• Standardized tests are used to make important decisions about student’s educational paths, like grade level advancement. The pressures put in place by standardized tests can cause teachers to narrow the curriculum.
• Norm-referenced tests compare student’s scores to each other to find out if a student is above or below the norm.
• Criterion referenced testing compares student’s skills of a specific skill level.
• The IDEA requires that student’s IEPs include accommodations that are necessary for the student to participate in mandated testing.
• Accommodations are variations in testing administration, environment, equipment, technology, and procedures that help the student demonstrate their knowledge and abilities adequately. Testing accommodations should be based on the student’s strengths, challenges and accommodations used in the classroom.
• Presentation mode testing accommodations change the way test questions and presentations are presented to students. They used simplified language, repeat directions, provide visuals and models, and list directions clearly and in order.
• Response mode accommodations change the way students respond to questions. Helping students respond in the correct manner and providing help to students with speaking, writing, or language disabilities.
• Some students need time, schedule, and setting accommodations that allow for more time, shorter tests, more breaks etc.
• Some student’s needs linguistically based test accommodations with oral directions or pictures.
• Students can be trained in how to take tests to prepare them ahead of time.
• Students with more severe disabilities who cannot participate in standardized tests need different forms of assessment including curriculum-based measurement, authentic/performance assessment, portfolio assessment, instructional rubrics, dynamic assessments (which examine how students respond to teaching), and teacher-made tests designed to meet the students needs.
• Students with disabilities’ progress can be observed through error analysis, think-aloud techniques, learning logs, and self-evaluation techniques.
• Report card grading should take into account the impact of differentiated instruction and be used to communicate academic gains and social and developmental accomplishments.
• Observational and sociometric techniques and self concept measurements can be used to evaluate social and behavioral performances.
• Interviews and questionnaires should be used to determine student, teacher, and family perceptions about students to determine the effectiveness of inclusion programs.
Resources
Educational Testing and Measurement: Classroom Application and Practice
Accommodations, Modifications, and Alternative Assessments
Measuring the Quality of Inclusion
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