What are Accommodations?
A disability is defined by federal law as a substantial limitation, in a major life activity, as compared with most people in the general population. Major life activities include activities of daily living such as breathing, working, learning, seeing, hearing, and reading.
Assessment accommodations provide students who have disabilities with an opportunity to demonstrate their skills and abilities without interference caused by the disability itself. Accommodations change the way that an assessment is administered or how learners may respond to the assessment situation. Appropriate accommodations meet learners’ needs without changing what a test is intended to measure (https://www.casas.org/training-and-support/testing-guidelines/accommodations-guidelines).
Brad Hasskamp, Minnesota State Adult Education Director and Adult Basic Education Supervisor has given the following guidance to administering the CASAS and TABE test with accommodations:
“Test accommodations must comply with publisher guidelines. Beyond that, no special documentation or permission is required to provide accommodations on the TABE and CASAS tests. Test administrators need only to provide the same accommodations at the pre- and post-test in order to assure standardized testing conditions. Note that it may be helpful to document accommodations provided in the event that the folks involved in post-testing were not those initially involved in pre-testing. It is up to local programs whether and how to keep such documentation.”
CASAS Standardized Assessment Accommodations Guidelines
Adult students are responsible for requesting accommodations and providing documentation of their disability (IEP, 504 Plan, medical doctors note, etc.).
For students identified as having a disability the ABE program is responsible to implement appropriate and reasonable accommodations. Note that accommodations used in testing should typically be the same as accommodations used in instruction.
Maintain a record of the accommodations provided in the students records. Use the same accommodations pre-test and post-test.
Examples of CASAS Accommodations
- Head phones for listening test
- Sign Language Interpreter
- Magnifier
- Large print
- Braille
- Extra time
- Assess in two sessions
- Scribe/writer
- Private room
- Breaks
- Simple calculator for math
- Text to Speech (reads text aloud)
CASAS Alternate Test Formats
- Large print
- Braille
- Audio version
For additional information click on the link below to view or print a step-by-step guideline:
