Inclusive Assessment and Accountability: A Guide to Accommodations for Students with Diverse Needs

Citation

Abaya, J. (2009), "Inclusive Assessment and Accountability: A Guide to Accommodations for Students with Diverse Needs", Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 47 No. 5, pp. 680-684. https://doi.org/10.1108/09578230910981152

The success of any educational system lies on the premise that students will attain certain benchmarks. The proof available to stakeholders to ascertain the success or failure of the system is mainly through assessments. Applying the same yardstick to learners, who possess varied and differing learning abilities, and capabilities flies in the face of fairness and commonsense. It is only when students are assessed fairly and inclusively that a system can be said to be responsive to the needs of all learners irrespective of color, age, origin, or ethnicity. Such a system when deemed fair can then be used to hold the educators accountable. Even though students with disabilities represent a relatively small but significant group of students in US schools their education is heavily influenced by federal and state law as well as by long‐standing beliefs about the purpose of education and the extreme heterogeneity of the population. To cater for this heterogeneity there is need to adopt assessment and accountability models that guarantee individualization, integration, economic independence, self‐determination, and self‐advocacy. One large‐scale assessment cannot and should not meet all needs for educational data. This is the message offered by Bolt and Roach (2009) in their book, Inclusive Assessment and Accountability: A Guide to Accommodations for Students with Diverse Needs.

Citing from immense research and expertise in large‐scale assessment, the authors clearly point out that despite an increase in the standards‐based accountability movement it seems as though students with special needs are not well catered for in these assessments. This is despite the mandated professional and in‐service training focused on inclusive instructional and assessment practices as provided by No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Where there is some semblance of assessment, inclusion of students with diverse needs is often plagued by unusual variability in accommodations and assessments practices which may be an indication of either a lack of reliable professional standards to guide practices or/and lack of capacity to effectively include these students in the state standards‐based accountability. To fill this gap, the authors have written this book to provide guidance and materials that if used would widen the base applicability of the standards‐based large‐scale assessments and in the long‐run improve access to instruction for all students.

To ensure that the book is easily understandable and an easy read for the general public, the authors have divided the book into eight chapters. Each chapter builds and transitions smoothly into the subsequent chapter. In Chapter 1, “No child left behind and standards‐based reform and accountability,” a brief historical background of the standards‐based reform movement as well as information on NCLB and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act are provided. The authors try to demystify different types of standards as well as NCLB's influence on the standards‐based reform and accountability. Since educators who work with students with diverse needs – and those who do not are often uninformed, or misinformed about standards‐based reform and accountability systems, these educators will acquire the knowledge to not only know but also differentiate unintended and intended consequences of the reforms.

“Making participation decisions for diverse students” is Chapter 2 in which the authors expound on the right of all students to the intended benefits of improved teaching and learning yet it is unclear on how best to include diverse students their unique characteristics notwithstanding. The authors provide a broad overview of participations options available and a nine‐step process that could be used when making such decisions. Although, there is variation in the 50 states on options for participation, individual education plans (IEP) teams should be consulted when making decisions based on disability category, restrictiveness of educational setting, difficulty level of the test, fear that student will not pass the test and how the student has participated in the assessment program in the past. Case examples of forms used when making these decisions and choices are included at the end of the chapter. In Chapter 3, “Testing accommodations for students with disabilities” the authors focus on methods for determining whether certain test alterations are appropriate in those situations in which such changes may be needed for the student to demonstrate their knowledge and skills on tests. The authors discuss some student characteristics that interfere with accurate test measurement as well as types of accommodations. Since students are different and unique, much thought and input from IEP committees as well as the students is required in making the final decision bearing in mind that at times provision for an accommodation could potentially lead to additional challenges to appropriate testing. The authors have also given an overview of state accommodation policies as well as a discussion about the need to align testing and instructional accommodations. Since some service providers may encounter some difficult in making decisions on test accommodations, the authors have lessened their work by providing a list of questions to guide this process both at the district, school, and individual level and capped it with case examples.

In Chapter 4, the authors discuss “Testing accommodations for English language learners.” Large‐scale assessment and accountability systems that are developed to measure the academic skills for the general population also need to include English language learners (ELL) (p. 64). Problems encountered in the choice of an accommodation include not only identifying target skills for ELL's but also deciding on the language in which the test material should be presented. The authors have listed unique student characteristics such as prior and current academic experiences as well as variables associated with the development of second‐language development that should be taken into consideration. One observation made by the authors is that even though some accommodations commonly considered for students with disabilities might also apply to ELL's, educators must only consider accommodations that would reduce linguistic difficulties. This observation is way overdue given the fact that when teachers fail to communicate effectively with ELL's, they are quick to lump and label them as disabled yet in the strictest sense ELL's are not disabled but lack a proficiency level that can allow them to articulate their ideas and respond to the teachers cues. At the end of the chapter, the authors have given a case example and a form that is used in participation decision making for ELL's.

Chapter 5, “Alternate assessments for students with disabilities” is devoted to those students with significant disabilities who even after being accorded various testing accommodations in large‐scale assessments are unable to participate in the said tests. For such students hope is not lost for they too can participate in assessments through alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards (AA‐AAS). Determining who should participate in AA‐AAS, a checklist is used by participants in students' IEP meetings. Even though debate abounds as to the most appropriate AA‐AAS, what is not subject to debate is the fact that AA‐AAS instruments must have technical adequacy and should measure what they were intended to measure. Challenges that might affect the optimum implementation of alternate assessments are discussed interspersed with a horde of forms and worksheets that are used in AA‐AAS. In Chapter 6, “Facilitating and evaluating access to the general education curriculum” is the subject of discussion. The authors offer various definitions of a general curriculum noting that the over reliance on text books to anchor learning creates numerous barriers to access and involvement for students with disabilities and ELL's especially the reading level of the written texts. The authors contend that students with disabilities and ELL's have a right to access the general curriculum and have provided a variety of models and strategies that have been proposed by researchers to support this objective.

Chapter 7, “Universal design for instruction and assessment” borrows heavily from architecture. The whole idea of a “Universal design for instruction and assessment” lies in the fact that it is possible to design an assessment and instructional system that is accessible to the widest variety of students as opposed to those with a particular disability. Just like ramps are used by those in wheel chairs and those who are temporarily ill or even with an ambulance crew accessing and exiting a building with a patient, so should curriculums be designed to benefit many. The need for accommodations in any instruction and standards‐based assessment is indicative of the exclusionary nature of these tests. To achieve such a universal design, the authors suggest that goals for assessment and instructions should be carefully considered along with the various challenges that diverse students may encounter in their attempts to demonstrate their knowledge (p. 122). The legal requirements for universal design in education as well as principles of universal design have also been dealt with though not at great depth. The authors have included however detailed examples of universal design for assessment and universal design for learning and how instruction in a state standard might be addressed in a traditional format.

The eighth and concluding chapter is allows for the authors to register their wish and purpose for writing this book: That Educators and Stakeholders will use the information in this book to Take Proactive Stance Towards Inclusive Standards‐Based Reform Accountability. An overview of a litany of professional standards for assessment and accountability that have been developed by various organizations (e.g. American Federation of Teachers in conjunction with the National Council on Measurement in Education and the National Education Association; National Center for Educational Outcomes). The authors have also provided several statements that mirror their beliefs, a list of principles and characteristics of inclusive assessment and accountability, federal enterprise architecture principles, and primary recommendations from the expert panel on assessment. This chapter is quite useful as it contains ideas and advice for educators as well as family members regarding inclusion of students with disabilities and ELL's in the general education curriculum and large‐scale assessments. The inclusion of standards developed by professionals and other stakeholders gives this chapter “legitimacy” since the standards have been developed through research, consultations, and deliberations from all stake holders.

Overall, Inclusive Assessment and Accountability: A Guide to Accommodations for Students with Diverse Needs is well written and offers hope to the many students with diverse needs and ELL's who have for a long time been unable to participate in standards‐based accountability either due to the limited opportunities availed to them or lack of knowledge as to how best to develop an inclusive accountability system. Bolt and Roach have shared in this book not only their academic expertise but also their experience working directly with state and local educators on policy and practice issues related to large‐scale assessment for system accountability. Their obvious solid grounding and deep understanding of both state and local practice makes this book an important resource for educators. The addition of dynamic web‐based tools and web links to current and ongoing research, research citations, research findings and practice discoveries propels the book a must read for those educators and policy makers who believe that assessments need to be not only valid measures of academic performance but also meaningful and manageable tools for test users. To the educators and policy holders, this book will act as one‐stop shop for them. The knowledge they will gain from reading this book will go along way not only in making them more responsive to the needs of students with diverse needs but also widen their choice of accommodations when the need arises. For the parents and the IEP committee members, here is a resource book that has examples of what needs to be done in order to develop individualized IEP's that have the interests of the students at heart while maintaining the integrity and purpose of the assessment tool. The zeal and devotion to the authors desire of seeing an inclusive assessment and accountability is quite evident. They have made use of more than a 100 pieces of research in bolstering and cementing their arguments. The book is highly recommended to all those involved in the education profession from PreK‐12 through higher education. Normally, appendices are located at the back of any book but the authors have decided to include them at the end of each chapter and this gives a breath of fresh air. A reader avoids flipping back and forth trying thus this feature enhances continuity. The inclusion of actual forms used in schools breathes life into the book as teachers look at familiar forms and identify themselves with the authors and the book.