Special Topic Area:
Accommodations for English Language Learners

Frequently Asked Questions

1. When should accommodations be used?
Accommodations should be provided to ensure that an assessment measures the student’s knowledge and skills rather than the student’s limited English proficiency. Usually these accommodations are ones that are routinely provided during classroom instruction. In other words, when classroom accommodations are made so that learning is not impeded by a student’s language proficiency, such accommodations generally should be provided during assessment, as long as they do not affect the construct being tested. Accommodations should not be introduced for the first time during an assessment. Decisions about assessment accommodations should be based on what students need in order to be provided with an equal opportunity to show what they know without impediment of their limited English language proficiency.

2. Who makes the decision?
Most decisions about who needs assessment accommodations should be made by people who know the educational needs of the student. In some locations, teams have been set up to make decisions about assessment participation and accommodations for English language learners. Even when an individual teacher or counselor has responsibility for these decisions, it is important for that person to communicate with other individuals who know the student and can provide information on accommodation needs. This may include parents and other educational professionals.

3. What is the impact of assessment accommodations on score comparability?
Given the lack of data on accommodations, we do not have empirical evidence of impact in most cases. Most states and districts use professional judgment to determine which accommodations affect score comparability. For example, reading a reading test aloud to the student when the reading test is measuring decoding generally is considered to change the meaning of the score. The resulting score probably should not be compared to other decoding scores. However, if the test is measuring math, reading the test aloud may allow the student to demonstrate this skill. The resulting score likely could be aggregated with, or compared to other students’ scores.

4. How fair is it to provide assessment accommodations to some students, but not others?
When answering this question, it is important to remember that the intent of providing accommodations is to "level the playing field" for students, ensuring that the test is measuring the student’s skills, not just the effects of limited English language proficiency. The provision of accommodations to English language learners is supported by language in NCLB. Some states have decided to extend availability of most accommodations to all students (e.g., Colorado, Kansas, Rhode Island). Not all states have policies on the use of accommodations by English language learners, but most do. It should be noted that the variability in policies on assessment accommodations often is due, in part, to differences in definitions of accommodations and test characteristics, as well as to variations in which accommodations are counted in accountability systems. Finally, accommodations decisions should be made on a student by student basis depending on the test and the student's linguistic needs.

5. What is the difference between an accommodation and a modification?
Because we do not currently have national agreement on the terms used to refer to accommodations, the answer to this can differ by state. However, many states do define accommodation and modification in different ways. An accommodation generally refers to a change in the way a test is administered, or a change in the testing environment, with the added characteristic that the construct measured does not change. A modification generally refers to a change to the test that is thought to change the construct measured. It is important to remember that most states do not have empirical evidence about construct validity and accommodations, and that these distinctions are made by professional judgment, not empirical evidence.

6. How does the type of test (e.g., norm-referenced vs. criterion-referenced) affect assessment accommodation decisions?
Some states use norm-referenced tests (NRT), others use criterion-referenced tests (CRT), and many use both. NRTs are used to allow comparisons to norms developed under standardized procedures; CRTs assess whether students can do particular tasks, but do not compare a student’s performance with the performance of a standardization group.

NRTs create special challenges for providing accommodations because most of these tests have been standardized without allowing accommodations. As a result, most test developers indicate that raw scores from accommodated tests cannot be compared to those of the normative group. This is changing as test developers begin to allow accommodations during standardization. For those accommodations not included, states may need to report the scores separately.

CRTs are designed to measure performance in relation to standards, and thus should be more open to the use of accommodations. Similarly, reporting results from accommodated assessments with results from non-accommodated assessments should be acceptable.

7. How are accommodated test scores reported?
Given the premise that accommodations are intended to allow the measurement of a student’s skill, and not the effect of limited English proficiency, scores can be aggregated to best capture the performance of all students. When the effects of particular accommodations are questioned, a reasonable approach is to both aggregate the data with the rest of the test scores and to disaggregate the scores of students receiving questionable accommodations.

8. Is an out-of-level test an appropriate accommodation?
The answer to this question is controversial. When an assessment is used for system accountability purposes, it may not be appropriate to use out-of-level testing because it does not reflect the student’s performance relative to the standards being assessed. If the assessment is being used solely for instructional purposes, then out-of-level testing may be appropriate.

9. What research is available on assessment accommodations?
There is a growing research base on accommodations for English language learners. See the resources section for a listing of some of the available studies.

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This page was last updated on July 15, 2008