Assessment Accommodations

Including All Students in State and District Assessments

Assessment for accountability are required by the No Child Left
Behind Act of 2001, and participation in assessments, with
accommodations as necessary, is required by the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act of 1997. The purpose of these
assessments is to show the progress of a school toward proficiency
on state academic content standards. In order to give an accurate
picture of the achievement of students in a school, all of the
students need to have an opportunity to take the tests and all of
their scores need to count. In the past, some schools reported doing
very well, only to find that they just tested a small percentage of
their highest achieving students! More importantly, a picture of
the assessment results for all of the students in a school shows
where there is strength and where improvement is needed. An
emphasis on improvement might not take place without
illuminating where students are having the most difficulty.

Some accommodations are really conditions that are available to

everyone and not questioned. For example, any student can wear
eyeglasses or hearing aids while taking a test. The size of a group
in which a student is tested also varies from the school's
auditorium, cafeteria, or library to a small classroom or even a
study carrel. Students need to have opportunities to learn to use
accommodations in classroom settings, and they also need to be
able to practice taking tests using accommodations. The
accommodations described in this section also apply to classroom
tests. The testing conditions for classroom tests should be as close
as possible to those of district or state testing situations to increase
a student's comfort level and allow for the best possible
performance. Once again, the goal of accommodations is not to
make a test easier, it is simply to improve access, giving students
a better opportunity to show what they know and can do. There
is a whole section in the instructional area of this website devoted
to instructional accommodations.

Essay presenting the special educational

needs of learners in Child Abuse and
Child Labor Practices

Child Labor and Child Abuse in Developing Countries

“In recent decades some extreme forms of violence against children, including
sexual exploitation and trafficking, female genital mutilation (FGM), the worst
forms of child labour and the impact of armed conflict, have provoked
international outcry and achieved a consensus of condemnation, although no
rapid remedy. But in addition to these extreme forms of violence, many
children are routinely exposed to physical, sexual and psychological violence
in their homes and schools, in care and justice systems, in places of work and
in their communities. All of this has devastating consequences for their health
and well-being now and in the future.”

Child Abuse

“Child abuse is not simply any harm that befalls children. Children throughout
the world suffer from a multitude of harms- malnutrition, starvation,
infectious disease, congenital defects, abandonment, economic exploitation,
the violence of warfare, to name a few. Not all harm that befalls children is
child abuse.”

Child Labor

Child labor is a problem worldwide, but it particularly affects children in

developing countries. Child labor is characterized by full-time work at too
early of an age, and too many hours spent working. The work often exerts
undue physical, social, or psychological stress, hampers access to education,
and may be detrimental to social and psychological development. The ILO’s
Statistical Information and Monitoring Program on Child Labor recently
estimated that 211 million children, or 18 % of children aged 5-14, are
economically active worldwide. 60% of these working children live in Asia,
and 23% live in sub-Saharan Africa. Most economically active children are
employed in agriculture. For example, in Nepal, 85% of economically active
children are in agriculture. In Cambodia, the rate is 73% while in Morocco it
is 84%.

The type of child labor is the most important determinant of the incidence
of work-related injuries. An estimated 6 million work-related injuries occur
among children annually, which results in 2.5 million disabilities and 32,000
fatalities every year. In developing countries, children often work under
hazardous conditions in the manufacturing and agricultural sectors. For these
children, crushing accidents, amputations, and fractures account for 10% of
all work-related injuries.