Accommodations and Modifications - Texas SPED Quick Learns

Welcome to Texas SPED QuickLearns, a micro learning video series. In this video, we will explore elements of accommodations and modifications. This content aligns with the resource documents called Specially Designed Instruction Guide and Technical Assistance Individualized Education Program development, both of which can be found on the Texas SPED Support website. We encourage you to pause the video now and download these documents to use as supporting resources throughout this video. In this video, you will learn to distinguish between accommodations and modifications by understanding their definitions and engaging with examples of each type of support in different student scenarios. You will also be able to identify when a given support is being implemented as an accommodation versus when it is modifying an activity or standard. Students can experience challenges or barriers that interfere with their ability to access and demonstrate learning. These barriers can present themselves in many different ways in educational environment. Effective instructional strategies including differentiation and scaffolding, research based instructional strategies or RB's and Universal Design for Learning or UDL often support student needs. If a student is identified as being eligible for additional supports, an admission, review, and dismissal committee or ARD committee will become involved. An ARD committee is the team that determines a student's eligibility for special education services. Based on the student's eligibility, the ARD committee develops a student's present levels of academic achievement and functional performance or PLAF and individualized education program or IEP. The PLAF is a statement in a student's IEP that provides information on how the disability affects the student's involvement and progress in the general curriculum. The student's specially designed instruction is determined from the PLAF and is aligned to one or more goals in the IEP. SDI will be implemented to help the student achieve their IEP goals and objectives. SDI is the special education service or services the student needs supplemental to general education because of the disability. SDI is designed to ensure access to the general curriculum and to enable the student to make progress and demonstrate mastery of their IEP goals and objectives. SDI is needed regardless of the student's assigned instructional arrangement, which could include the general education classroom, the resource room, or self contained special education classroom. The PLAF, the IEP, and the SDI lead the ARD committee to determine what accommodations or modifications are necessary for the student's success. We'll begin with accommodations. Accommodations change how the student accesses learning or demonstrates knowledge and may reduce or even eliminate the effects of the student's disability on academic tasks while maintaining the objectives of the course or activity. Accommodations change how the content is taught, made accessible, or assessed. Accommodations do not change what the student is expected to master. The objectives of the course or activity remain intact. Accommodations are part of the SDI that allow the student access to the general education curriculum. Accommodations for instruction should be based on the needs of the student as described in the IEP. It is important to remember that accommodations do not change the content of instruction, change the expectations for learning, or change the requirements of the task. Rather accommodations allow for the student to demonstrate mastery in a different way. An example of an accommodation would be the student using text to speech. As seen in the chart, if the objective of the assignment is to access grade level science content, the use of text to speech technology to support accessibility when the student is reading below grade level can be an accommodation. Accommodations can be implemented as instructional supports, support student assessment, or both. Accommodations are the instructional materials or procedures that the art committee has determined are necessary to allow the student to participate meaningfully in testing. Accommodations for instruction should be based on the needs of the student as described in the IEP. These accommodations may or may not be allowed on assessments, but they should still be used for classwork. For a student who requires testing accommodations, the IEP must include the appropriate accommodations for the specific assessment. For more details and clarification regarding instructional versus testing accommodations, please refer to the accommodations section of the documents, Specially Designed Instruction, A Resource for Teachers, and Technical Assistance, Individualized Education Program development on the Texas SPED Support website. Instructional accommodations fall into four different categories: presentation, response, setting, and timing or scheduling accommodations. We're going to talk about a few examples of these types of accommodations. Remember, accommodations are based on the needs of the student as described in the IEP and are not a predetermined set of supports that constitute what can be an individualized accommodation. We will first look at presentation accommodations. These accommodations allow students to access instructional materials when visual, physical, or learning difficulties impede the decoding and comprehension of text. Examples of presentation accommodations include shortened assignments, administration of material orally or in American sign language, audio text, visual, verbal, or tactile reminders to stay on task, and large print or braille materials. The second type of instructional accommodation we will look at are response accommodations. These allow students to record their work in alternative ways, to solve or organize their work using some material or device. Some examples of response accommodations could include the use of a calculator, the use of word processing or prediction software, or the use of a scribe. The use of a scribe for a student who has physical difficulties with writing allows for the student to verbally communicate their understanding of the material to the teacher or paraprofessional who will write down the student's response. This response accommodation alleviates the student's physical burden of writing. A student could also use technology to record an audio or video response to an assignment. The student could use a calculator as an accommodation to solve simple calculations while still understanding the correct approaches to solving problems and how to follow the appropriate steps. This is an example of the response accommodation that changes how the student is learning, but not what the student is expected to learn. Setting accommodations change the conditions of the setting or the location in which the instruction is given. One example of setting accommodations is preferential seating. Preferential seating is placing a student's seat in a location that is most beneficial for their learning in the classroom. Other examples of setting accommodations include small group instruction, adaptive furniture or equipment, or a setting with distractions removed. For instance, the student could use a desk carrel. Setting accommodations occur in the assigned classroom and do not change the instructional placement of a student. Timing and schedule accommodations adjust the time allotment and the scheduling requirements for assignments, homework, and assessments. Students may also require more breaks or reminders to stay on task. Examples of timing and scheduling accommodations can include clearly defined extended time on assignments, frequent breaks, cooling off period, or having assignments due in segments. We will now take a look at testing accommodations. Testing accommodations include classroom testing accommodations as well as accommodations for state assessments. Classroom testing accommodations may differ from state assessment accommodations based on eligible criteria. For a student who requires testing accommodations, the IEP must include the appropriate accommodations for the specific assessment. Testing accommodations can include, but are not limited to, extended time, calculation aids, spelling assistance, and the use of blank scratch paper. Remember, testing accommodations do not change the content the student is expected to master. It is important to remember that a student may use this designated support if the student routinely, independently, and effectively uses these designated supports during classroom instruction and classroom testing. Accommodation policies may apply to any student taking the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, STAR, or the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System depending on his or her needs and where the student meets the eligibility criteria. For more clarification on testing accommodations, please refer to the Testing Accommodations section of the document Technical Assistance Individualized Education Program Development on the Texas SPED Support website. Now that we have a clear understanding of accommodations, we will examine modifications. What are modifications? Modifications change what the student is expected to master, The complexity of the course activity or Texas essential knowledge and skills, the TEKS. Objectives are altered to meet the student's needs. Modifications do change the expectations of learning or change the requirement of the task. Let's go over some examples that show modifications for students in the classroom. A student may use the same materials as their peers but for a different purpose. For example, the student with the modification may use the assigned worksheet to circle all of the fives on the page, whereas other students add the numbers in columns. A student may be introduced to only the vocabulary terms encountered more commonly instead of the full list of vocabulary terms in the unit of instruction. For example, the student may be introduced to more commonly used terms such as battery, electricity, and magnet rather than ampere, volt, and semiconductor. A student may be provided different reading material such as an adapted text or a lower level text. A student may receive a modification of a different assignment, such as writing a one paragraph essay with just the main idea and details included rather than a five paragraph essay that includes claims, evidence, and analysis that is assigned to other students. An alternative assessment might include reduced rigor or complexity of the tested content. This could involve using a student portfolio to showcase the demonstration of the student's knowledge or by relying on observational data to observe the student as they perform a specific skill set or achieve a particular goal. Accessing grade level content, the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills or TEKS, through prerequisite skills is also considered a modification. Determining the difference between accommodations and modifications can be confusing. For example, the same instructional adjustment can be categorized as an accommodation or as a modification depending on the intent of the grade level standard being taught or how the support is being implemented. This chart provides examples of how the same instructional adjustment can be both an accommodation and a modification. Let's look at an example. Instructional adjustment. Assignment for all students. Twenty five math problems consisting of adding numerals, fractions, and decimals. Adjustment, the teacher shortens the assignment for the student. Accommodation, After deleting the ten math problems, the teacher ensures that the remaining fifteen problems, including adding numerals, fractions, and decimals, shortening the assignment adjusts how the student demonstrates mastery of the content. Modification. After deleting the ten math problems, the remaining problems include adding numerals and fractions only. In deleting the problems that require the student to add decimals, changes are made to what the student is expected to master. In this example, the instructional adjustment was an accommodation for one student because they had fewer problems to solve, giving the student more time to work on each problem. The adjustment was a modification for another student because the teacher modified the content with strategic elimination. The teacher was able to specially design the assignment to meet each student's need. As we wrap up this video in our series, the key concepts to take away are accommodations change how the student is learning, and modifications change what the student is learning. Accommodations and modifications for instruction should be based on the needs of the student as described in their IEP. Accommodations and modifications must be used regularly and consistently with the student. For more resources on accommodations and modifications, please visit the Texas SPED support website. For more information on SDI, check out the specially designed instruction micro learning video also found in this series.