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USBE trainer outlines which Acadience accommodations Utah allows and which invalidate scores
Summary
USBE presenter Tracy explained the difference between universal resources and accommodations, emphasized that Acadience reading read‑aloud invalidates scores, and said Utah permits a broader set of accommodations for math (with caveats about score interpretation).
Tracy, a USBE presenter, told attendees that accommodations are “practices and procedures that provide that equitable access during assessments for students with disabilities” and that allowable accommodations must not change the construct or validity of the assessment. She said teams must select accommodations that do not “invalidate the score.”
She warned program managers that “read aloud is a big 1 we get. It is not an allowable accommodation for Acadians,” and explained this is because read‑aloud changes the construct of Acadience reading and therefore invalidates score interpretation and accountability uses. Tracy noted that while teams can collect data instructionally using accommodations on students’ IEPs or 504s, those instructional accommodations may still be excluded from scoring for state accountability.
On math, Tracy said Utah takes a different approach: some accommodations that Acadience labels as non‑allowable in its manual are permitted in Utah for Acadience math. “We do allow read aloud as an approved accommodation in Utah for Acadians math only,” she said, but she cautioned that Acadience cut scores and risk classifications were developed without that accommodation, so districts should use that data “in conjunction with some other data” rather than as a lone indicator for programming decisions.
