Accommodation for MCAS & ERB tests
3d grade in March is the first time schoolchildren are taking standardized written tests - MCAS & ERB. Last year I declined accommodation on Yosef's IEP.
The test time getting close, Yosef's teacher asked me to come and talk it over.
She did a really good job in convincing me.

I asked few questions.
- Is he the only one to get accommodation? - No, there will be quite few kids with accommodation.
- If he doesn't get accommodation, are there going to be other kids without it who will have comparable problems? - There will be kids for whom it won't be easy but none will have such serious problems.
- What will happen to him if he does poorly at these tests? He won't be held back? - No, the results don't really matter yet, and they will come back only in the fall when he will be in the 4th grade.

Her reasoning was:
- It will be the first time he will be taking these tests, so it's better he'll familiarize himself with the procedure under less stress
- He will be stressed out because children can't ask questions during the test and and he can't use an extra sheet of paper to organize his thought in graphical form - this will impair his ability to do what he really can
- The tests are not timed in 3d grade but he will see other kids flipping over pages while he is stuck because he needs more time to process information and organize his output.


Accommodation means that a small group of kids with accommodation (they may have it for various reasons) will take the tests in a separate room in quieter less destructive environment. They will have a monitor - a person who will answer questions like "Where my answer goes on this page". They will have an opportunity for graphic planning. May be some other things I don't remember now.

She talked to me for half an hour about Yosef thriving for independence, being reluctant to seek extra help, him becoming stressed to the point he gets tears in his eyes. She talked about his progress and successes. About the test rules and accommodation. She said - if I don't consent to accommodation now, it won't be possible to add it later. But it's possible to drop it once it's there.

Only one thing which she meant as positive but it didn't strike me as such: she said - if still required, he won't be left without accommodation next year and later, it may run all they way through High School and in college. I said that I did some reading re children with problems and sometimes they enter the adulthood with presumption that someone has to fix their life for them and I don't want to see my son as one of this kind. But she said he is definitely willing to be independent.

So I said that I'll sign the paperwork and thanked her for doing a good job. I was not exactly impressed with her in the beginning of the school year, but now I felt she really cared.