In your role as a diagnostician, Mrs. Pena just left your office regarding a student with a learning disability in her fifth grade class. The student’s disability is in reading and written language. Mrs. Pena is worried about the STAAR test this year. She believes that Drew will know and understand the TEKS concepts but won’t be able to understand the written questions on the STAAR test. Mrs. Pena told you that Drew uses auditory books in class and she heard the STAAR test does not have that feature. As a new diagnostician, you are not sure about the answer, but you told Mrs. Pena you would find out and get back to her within 24 hours. As soon as Mrs. Pena leaves, you locate the STAAR Accommodation Policy Document for the school year. The questions below are there to help guide you on how to use the text you read about accommodations and the question about Drew. Do not write a paper that has 1., 2., 3. etc as though this was a test. Read the information about accommodations, use the writing prompt about Drew, then write your answers based upon what you learned in the accommodations guidance. 1. Is an oral administration of the STAAR allowable for Drew? 2. What is an example of an allowable accommodation that could be recommended for Drew? 3. Is there a technology accommodation Drew could use to read the STAAR test? If so, provide an example. 4. Have any of your students (in real life) used an accommodation for reading on the STAAR Test? What was the most innovative strategy you saw used by struggling readers on a STAAR test?
