Do the measures change to accommodate ELL and Special Education students?

The tests are the same for all students; however, teachers are encouraged to provide accommodations as outlined in students’ IEPs. Such modifications might include extended time to finish the tests, having students take the tests in smaller ‘chunks’ of time (the system automatically remembers where students left off when they ‘close’ the testing window and returns them to the same place when they log back (in as long as nobody has clicked ‘done’ at the end of the test questions), providing read-aloud accommodations (all the math items already have this accommodation embedded within the system, but if it is an allowable accommodation on students’ IEPs, then teachers can provide a read aloud for the reading and vocabulary tests as well).

For ELL students whose first language is Spanish, all the math problems can be presented in Spanish or English (as long as “Spanish language” is activated in the user’s admin / control panel on the system). For non-Spanish speaking ELL students, teachers could provide native language assistance if you have this expertise in your school.

One concept it’s important to remember is that teachers are encouraged to select the progress monitoring tests that are most appropriate for a given student’s instructional level. For SPED and ELL students, the most appropriate progress monitoring measure may well be one that was originally written for an earlier grade.