All students are required to take
the state MCAS tests for their grade
level, regardless of their
Learning Disability. When IEP’s are
written, accommodations are agreed
upon for state
mandated MCAS testing. It is important
that students understand their specific
accommodations
and realize that using these these
accommodations is not cheating. This
is especially important
for older students who are sometimes
resistant to using their accommodations.
For testing
purposes, students are grouped according
to their accommodations. We try to
place students, as
often as possible, with a staff member
they know. All students have unlimited
time to complete
the test on the day the test is given;
they cannot return to the test to
finish on another day.
Some accommodations are considered standard
and are available to all students with an
IEP.
Others are considered non-standard
and have narrower guidelines. These guidelines
require use
of these accommodations within normal
instruction as well as specific requirements
for
individual testing accommodations.
The state has notified public schools that
they are
monitoring those accommodations considered
to be “non-standard” more critically in order
to
limit their use. They are referring
specifically to those that allow the reading
of test materials to
students in English/Language Arts,
the use of scribes, and using calculators
or number charts in
all parts of the mathematics test.
There are several factors in the use of the
special accommodation that allows the reading
of test
materials for the Reading Tests.
Because the DESE believes this accommodation
ends in a
result that may not accurately reflect
a student’s ability to meet grade level standards,
it can only
be used in rare cases when a student
is considered to be unable to decode at all
on their own.
They must be virtual non-readers.
Reading comprehension that is significantly
below grade level
is no longer deemed an adequate reason
for use of this accommodation. The state currently
provides specific testing packages
for students with this special accommodation
(to have the
ELA test read to them), so some students
may now be tested in small groups of 3-5 students
instead of only 1:1, as in the past.
This new guideline does not affect the opportunity
for
students to have all or part of the
math and/or science tests read to students.
This is a nonstandard
accommodation,
Scribes are used to help students with significant
motor issues, including students who may have
endurance or fatigue issues. This
may be someone, for example, whose writing
is illegible and
for whom typing on an Alphasmart
or computer is too challenging. This may also
include
students that can only express themselves
successfully when someone else is doing the
writing
for them, an exceptional accommodation.
The third non-standard accommodation under
scrutiny is that which allows use of a calculator,
multiplication chart, manipulatives,
or other devices to assist in calculation
on the non-calculator
sessions of Mathematics tests for
grades 5 and above. Only those students that
cannot complete
any calculations without such assistance
are eligible for this accommodation. Once
again, the
state has told us to use this sparingly.
As a result, these accommodations may be
a point of discussion in IEP meetings and
it will be
more difficult than in the past for
students to receive these accommodations..
In fact, the DESE
has stated that we should be modifying
IEPs to reflect these new guidelines. These
may done
through an amendment to the IEP.
It is up to the entire team to make the decision
as to when to
use these accommodations based upon
these new guidelines. The DESE will be collecting
data
and sharing it with school systems
as to the percentage of students using these
accommodations.
For more information on how this
may affect your child, please discuss the
issue with his/her
Educational Team Leader at LPS.
