Test Access & Accommodations for Students with Disabilities Policy and Tools to Guide Decision-Making and Implementation The policy distinguishes between "testing accommodations" and "testing modifications." In short, this means that a student may use a calculator to do Algebra and Geometry, because the questions are not assessing aptitude in addition and multiplication: a calculator doesn't change the skill being assessed. By contrast, for a question that is specifically measuring the student's aptitude in addition and multiplication, a calculator would modify the skill being assessed (i.e. from being able to do multiplication, to being able to hit the proper keys on a calculator). The applicable passage says:
For example, this would mean that a blind student could NOT have a "Reading Comprehension" assessment read aloud, as that would modify the skill from READING comprehension to LISTENING comprehension. |