Accommodations today have myself Kristen
Lesley the director of the specialed
tech center we have Rose Rosco on also
from the special ed tech center Cara and
Tony you want to introduce yourselves hi
I’m Tony wheeler the director of
assessment development here at OPI hi
I’m Cara Todd I work on Tony’s team here
in the assessment development office at
OPI well today you’re going to see a lot
of demonstration of tools we’re going to
be C C in smarter balanced um both the
ELA and math and science assessments
here you see it them by grade levels and
you can see the full timelines and the
calendar of testing State Testing at the
link so first off we wanted to start by
talking about at devices and services
some of you may know that there was some
new guidance released from the office of
special education programs and the
Office of Education technology around at
devices and services we’re going to
share that resource today but we know
that for the individuals with disability
Education Act we have Assist of
technology devices and services defined
and they are to help to increase
maintain or improve the functional
capabilities of students eligible for
special education and this is an order
to access a free and appropriate public
education in the guidance that recently
came out one of the myths number one is
that assisted technology should only be
considered at some individual education
program team meetings the fact is that
each time the IEP team meets to develop
review revise a child’s IEP that IEP
team must consider whether assistive
technology is required and that’s both
at devices and at Services the IP team
must thoughtfully consider if at devices
and services are required to support the
student in their educational environment
and they must document this in the IEP
and so it’s documented under the special
factors and it could also be noted in
other places in the IEP we need to be
reflecting in that special factors if
it’s required or not we need to be
asking ourselves specifically related to
that student is that assisted technology
required for that student to access
their general education curriculum or to
make progress on their IEP goals and
towards State Standards so we want to
clearly document with data and so just
giving an example say you have a student
who’s at the fifth grade level they’re
reading at the third grade level so we
would want that student their typical
performance to access that grade level
content at the fifth grade level and so
that’s where we want them to be and the
current performance might be that their
testing shows that when they access it
on their own without those at
accommodations the comprehension scores
are at the third grade level right so we
take some data showing that when we
Implement text to speeech the student
can comprehend maybe at the fourth or
fifth grade level and that data helps us
make that informed decision at the IEP
meeting that that student requires
assist of technology in the form of text
to speech so we’re identifying the
accommodation needed and then we’re
documenting we are documenting that
again in that special factors area but
also it may be listed on the
accommodations page because you’re
needing to include where does that
student need the accommodation when do
they need the accommodation also
including well need it during testing to
access the text briefly we just wanted
to mention accommodations versus
modifications so accommodations being
how the content is presented so that the
student can access the grade level
content and also this is least
restrictive than a modification and it
should be that initial consideration
there’s four types of accommodations The
Way We Were presenting the information
perhaps the way the student is
responding they could they maybe they
need to use the speech to text or word
prediction
it could be around timing needing
additional timing um scheduling or or
even the setting that they are U needing
that accommodation modification refers
to what the student is expected to learn
that’s curricular modifications can be
appropriate for when students have more
significant disabilities and we’re
changing what is taught so this is this
is not as frequent as accommodations
another myth from the new guidance from
oep is around State Testing and it’s
myth 8 at cannot be used for
participation in State academic
assessment and then the fact is that
elementary and secondary Education Act
requires states to provide the
appropriate accommodations which
includes the use of at devices for
students with disabilities as part of
their state assessment and that is why
we’re here today and just so you know
around that myths and and facts document
the special ed tech center is going to
be diving into each myth and fact and
providing some additional resources in
our Tuesday tips so you can check those
out because there I think there’s 28 or
29 tips around assist of Technology this
page really is what resources are out
there and what you should you be
Consulting so the guidelines for State
Testing we call them Washington calls
them the guidelines on tool supports and
accommodations for State Testing the
link is on to our WAP portal where we
keep these now I will let you know that
smarter balanced also has a version our
version is derived from Smarter Balance
but I would say lean towards our version
because we have more stuff so for
smarter balanced we have to all the
states have to agree um there are some
things that we in Washington have
approved and our version also includes
science so this is going to be more
applicable to you additionally there’s a
link for the accessibility supports page
on our wcap portal which has some nice
resources for considering ing what might
be appropriate for students the actual
document is linked there as well and
then what of our fabulous how do you go
about trying out speech to text with
your students is linked there as
well so um our oneoff assessment is
really around our English language
proficiency assessment um I will we will
not spend a lot of time talking about
that but weda does have its very own
accessibility manual and um
accommodation policies are set at the
test level which is why you sometimes
will see variation between content areas
or cross tests so this is where you need
to go to get information for students
with disabilities who are also
multilingual Learners participating in
the waeda assessment specific to assist
assistive technology we have a couple
resources for you cambium who is our
test vendor their assist assistive
technology manual which will go through
some of the most common assistive
Technologies and what is operable within
the secure
browser what is new for this school year
for math Ela and science the biggest
thing is that there is now Spanish text
to speech available for math and science
tests and I’ll show you that a little
bit later is that the Spanish
presentation of math and science test
now has two different display options
the new option is where students can
switch between only seeing Spanish on
the screen or they can hit a button and
they can see all of the test content in
um in English um the buttons and stuff
are still in Spanish so like the people
have called it the skin or the framing
of it is still in Spanish because um the
assumption is that the student really
does need a Spanish test but they can
switch back and forth between the two of
them and that’s the default if they uh
if the student really prefers to have
what we previously had available where
there was Spanish first and then English
below that that is also available to be
turned on if the student um wants to use
that one the next big thing and you guys
are actually the first audience we’re
telling is that the text to speech and
the ASL buttons are now more visible
I’ll show you those in just a moment and
that was was a was asked for by lots of
teachers because um teachers who had the
ASL videos or had text to speech it was
just a lot of clicks and so um and so
we’ve moved that out and I’ll show you
where that is now we also have printed
online English test directions are
available for ELA math and science tests
if students need to read those along
with um with the TA who’s leading them
through the login process and Bluetooth
hearing aids are now included in the
definition of medical supports and
that’s really important because a lot of
of students their hearing aids are
Bluetooth now and so if they want to
hear the listen ing passage or hear the
text to speech then they had the
Bluetooth hearing aids and we we have to
have to be really clear the Bluetooth
hearing aids is a designated support for
designated support is available for any
student who has a demonstrated need and
in the Bluetooth hearing aids that’s
that’s different than the headphones
that the student uses to listen to the
ELA um listening passages Bluetooth
headphones are um are not allowed for
for that we’re going to update one of
our documents we had a lot of students
listening to their phones on their
Bluetooth headphones and that causes a
test instant and their their score um
can be impacted by that and so think
about the medical support when you’re
thinking about the Bluetooth hearing aid
not Bluetooth headphones who qualifies
for the Spanish presentation of the test
this can be any student the student does
not have to be in El programming in
order to get this a student who is who
maybe was in English language
development services as a kindergarten
first grader and second grader they they
you know pass out a program they’re not
getting ELD Support Services anymore for
that language development but they’re
but they’re still good with um with
seeing and hearing Spanish they can
absolutely have um access to the Spanish
version of the math or science test and
it can be a student who who never tested
into ELD service they are just bilingual
and they can access the the content in
in Spanish as well there’s a whole
process and Tony and I have a um a whole
series um called using the guidelines
tools and supports and accommodations
where we talk about how you identify for
students students for these and we’ll
talk a little bit more as we go through
today about how you would identify
students for getting one of these one of
the things that are designated Sports
some of these on the screen are
accommodations and some of them are
designated supports
I’m going to show you textt to speech
and word prediction so text to speech
being most of the time it’s a designated
support word prediction is an
accommodation and I’m also going to show
you ASL as an accommodation so this is
the context menu where other buttons and
tools are but now if a student has ASL
videos it’s right there for them it’s
right next to that menu and if they have
text to speech it’s right next to that
and they would do speak what is the area
in square feet of the
ceiling actually tracking along with
this with what it’s saying and then over
here on the passage side of the screen
um again there is the ASL
video um and the student can make this
bigger they can make it smaller they can
stop
wants to to paint her room she wants to
paint the ceiling White and The Four
Walls purple and I can stop it speaking
um and when you’re in the actual secure
browser there’s more students can do
they can um you can like select some
text oh there it did it’ll do it here um
and they can have it just speak that
part they want have repeated for
themselves so um I just I wanted you to
see that the the visibility of those and
then I also said I would show you word
prediction what about leting up and
slowing down sound once you’re within
the test you can um do that you can
change the text to speech settings here
um so you could change the the rate or
the um and you can change the pitch as
well you can do this also during the
login process you have to pass a
technology test to make sure it works
and before it’ll let you before the test
will let you go in but you can also do
it and so it’s this little Cog system
set settings button right up here
here it’s built in now and um and so I I
can start typing and if I
[Music]
um just pick a
number and or I can click on
just starts typing so it’s not going to
it’s not going to predict ahead for me
it’s not going to suggest my next word
for me it’s just going to suggest it’s
just going to um give me the um the word
the current word that I’m working on so
this is
embedded and the student can use that to
help them type faster if they need to
Cara the question was can you hover over
the words to hear them oh so because I
enabled this test for text to speech
student
responses I can do that and so I this is
this little text speech here um so the
word prediction is still showing up but
but those are two separate things you
have to turn on they are not together
they’re two separate things
um so is that just after they’ve um
inputed text then they can hear what
they inputed for word prediction they
can hover over the word prediction words
to hear them before they select no okay
do that yeah so they can only um they
would only be able to um
can’t do anything in this box
itself you can’t well you can only
select it like that
it’s because it’s word prediction and
the text to speech student responses
that I have them both on that that I can
do
this
demonstrations in a little bit quickly
how you got to word prediction this
would be a student setting if it is set
in our test information delivery system
for the student whenever they have an
open response SP box if it is set for
them then they will see it and I will
show you a little bit later how to find
it in our practice tests so that you can
try it out yep okay so this is our big
theoretical framework of how supports
function for State Testing so what’s
important to note is we have two sides
of this so we have things that are
embedded so these are things that are
readily available within the students
test setting when they sit down and have
to be some things are already there some
things have to be turned on and then we
have things that are non-embedded and I
call those somebody’s got to bring
something for the student to do so a
thing like speech to text is embedded
has an embedded option but the Scribe
would be a non-embedded like a student
can enable an access a scribe in the
test platform that’s a human somebody
has to arrange for the human to be there
with the student so there’s embedded and
non-embedded some supports you will have
an embedded version so speech to text is
embedded but we also have students who
use outside software so we would
consider that non-embedded as well so it
gets kind of tricky additionally you’ll
see that we have three tiers of supports
so our first tier we call Universal
tools these are the things that are
available to any student they are in the
platform the student has 100% autonomy
of whether or not they choose to use
those here two is designated supports
and these are for any student with an
identified
need as determined by a familiar person
with the student so what’s the
difference there it’s another level if
it’s embedded or non-embedded somebody’s
got to do something to support the
student so if it’s embedded somebody’s
got to turn it on if it’s non embedded
someone’s got to make arrangements to
provide it but that does not require any
formal documentation so it does not
require that the student have a learning
plan or an IEP or a
504 it does not require that it’s just
an identified need by an adult familiar
with the student and then that third
tier is our accommodations and these are
those things only available to students
who have that formal documentation of an
IEP or
504 regardless of which tier the support
lives in OSI will always encourage that
districts and Educators engage in a
process for determining supports with
the student voice included in that and
um car talked a little bit about
translations and how we have some
different views of them now right we
have this toggle option or we have this
stacked option so really we’re starting
to see in this area of universal tools
accommodations where there’s a
preference in here right like how does
the student best access that is is
decked on top of each other the best for
the student or toggling back and forth
so that is why we will always support
and praise any process you can put into
place that encourages students
especially at designated supports and
accommodations levels to try out the
support in a secure
browser and then evaluate the
effectiveness of that support including
student in there and accounting for
preference because how text dis speech
renders as the embedded support may be
vastly different than what it sounds
like for a student using it
instructionally
to all students including those
receiving designated supports and those
re receiving accommodations it really is
student preference um they choose just
kind of like on a Word document you
choose if you want to use the heading
structure you choose when or if you want
to bold you choose when or if you want
to zoom in or not but what’s important
to note is if you have students where
the highlighter might be a distraction
you can also go in and turn it off so
Universal tools are always going to be
turned on but somebody can make the
decision to turn that off for a student
so it is important to note text to
speech and Speech to Text are currently
not Universal tools these are not things
that every student needs they may use
but is not something everybody so this
is an example of the zoom tool so
students can choose to zoom in or zoom
out on an item at any time this if you
go to any of the practice tests this is
how students can try out some of those
tools ahead of time for familiarity we
want them to be familiar with how these
things function in a test platform which
may be different than how it functions
with what they’re used to doing maybe on
their device or in whatever online
platforms students are utilizing during
instruction and and I’m going to say the
designated supports list is a lot longer
I couldn’t fit it all on the screen um
and those um I I chose to show the the
default with everything that’s in the
Universal tools shows as on and anything
in the designated supports and
accommodations shows as off but there
are you can toggle and use um dropdown
menus in each of those to to set up
those settings which is how I got all of
those things turned on the on the
practice test and I do recommend using
the a math practice performance task to
try things initially with students
because that will give you access to the
most tools and then um there are some
things that are um that function like
some things that are available on math
are not available on Ela um but and but
most of the things available on math are
available on science and so this is a
great place to start and then um once
the students decided then have them
practice on the other ones with what’s
actually available on those designated
support this is that second tier of
supports the use of designated supports
is made at the individual student level
so if districts call us and say hey we
have a fourth grade teacher who wants to
give X to every kid with purple hair we
will discourage that practice we want
all decisions to be made at that
individual student level regardless of
which tiers they fall in so the use of
designated supports is made at the
individual student level our guidance is
that the decision should made by adults
who have knowledge of possible student
needs working with the parents Andor
students to make explicit decisions so
the best practice is consistent
determination of a process as or
determination process as a group who
knows the student including parent um
these do need to be identified prior to
testing um I think it begs the question
that if you’re thinking a kid needs it 5
minutes after they’ve sat down to test
then they probably don’t don’t need it
unless it was an oversight in which you
might need to investigate processes um
student does not need to have an IEP or
504 text to speech is an embedded
support for some content areas so as a
designated support it’s available
absolutely at all the science tests
absolutely all the math tests on Ela
it’s
complicated Ela performance task
absolutely all of it Ela cash it’s
available on the
reading passages for the reading
questions gribe is also a designated
support as
non-embedded oh so this was um just a a
showing you how that um that text to
speech works you would first click that
speaker button next to the little called
the hamburger menu the three lines and
then you hit the speak Passage or speak
question and then the um the side was
showing that when you click on the gears
that’s when the system settings shows up
again to adjust the volume pitch and
rate you could also adjust those within
the login process and um please note
that the English text of speech will use
whatever voice is available on your
computer this is something that one of
the reasons you want students to try it
out um because text to speech with in
the secure browser is not like any of
the programs that my third grade son
listens to books on it just does not
sound the same David’s voice sometimes
annoys people um so if so you might need
to find that out ahead of time and it
really does not it doesn’t sound like an
audible reading a book to you it’s
really diff difficult sometimes and it’s
sometimes it pauses in weird places and
some people can do that and some people
can’t and so um that’s why we really
encourage discourage everybody with
purple getting it and encourage
everybody to try it out to see how it
goes actually within um the test engine
um before making that decision so the
text to speech sound check has to be
completed before a student can get into
the test um this is new this year if a
student has um just an English
presentation of the test and they have
text to speech they’ll get the the sound
check that’s on the left here and they
have to um the Cur they can change the
current voice pack mine always goes to
David but they could change that if
there’s another voice pack that the
student prefers that’s been loaded on
the machine that would be the place to
change that and then they would press
the speaker button and then you keep
it’s a really faint right now because I
didn’t press the speaker button yet um
you have to press the speaker button
this is that place where you can adjust
adjust the volume pitch and rate and
then they they click that I hear the
voice if the student has the
Spanish presentation of the math or
science test they will actually first
get this the um one that’s on the right
that shows this text to speech sound
check in the Spanish and my machine has
Rahul on it I can also change it to
another one but you first have to um do
it in do it in with the Spanish voice
pack and once I click the green button
at the bottom then it will flip to my
English voice pack and then David will
show up in that line everything else
will look the same so you have to
actually go through two text to speech
sound checks if you have the Spanish if
the m and if you’re supposed to have a
Spanish math or science test and the
secure browser cannot find a Spanish
voice pack on your machine you cannot go
any further so that’s something for
technology directors to make sure
especially if you have Windows machines
that um if students have that Spanish
test and um the text to speech that they
have that on a machine we suggest you
maybe have a couple spare machines if
something goes wrong with the kids test
so that couple spare machines that have
the Spanish voice pack downloaded and
there’s directions in that those um
technology guides that Tony talked about
a little bit earlier for how to do this
I’m going to do a demo of the Spanish
presentation choices and the Spanish
text to speech again the first place use
a math practice performance task you can
also do a w cast the science training
test um if the students in grades five 8
or 11 so when you get to the screen that
shows the settings you’re going to
change the presentation to spam
and then the whole screen will change to
Spanish this why I provided the
screenshot here and then the text of at
the bottom this says math stimuli and
items it is the only thing on that
screen will not be in that will not be
in Spanish that gets you the text of
speech for the stimulant items um and
then the the one at the bottom where it
says c um that that text of speech has
the student responses I can work towards
Rachel’s question do they sound check
for each area of the assess assment I
believe the answer is yes and then
anytime the student logs out and then
logs back in yeah so anytime they leave
the system and come back which would be
any section of the test not section but
session yeah any test s yeah yep any
test session anytime they have to go
through the login process they have to
do that that check yes so I’ve already
done it for this one um now Google is
super helpful because I’m in Chrome the
first time I get to this it asks me if I
want to translate this page back to
English so I always have to tell
students don’t do that because the
secure browser won’t do that but I am in
Spanish math performance task it’s all
in Spanish it’s all in Spanish if I want
to see this in English I go up here to
this little world button and then all
the text changes to English but my menu
buttons are still in Spanish I can
actually enter
something
I can go back
to my
Spanish and it remains there for me so
let’s try the Spanish speech to text so
here we
question so
here’s
hear it in
now I’m on this question the button
still in Spanish but create your own
method for using the votes to decide a
winner explain your method using the
information from table one to determine
the winning pet so that is how the
Spanish speech to text works so
previously the students would have only
gotten the English version um of this so
this is the switching back and forth
between the
languages that’s the new setting I’m G
to stop sharing so we’re we have lots to
share if we have time we can come back
and I can show you more so
accommodations was that third tier again
we have some embedded supports and then
some things that are non-embedded
someone’s got to bring it to the test
session so accommodations is really that
level that is reserved for students who
have an IEP or a 504
and those accommodations have been
pre-identified by the IEP team or the
504 team again this is not something
that should ever be a day of testing
decision and especially in these
circumstances we want to make sure the
student is using this regularly during
daily instruction and again those should
always be being evaluated with the
student in mind what’s important here
some things to note is that speech to
text and word prediction can be both
embedded and non-embedded for the
student so again it becomes kind of that
student preference it just really
depends right like that student
preference are they okay with the
embedded version or do we need to use
the version that they are used to in the
classroom so we cannot show you the the
speech to text accommodation because it
only works within the secure browser you
can so the way to try it out is to use
the TA practice interface and to use the
student secure browser um we cannot use
it in the guest mode that I was showing
you like with all the other things that
is the one thing that we cannot do so
there are full directions for how to do
that in the try out speech to text
document that Tony linked to on an
earlier slide and how it looks in the
student test is it’s only for these
questions that have that have this HTML
toolbar most often seen in the ELA or
the math performance tasks and it’s that
uh little oldfashioned my microphone
button and there’s also a speech to text
Tech check check the beginning of the
test as the student logs in and the
student will click on that button and
then they start talking and then the
words start appearing on the screen and
so if a student is using that a lot in
the classroom please use that try out
speech to text document to try that with
the student within the secure browser to
see if the embedded option is one that
will work for them the embedded word
prediction tool is actually by cowriter
they worked with cambium to embed the
cowriter word prediction within the
system so please know that if a student
is using co-writer in the classroom on
their machine that co-writer is not
going to talk to the secure browser so
anything that the student has done in
that is not is not going to go into the
secure browser but how it kind of works
with the numbers and stuff should be
familiar to students who have been using
co-writer in other programs what if you
decide that you have a student who needs
to use the non-embedded one we allow
that but what’s important to note is you
can’t use the non-embedded just so you
can enable things that the embedded one
doesn’t allow if you’re using a
non-embedded word prediction program you
can only allow single word prediction
and basic dictionary phonetic spelling
and text to speech feature also consider
headphones unless tested individually
and students could use their own at
devices what is not allowed so you’d
have to go in and deactivate phras
prediction predict ahead next word and
deactivate any expanded dictionary such
as topic dictionary or word Bank the
non-embedded accommodation uh text help
can support you and how to do that but
now really with the embedded tool being
co-writer it’s so easy you know most
people will probably just stick to it
that way here I had a slide for another
vendor called word q and I was was kind
of double-checking up on that and their
their whole management changed the link
changed there’s no exam mode that I
could find linked on their new website
so I deleted that so really it’s going
to depend no matter what if you have a
different word prediction tool than
co-writer you’re going to have to work
with the vendor on how to set it up with
the criteria that that Tony had
mentioned earlier that’s really the
thing it can be non embedded but it has
to be set up with those certain things
that are allowed or disallowed in order
for it to work ospi does have a process
for accommodations and or designated
supports that are not addressed in our
gtsa so those can be submitted to the
state what’s important is if we’ve
already addressed it in the gtsa we
won’t allow you to use something that
isn’t there so that’s that’s important
you will have to answer some questions
regarding classroom and instructional
use and how it is to be used on the
assessment the next slide I will talk to
you how we evaluate those we ask
ourselves does the requesting feature go
beyond what is already provided and
available for example we have calculator
allowed and calculator not allowed items
we would not allow through this process
calculators to be used on non-calculator
allowed items but also this one also
will ask does that specific feature in
the software violate what the assessment
is designed to measure again calculators
on non-calculator allows sections would
never be approved and then we’re asking
does that feature give the user access
to more additional or more specific
context information than is provided to
other test takers so is it giving them
an advantage instead of access they do
have to designate these testing supports
in the IEP right it depends are we
talking about the how is one identified
how is one typically identify teacher
requests um maybe it depends maybe right
so Universal tools no one needs to be
identified designated supports again it
needs to be someone who is familiar with
the student and the needs of the student
and we strongly encourage you to involve
the student in that conversation for
anything at that accommodation level
that is identified by the students’s IEP
team or the 504 nobody else the the
School Janitor cannot decide a student
needs accommodation that has to go
through the I team and it has to be
documented in the students IEP and you
don’t want to decide that all of your
students who getting English language
development services that they all need
the Spanish version of the test I mean
in some places that’s a very small
portion of the ELD population but also
some some students are not getting
instruction in that and they might find
the Spanish really uh not helpful and so
you can’t just there’s not an easy you
know check this box and then all of
these kids it and it is particular to
which feature we are talking about if
you have questions around how am I
assessing or triing taking data on these
accommodations in order to make these
decisions reach out to the specialed
text Center there are some formal tools
such as upup par to look at text to
speech if that’s needed which takes some
some data and lets you know how that
improves the students’s performance or
does not a big thing with speech to text
is really making sure you’ve trained the
student to utilize it and so we have a
training guide that’s many educators are
using so the main thing is to be
implementing these not just in the State
Testing but with the students the other
thing I was going to mention is if your
District does not have an at
consideration process we’re working with
many districts on that on our website
under kind of best practices in at we
have a nice decision Tree on assisted
technology within the IEP with the data
you have and also the difference between
consideration and
assessment and is there something you
guys you know come across when you’re
implementing where you get stuck or you
have a question about it or or maybe you
want to share how you’ve done it
successfully we just wanted to give an
opportunity for sharing so if you want
to say something could put it in the
chat window Williams asking do you have
a link to that decision tree we should
be able to get that what is the best way
to have students utilize speech to text
well that’s a great question I think
like Tony wheeler probably needs to be
tested in a separate space or Pony
wheeler is going to be really loud and
distracting um so I think that’s kind of
some of the trying it out is kind of
thinking about what Dynamics are going
to work some students if everybody’s if
there’s a lot of people talking that
could be very distracting for some test
takers even if they have headphones so I
think those are some of those
considerations around setting where
you’re going to actually test the
student that need to be thought through
I wouldn’t put a whole classroom to go
of
20 kids I think when we talk about small
group I think we’re thinking three to
five but I think it all depends on your
Space 3 to five kids in a closet is very
different than three to five kids spread
out in a classroom or something like
that so those are things you’re just
going to have to evaluate the number
you’re going have to evaluate the space
you might also consider like that might
be the time when you have like a third
grader testing with the fifth grader so
they’re not responding to similar
content at the same time which could be
really confusing or do you have dividers
that you could put up to muffle some of
the Ambient sound in the rooms we don’t
know your testing scenario to really
tell you what’s the best way but those
are things I’d be thinking about number
of students the space you have
available and then kind of other factors
around students and their needs I was
just going to reiterate Kristen’s
comment at using noise cancelling
headsets for when you’re doing speech
detects especially like a testing
setting would probably be really
important and sey has some available if
you want to check some out try them out
chrisy asked really early on about read
alloud accommodations like she said does
it does it not need to be preapproved
does it have to be pre-approved by by
OPI read aloud is in our is an
accommodation it’s in it so if it’s in
the gtsa as alloud does not need any
preapproval by OPI it does require
marking in tide ahead of time and the
person who is doing the read alloud
there’s some read alloud guidelines and
I think if you look in the gtsa in that
section about read alloud it talks about
that the person who’s being the being
the reader has to follow those read
alloud guidelines and um because in it’s
an accommodation yes it does need to be
in a in an IEP or 504 plan but it does
not need further justification from you
at the district that a student needs it
and you also have to think for speech to
text what tests are they doing the um
Ela performance task is a big long old
essay so that’s different than students
doing a math performance task who might
be you know doing math and then like
speaking out a short answer um so that’s
something to consider um with um with
the students for um for for putting them
in the same room together there’s a
great question does anyone know if IEP
online can produce a spreadsheet of 504
testing accommodation
that’s a great question anyone know out
there in our group that question came to
us earlier this week too I’m thinking
that IEP online probably is not a place
where you’re capturing 504 information
they have both Christy says they have
both excellent Kathy Booth says yes
apparently you can get to that somebody
else says they don’t house 504s in IEP
online so you might have to pull from
they’re saying Skyward but that would be
your local student information system
this would be something I would go
to your District assessment coordinator
so as far as where they go when they
have questions Beyond this webinar and
the specialed tech center is a great
place to go if you are considering
assist of Technology needing some
support with what does at assessment
look like those decisions that the IEP
team needs to make ahead of time but as
far as specifics on testing should I
share the slides again do we have a and
if you have questions about a support we
do have a gtsa email address which I
just put in the chat that is another
great place to send questions or you can
email myself or katd on here so even if
you have a question like I would say
like do I need to apply for non-standard
accommodation for this go ahead and
reach out first like we’ll we’ll guide
you through whether or not we will most
likely approve or not or if you’re just
like what about this I’m really good at
logic out cuz sometimes there is a
disconnect between what we call it in
the IEP or call it in instruction
compared to what the test named it so
even there helping to strengthen that
connection between what could that look
like and is it already captured the
PowerPoint that that you’re seeing today
we’ll have that posted on the csy
website and then we’ll probably also
have an easy way on our YouTube channel
to get to the whole session recording so
please share this with your colleagues
that couldn’t make it here today and
special thank you to Tony and Cara who
worked really hard on on all this
information that we’ve updated thank you
all for spending your time with us thank
you and special thanks to christe no
problem have a great day
everyone