Recommendations for Accommodations: Implications of (In)consistency

When accurately assigned and administered appropriately, testing accommodations help ameliorate the effects of personal characteristics that limit access to critical information and prevent a person from demonstrating his or her true abilities in the tested domain. Inaccurate assignment or misuse of accommodations may counteract the benefits of accommodations and introduce sources of measurement error. In this study, we investigated the consistency of accommodation assignments across 38 third-grade students' Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), teacher recommendations, and student performance data. We found inconsistencies between the accommodations listed on the IEP and the teachers' recommendations. Similar results were observed when comparing either IEP or teacher recommendations with students' performance. These inconsistencies are interpreted in light of federal mandates and best practices.