Accommodations not honored on PARCC?

[Anonymous]

My 7th grade child is supposed to be in a small testing group but for the last two days he has been in a PARCC testing group of more than 30 students. All of the students have small group testing accommodation and some of the kids are huge behavior problems. Who do I contact about accommodations not being honored?

[Anonymous]

The Middle School Counsellor

[Anonymous]

PARCC has different rules about accommodations than what is specified in an IEP for general education access. You may want to ask what accommodations are specified for your child in the PARCC.

[Anonymous]

That’s correct (I’m a counselor). The rules are different. We had to create separate accommodation lists for PARCC.

[Anonymous]

Will he get small interview pools too when he is older. Send him to his job with an IEP, I am sure the coworkers won’t mind covering

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will he get small interview pools too when he is older. Send him to his job with an IEP, I am sure the coworkers won’t mind covering

I have never had to take a standardized test for work; nor have I ever had a job interview with 30 other people. The skills needed to succeed at work are different from the skills needed to succeed at school and certainly different from the skills needed for PARCC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That’s correct (I’m a counselor). The rules are different. We had to create separate accommodation lists for PARCC.

PP can you explain why they would be different. My 4th grade son with an IEP is soon to take the PARC and I’m not sure if I should worry. I also have a HS daughter with a 504 so I’m going to have to ask her about her experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will he get small interview pools too when he is older. Send him to his job with an IEP, I am sure the coworkers won’t mind covering

Ever heard of reasonable accommodations, asshole? It’s from the Americans with Disabilities Act and it applies to the workplace too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PARCC has different rules about accommodations than what is specified in an IEP for general education access. You may want to ask what accommodations are specified for your child in the PARCC.

A test is a test. I don't know why Maryland / MCPS thinks a child needs an accommodation for classroom assessments but he/she won't need it for the PARCC. For example: why do only kids with dyslexia get a read to accommodation for PARCC when this accommodation might be needed for other disabilities as well?

Behind the scenes it's a funding issue that the Federal government should be looking into. The read to accommodation on the PARCC drives up the cost for that particular test so they only have enough access for a specified percentage of the testing group. Funding should never be driving the discussion of whether or not a child needs an accommodation or services but that is the reality of how Maryland / MCPS treats kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s correct (I’m a counselor). The rules are different. We had to create separate accommodation lists for PARCC.

PP can you explain why they would be different. My 4th grade son with an IEP is soon to take the PARC and I’m not sure if I should worry. I also have a HS daughter with a 504 so I’m going to have to ask her about her experience.

PP (not the counselor)
Part of the reason that there are different accommodations is that the test is designed using "Universal Design for Learning" principles and that electronic tools are available to all students to help them access the information. For example, students can use an audio text reader, so IEP students with a "read to" accommodation don't need a human reader. Things like the setting and timing accommodations are set by the state (I think) and I don't have a reference handy for that information. But, https://parcc.pearson.com/manuals/ has far more information than you really want about test design in the Accessibility Features and Accommodations Manual (AF&A).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PARCC has different rules about accommodations than what is specified in an IEP for general education access. You may want to ask what accommodations are specified for your child in the PARCC.

A test is a test. I don't know why Maryland / MCPS thinks a child needs an accommodation for classroom assessments but he/she won't need it for the PARCC. For example: why do only kids with dyslexia get a read to accommodation for PARCC when this accommodation might be needed for other disabilities as well?

Behind the scenes it's a funding issue that the Federal government should be looking into. The read to accommodation on the PARCC drives up the cost for that particular test so they only have enough access for a specified percentage of the testing group. Funding should never be driving the discussion of whether or not a child needs an accommodation or services but that is the reality of how Maryland / MCPS treats kids.

I just answered this while you were posting. There is no read-to on PARCC because it has a text reader built in. Kids don't need a human reader.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s correct (I’m a counselor). The rules are different. We had to create separate accommodation lists for PARCC.

PP can you explain why they would be different. My 4th grade son with an IEP is soon to take the PARC and I’m not sure if I should worry. I also have a HS daughter with a 504 so I’m going to have to ask her about her experience.

PP (not the counselor)
Part of the reason that there are different accommodations is that the test is designed using "Universal Design for Learning" principles and that electronic tools are available to all students to help them access the information. For example, students can use an audio text reader, so IEP students with a "read to" accommodation don't need a human reader. Things like the setting and timing accommodations are set by the state (I think) and I don't have a reference handy for that information. But, https://parcc.pearson.com/manuals/ has far more information than you really want about test design in the Accessibility Features and Accommodations Manual (AF&A).

Counselor PP here. This is exactly right.

[Anonymous]

I agree with everyone that it is a separate list for PARCC that should have been covered in IEP/504 meeting, but I also hear what OP is saying. A room of 30 kids is not a less-distraction, small group type setting and should be addressed. (Unless they usually give the test in a group of 100 or something)

[Anonymous]

I think 7th grader needs to get with the real world and stop treating him like a snowflake

[Anonymous]

Counselor here— small groups are often not better fwiw. When I proctor small groups, those kids often zip through and stop working within minutes. That’s something that spreads in the room despite my efforts to get them to proofread, recheck etc. It’s not often the most persistent/sit with frustration kids in the small groups together. I wonder sometimes if they’d be better off with a larger group where they see tons of kids working until the final minute allotted.