Can a teacher read a test to a student? What are the recommedations for giving math and reading tests?
Here are our recommendations for taking the math and reading tests:
For math tests, teachers are allowed to read a question to a student. In other words, teachers may read the question and answer choices, word for word, with no definition, explanation or emphasis of any words or answer choices as demonstrated by voice inflections and/or intonation. We do not recommend the use of a calculator unless a student's IEP stipulates it as an accommodation.
For reading tests, we recommend not reading words or helping students if they are stuck reading a word unless their IEP stipulates it as an accommodation. Doing so may invalidate the test score. The one exception would be if you read to a student in Spanish or another foreign language.
If the student has read aloud as an allowable accommodation, then the teacher (or assistant) can read the comprehension and vocabulary tests aloud. For the fluency based tests (LN, LS, WRF, and PRF), no read aloud is possible.
In general, we allow any accommodations/modifications the students would normally be provided. One way to think about it is that if the construct (thing being tested) is not specifically 'the ability to read and understand written English', then a read aloud / read in another language option should be allowed.
For math tests, teachers are allowed to read a question to a student. And by reading we mean just the reading of the question and answer choices, word for word, with no definition, explanation or emphasis of any words or answer choices as demonstrated by voice inflections and/or intonation.