Universal Tools Designated Supports And Accommodations 2018

This page last updated on 4/29/19.

What are the Designated Supports and Accommodations?

They are listed in the graphic shown here or in the graphic below:

Who is eligible for Designated Supports and Accommodations?

This table will give you an overview:

Note: Accommodations for ELL students will vary depending on the assessment such as SBAC vs. VTSA vs. ACCESS.

Usability, Accessibility and Accommodations Guidelines and Additional Resources

To fully understand Universal Tools, Designated Supports and Accommodations, it is very important that teams deciding if students need any of them, start by reading and frequently referencing this State Assessment Manual - Usability, Accessibility and Accommodations Guidelines, dated June 28, 2018.

Note: On page 31 of this Guide, the General FAQs section begins.
Accommodations: are available when theneed is documented in an Individualized Education Program (IEP) or 504 plan and the IEP or 504 plan field in TIDE is selected, or in unique circumstances where a student who may not typically require an accommodation may make use of one. For example, if a student who has not needed an accommodation in the past were to break his or her arm, then this student might use a scribe if appropriately documented.
Designated supports: are available for students who have aneed indicated by an educator (or team of educators with a parent/guardian or the student). The educator making the decision must be knowledgeable of the student's needs as well as the student's familiarity and success with resources available.

Collection Process for Accommodations and Designated Supports

Please refer to this document for information about the steps that can be used to collect students' accommodations and designated supports, otherwise known as test settings and this PDF is a sample of a Google Form that can be used by Special Educators and ELL teachers to enter their students' Test Settings/Accommodations from their IEP or 504 plans or their Designated Supports into. The Form creates a spreadsheet that matches the order of the Test Setting data entry fields in a student's record in TIDE.

Temporary Accommodation Request Form

The VT AOE created the Temporary Accommodation Request form for the 2019 assessment year. It is "required for special educators who either use assistive technology, administer an accommodation, or have a process that is not on Smarter Balance's list of approved accommodations. When in doubt, please check with the state prior to completing the form." This form can be completed for any state assessment and can be found here.

NEW in 2018-2019 for Students in Grades 3-5: Text-to-Speech (TTS) or Read Aloud Accommodation Request Process

BEFORE completing the TTS or Read Aloud Online Request Form, the team that believes a student in Grades 3-5 needs either of these accommodations for the ELA CAT should complete the Documentation of Need for TTS or Read Aloud Accommodation Checklist as it should help you determine if either of these Accommodations are truly needed and the form can be found here.

Please note: Special Education Directors are strongly encouraged to be familiar with the process and requests due to the consequences of the TTS/Read Aloud accommodation on the ELA CAT for these grades. Use of either of these accommodationainvalidates the ELA score and therefore, parents must be notified and a notation needs to be documented in the IEP that this accommodation was used and therefore is not an accurate measure of the student's true ability.
For the reason noted above, please send this form to Erin Maguire or Dylan McNamara, Directors of Student Support Services for review and approval.

To learn more about these accommodations and the process for determining if they should be requested for students in Grades 3-5, please refer to this PowerPoint provided by Linda Moreno at the Agency of Education. Note: while the PowerPoint is out-of-date in that it references students in Grades 11 rather than 9, it still has valuable information.
Upon completion of the checklist in Step 1 and review and approval by Erin or Dylan, if the team still feels the student in Grades 3-5 needs either Accommodation, they must fill out this online form to request approval for this Accommodation and upon approval, for this Accommodation to then be turned on in TIDE by Linda . Per Linda, there is a two week turn around on these requests (10 working days excluding holidays).

The SAMPLE of the online form can be found here; it was filled out for Test Student to provide you with the chance to see and prepare for entering information into the online version.
Please note, TIDE must first say the student has a IEP before Linda can activate this Accommodation. To ensure TIDE is populated with the student's information, including IEP, check with Kim Fiske Gawor, the EWSD District Coordinator for State Assessments or one of your school's State Assessment School Coordinators who will have access to TIDE.

NEW in 2018-2019 for Students in Grades 6-9: Text-to-Speech Request Form

New in 2019, special educators with students on a IEP who need a Text-to-Speech Accommodation for the ELA CAT, must use this online form to request this Accommodation be turned on in TIDE by Linda Moreno at the VT Agency of Education. IMPORTANT NOTE: Linda cannot turn this Accommodation on unless the student has a IEP selected in TIDE. To ensure TIDE is populated with the student's information, including IEP, check with Kim Fiske Gawor, the EWSD District Coordinator for State Assessments or your school's State Assessment School Coordinator who will have access to students' records in TIDE.

SBAC Terminology Clarification for Text-to-Speech in ELA and Math

Information about Text-to-Speech and what sections of the assessments will be read to a student if it is chosen as a Designated Support or Accommodation can be found here.

Text-to-Speech and How it Works on each Test

This document contains screenshots of what sections of SBAC ELA and Math and/or the VTSA are read to the student depending on the assessment and the approved Text-to-Speech Accommodations or Designated Supports settings that are turned on in TIDE.

Read Aloud and Scribe Training Modules for SBAC or VTSA

To complete this certification you must do the following:

Watch the three Video Modules below.
Read the Read Aloud Protocol, dated June 28, 2018; allowable across all grades as a designated support in mathematics and ELA items and in Science for items and stimuli and in all grades as a documented accommodation for ELA reading passages .
Read the Scribing Protocol, dated June 28, 2018; allowable as a documented accommodation for ELA writing and as adesignated support for mathematics, ELA and science non-writing items.
Review the practice and training test found here.
Print and fill out thiscertificate for anyone new to SBAC or VTSA Read Aloud and/or Scribe and who has completed the full trainingTHIS (2018-2019) school year .
Print and fill outthis re-certification form for anyone who completed the FULL training LAST (2017-2018) school year andre-read and printed out the protocols for being a Read Aloud and/or Scribe.
Give the certification document to your building's SBAC and/or VTSA School Coordinator; typically the building Principal or person he/she has designated.

While these Video Modules are out-of-date, they provide valuable information for anyone new to Read Aloud and/or Scribing and therefore, must be watched. They are:

VIDEO MODULE #1: Introduction - All readers and scribes must watch this video:

VIDEO MODULE #2: Reader training: All readers much watch this video:

VIDEO MODULE #3: Scribe training: All scribes must watch this video:

This website is affiliated with the Essex Westford School District (EWSD). EWSD recognizes that digital technology is integral to learning and educating today's children for success in the global community and fully supports the accessibility of these resources by students, staff and community. To request assistance or to report an issue relating to the accessibility of this website, please email webmaster@ewsd.org or call 802-878-8168 during district office hours.