A few questions that I hope someone can shed some light on for me:
1. How do teachers handle the grading of a student who is receiving accommodations—especially in high school?
2. Can a student who has an IEP and receiving accommodations get a regular graduation diploma or do most get a graduation certificate?
3. If a student gets a graduation certificate rather than a regular diploma, how does that effect college entrance?
Thanks for any help! Our school is just starting a special needs program (we are an international school in Hong Kong) and some of these questions are being asked.
Mari
It depends. It varies *hugely.*
It’s important to differentiate between accommodations and modifications. Accommodations when done honestly require essentially the same (or equivalent) academic demands but the delivery (coming or going) is changed so that the same learning is accessible to a student who otherwise couldn’t get the learning in and/or the demonstration of the knowledge out. Texts on tape, dictating essay tests to a scribe or computer, etc. are the most clear-cut examples of these.
Modifications are a different story; it’s wise for school folks to set a policy ahead of time to ascertain when the demands are changed enough (students taking multiple-choice instead of essay tests, or having reduced written assignments) to mean that the standards are, in truth different. Of course it’s not cut and dried; if a gifted/LD student with handwriting problems does half the math homework, but still gets B’s on tests, what then?
The diploma/certificate issue is also muddy (one state just changed its policy so that the sped label means you don’t have to pass the state test to graduate with a regular diploma).
Of course the parental and administrative and faculty politics are huge in this, and much depends on the attitudes of the people in power. Sometimes, a little education can go a long way in helping create a fair policy; making sure different voices are heard is also critical. .. but I imagine you know that already or you owuldn’t be asking :-)