CTB/McGraw-Hill understands the need for efforts to include all students in large-scale testing programs as part of the educational process. We understand that federal, state, and local regulations and policy often stipulate that students be provided with appropriate accommodations during testing.

CTB strongly supports the appropriate use of testing accommodations. To help sponsoring agencies determine the use and appropriate interpretation of the results of standardized tests administered under nonstandard conditions, CTB offers a publication: "Guidelines for Inclusive Test Administration." (153K PDF) These guidelines are intended to facilitate the valid interpretation of individual student results and valid comparisons of year-to-year and group-to-group summary data.

This document is not intended to answer the question, "What is an appropriate accommodation?" We assume that those who recommend testing accommodations for a student, typically the student's Individualized Education Plan (IEP) team, give due consideration to the intended and potential effects of the accommodation on the student's test performance. We also assume that any accommodations provided for standardized tests are used routinely during the student's instruction and classroom testing.