1. Accommodations in testing: Law, policy and practice
Diana Pullin, J.D., Ph.D.
Boston College

2. What are the public policy goals for current education reform initiatives? For educating students with disabilities? (The problem of standardization versus individualization) What are the consequences of including students with disabilities in general education reform initiatives? What are the legal requirements concerning students with disabilities and education reform initiatives?

3. What are the legal requirements concerning participation
of students with disabilities in state and national education
reform initiatives?

4. Sources of law (federal):
IDEA
Section 504
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)
Civil rights provisions protecting racial and language
minorities
Federal constitutional provisions (nondiscrimination
and opportunity to learn)

5. Sources of law (state): State laws on special education Nondiscrimination on basis of disability State education reform laws Civil rights provisions protecting racial and
language minorities
State constitutional provisions (right to
adequate education in some states)

6. IEP considerations under IDEA:
…evaluations for progress in general curriculum
…team membership includes general curriculum
expertise and regular classroom teacher
…describe participation in general curriculum and
how to make progress
…describe assessment participation

7. What about 504 students?

8. IEP or 504 team decides participation, individual
accommodations and modifications
but…
State decides rules for making assessments valid, reliable, consistent with professional and
technical standards

9. Defining and documenting disability
Determining participation in accountability testing
… general testing
… testing with accommodations
… alternate testing
… no testing?

10. The nondiscrimination requirements of federal
(and some state) laws
eligibility for nondiscrimination protections
“reasonable accommodations”

11. What is “reasonable”?
The principal of “leveling the playing field”
The principal of “undue burden”

12. Accommodated assessments
Determining reasonable accommodations
* Consider the classification and its consequences
… for the individual
… for the accountability system

13. Accommodated assessments
Determining reasonable accommodations
* Consider the impact on test validity
* Consider the impact on test reliability

14. What are the appropriate ways to utilize
accommodated assessments in public
accountability systems?

15. Fair warning: An appropriate accommodation
is not universal. . .
. . . an accommodation in a classroom,state
or local test may not mean the same treatment
for other types of standardized K-12 tests, like
admissions tests or AP tests.

16. References:
American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, National
Council on Measurement in Education (AERA/APA/NCME) (1999). Standards on educational and
psychological testing. Washington, D.C.: American Educational Research Association.
Pullin, D. (2005). When one size does not fit all-The special challenges of accountability testing for
students with disabilities. Uses and Misuses of Data for Educational Accountability and Improvement
(E. Haertel and J. Herman, eds.). Annual Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education.
104:2, pp ).
Thurlow, M., Elliott, J., and Ysseldyke, J. (2003). Testing students with disabilities: Practical strategies for complying with district and state requirements (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.
U.S. Department of Education (2005, May 10). Flexibility for states raising achievement for students
with disabilities.