode Island has important data about the numbers of students with and without disabilities using accommodations.

Missouri initiated its new Communication Arts assessment in 1998. Missouri coded the specific accommodations used by students on bubble sheets at the time of testing; also coded for these students was the student’s category of disability and the disability area (math, reading, behavior). As a result of the richness of its information, Missouri has important data about the numbers of students with specific disabilities who used accommodations during state testing.

Results

The data on specific accommodations used during statewide assessment are collected in slightly different ways in each state, which in turn affects the kind of information available on use of accommodations during testing. Therefore, each state is presented separately here, with some indication of how data on accommodations used were collected.

Kentucky. Although Kentucky’s accommodation policies have been in place since 1992, it did not begin coding accommodations used during assessments until 1994-95. For coding purposes, Kentucky groups its accommodations into seven categories:

•        Reader/Oral. The assessment is read to the student in a way comparable to the manner in which normal instruction is delivered.

•        Scribe/Dictation. The responses to the assessment are dictated by the student and written down by a scribe in a way comparable to the manner in which normal instruction is delivered.

•        Cueing. The student with disabilities uses mnemonics, problem-solving organizers, semantic organizers, webs, or templates in responding to the assessment in a way consistent with daily instruction and the student’s IEP or 504 Plan.

•        Paraphrasing. The content of the assessment is paraphrased for the student with disabilities in a way comparable to the manner in which normal instruction is delivered.

•        Interpreter. The content of the assessment is signed for the student with disabilities in a way comparable to the manner in which normal instruction is delivered.

•        Technological. Technology typically used by the student with disabilities in daily instruction is made available during the administration of the assessment.

•     Other. Other accommodations normally made available in the delivery of instruction are made available in the administration of the assessment. (Trimble, 1998, pp. 23-24)

According to the 1999 NCEO survey data (see Table 1), Kentucky is one of the states with the highest percentage of students using accommodations during state testing (50–82%). The analysis of specific accommodations used during two earlier testing years (Trimble, 1998) indicated that across all students using accommodations, the most frequently used accommodations were (not necessarily in order): Reader/Oral, Scribe/Dictation, Paraphrasing, Oral & Scribe/Dictation, Paraphrasing & Reader/Oral & Scribe/Dictation, Paraphrasing & Reader/Oral & Other, Paraphrasing & Reader/Oral & Technology & Scribe/Dictation. Clearly, many students used combinations of accommodations rather than a single accommodation. The percentages of students using each of the most frequently used accommodations and combinations of accommodations during 1995-96 are presented in Table 3.

The data in Table 3 support NCEO’s finding that the percentage of students using accommodations decreases across grades (Thompson & Thurlow, 1999). In addition, the data in Table 4 suggest that combinations of accommodations are used by larger numbers of students than are single accommodations: in grade 4, the largest percentage of students used the Paraphrasing & Reader/Oral & Scribe/Dictation, while in both grade 8 and grades 11/12, the largest percentages of students used Paraphrasing & Reader/Oral.

Table 3.   Estimated Percentages of Students in Kentucky Using Specific Accommodations

Note:  The percentages in this table are estimated from the 1995-96 numbers presented by Trimble (1998) in Table 7 (accommodations use) and in Table 3 (number of students participating in assessment). Cells with less than 100 students were not estimated. The numbers in this table are considered to be estimates because it is possible that there were discrepancies in coding the number of students actually using specific accommodations or combinations, as well as some variation in the actual number of students participating in the assessment.

Rhode Island. The policy of allowing any student for whom the need for an accommodation could be demonstrated to use the accommodation during testing began during the 1995-96 school year, at the same time that the state first administered new performance assessments in Grade 4 mathematics, writing, and health education. At that time, Rhode Island had a list of several dozen accommodations that could be used by students.

According to the 1999 NCEO survey data (see Table 1), Rhode Island is a state with moderate percentages of students using accommodations during state testing (39-61%). The analysis of Rhode Island’s data revealed that while students without disabilities most often used just one accommodation, students with disabilities most often used between one and four accommodations (Elliott, Bielinski, Thurlow, DeVito, & Hedlund, 1999).

Table 4 presents the percentages of students with and without disabilities using each of the most frequently used accommodations and combinations of accommodations. These data show that relatively small percentages of students without disabilities used accommodations; the largest percentage of these students used the timing accommodation. For students with disabilities, the percentage of students using timing only was comparable to the percentage of students without disabilities using timing. However, there were other accommodations used by percentages of students with disabilities that were just as high (Oral & Repeated Directions), and a couple of combinations of accommodations that had much higher percentages of students with disabilities using them (Oral & Repeated Directions & Setting; Oral & Repeated Directions & Setting & Response).

Table 4.   Estimated Percentages of Students in Rhode Island Using Specific Accommodations

Note: The percentages in this table are estimated from 1995-96 numbers presented in Table 6 by Elliott et al. (1999). They are considered estimates because there may have been discrepancies in coding the number of students actually using specific accommodations or combinations, as well as some variation in the actual number of students participating in the assessment.

Missouri. In Missouri a list of about two dozen accommodations was in place during the 1998 testing. IEP teams decided which accommodations students would use, and then marked these on a Student Information Form, which also contained information on the student’s disability category and area of disability.

Missouri did not provide data to NCEO’s 1999 survey on the percentage of students using accommodations during state testing. However, Bielinski, Ysseldyke, Bolt, Friedebach, and Friedebach provided data on the percentages of students with disabilities who had valid test scores using accommodations in grade 3 (53%), grade 7 (53%), and grade 11 (33%). These data indicate that greater percentages of students use accommodations in elementary and middle school than in high school. Table 5 shows the percentages of students with various disabilities using the four most frequently used accommodations and combinations of combinations. These data were not broken down by grade by Bielinski et al. (in press).

Table 5.   Estimated Percentages of Students in Missouri Using Specific Accommodations

Note: The percentages in this table are directly from Table 1 in Bielinski, Ysseldyke, Bolt, Friedebach, and Friedebach (in press), and are based on only those students who received valid scores on the Missouri Comunications Arts test.  

Publicly Reported Data on Accommodations

Background

When the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was reauthorized in 1997, it included a requirement that states report on the number of students with disabilities included in state and district testing, and the performance of students on those tests in the same way and with the same frequency as they did for students without disabilities. NCEO started tracking public education reports in 1997 (Thurlow, Langenfeld, Nelson, Shin, & Coleman, 1998; Thurlow, Nelson, Teelucksingh, & Ysseldyke, 2000; Ysseldyke, Thurlow, Langenfeld, Nelson, Teelucksingh, & Seyfarth, 1998). These reports revealed that few states reported any information about students with disabilities other than enrollment data. Those that did report on the performance of students with disabilities often did not make clear whether they had included only those who took the assessments in the standard way, or had also included students who used some kind of accommodation.

Of the 13 states that provided some type of test data in 1998, Ysseldyke et al. (1998) found that only Delaware included any information on the use of accommodations. Delaware reported that “of the 3,395 special education students who took the test, 1,033 had some type of accommodation and 2,362 tested with no accommodation” (Delaware State Department of Education, 1997, p. 25). This indicates that about 30% of students with disabilities in Delaware used accommodations.

Oregon provided combined data on the numbers and percentages of students who took the 1993-94 reading assessment with modifications or who were exempt (Oregon Department of Education, 1997, p. 52). It is not possible to separate modifications from exemptions. Further, the use of the term “modifications” suggests that the report is focusing on the number of students whose results were not being reported. How many students used accommodations that were considered acceptable and thus were included in aggregate scores cannot be determined.

When another review of state reports was conducted in 1999 (Thurlow, Nelson, Teelucksingh, & Ysseldyke, 2000), 13 states (but not necessarily the same ones as in 1998) provided test-based data on students with disabilities; 12 provided participation data. Only South Dakota provided information about accommodations use (South Dakota Department of Education and Cultural Affairs, 1999). South Dakota disaggregated the scores for students who took the test under standard conditions, standard accommodations, and with nonstandard accommodations. In a report that was released after NCEO’s data collection period, North Carolina provided data on the numbers of students using modifications for its Tests of Computer Skills for the classes of 2001 and 2002 (State Board of Education, 1999). In North Carolina, “modifications” is the term used for both acceptable and not acceptable changes in testing conditions: