Shriner, J. G., & DeStefano, L. (2003). Participation and accommodation in state assessment: The role of individualized education programs . Exceptional Children , 69 (2), 147–161. https://doi.org/10.1177/001440290306900202

The purpose of this study was to examine whether training helped special education teachers and administrators use and report accommodations on test day.

The study was conducted using assessment data from 651 students with disabilities in three school districts in the state of Illinois (U.S.).

The IEP analyses that are reported were conducted twice (1999, 2000). During the intervening year, site-based management teams of special and general education teachers and administrators participated in a series of training sessions and follow-up conducted by the researchers during March 1999 through February 2000. The decisions of the same groups of trained IEP team members were followed through both years in a longitudinal design. No specific academic content areas or scores were identified.

In this intervention study, training was found to increase the quality and extent of participation and accommodation documentation on the IEP. Correlations between what was documented on the IEP and what happened on the day of testing were highly variable. Although students’ IEPs appeared to reflect individualized decisions, political and logistical factors limited the utility of the IEP and interfered with its actual implementation.