In 2015, the National Center on Educational Outcomes and nine state partners (Minnesota, Alabama, Connecticut, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Wisconsin and the Virgin Islands) began a two-year Enhanced Assessment Grant project called “Data Informed Accessibility—Making Optimal Needs-Based Decisions (DIAMOND).” The DIAMOND project will improve the validity of state English language arts, mathematics, and English language proficiency (ELP) assessment results by developing decision-making guidelines for choosing accessibility features and accommodations for K-12 students. Minnesota is the lead state.

Because of changes in the way that teachers, administrators, test developers, and other educators view accessibility, more accessibility supports are available to more students than ever before.  This can result in better educational outcomes for all students, including students without disabilities and students who are not English learners (ELs), as well as students with disabilities, ELs, and ELs with disabilities. At the same time, the increased accessibility supports can put a greater burden on teachers as they decide which supports are suited to individual students’ needs and preferences, as well as when and how to use them.

The project is developing training materials to help teachers and administrators understand how to use classroom and test data to select and use the accessibility features and accommodations that will provide valid results for students. Guidelines and training materials will be relevant to all students who require accessibility features and accommodations (general education students, students with disabilities, ELs, and ELs with disabilities).

During 2016, project staff conducted a survey of educators and several online focus groups with teachers. Through these two studies, educators in the DIAMOND states shared their experiences in using accessibility supports with students.

DIAMOND project website
The project website (https://nceo.info/About/projects/nceoprojects/diamond) contains information about the project background, including descriptions and examples of accessibility features and accommodations. The website provides links to accessibility and accommodations policies for the six federally-funded assessment consortia. In addition, other sections of the website address planned DIAMOND research activities, DIAMOND partners and staff, and project publications and presentations. As training materials are developed, they will be made available.

DIAMOND Project at NABE and CEC Conferences
DIAMOND will be represented at two conferences this winter and spring. The first presentation will be at the National Association on Bilingual Education (NABE) conference on February 25, 2017 in Dallas, Texas. The session, entitled DIAMOND Project: Making Optimal Accessibility Decisions for English Learners, will be led by Martha Thurlow and Erik Larson. They will highlight the results of the DIAMOND educator survey and the DIAMOND focus groups that are relevant to educators working with ELs. Audience members will be encouraged to consider the professional development training and resources suggested by study participants and to add their own ideas.

A similar approach will be used for a presentation on April 22, 2017 at the annual conference of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) in Boston, Massachusetts. The session, entitled DIAMOND Project: Making Optimal Accessibility Decisions for Students with Disabilities, will be led by Martha Thurlow and Linda Goldstone. As in the NABE session, special educators attending the CEC conference will be encouraged to consider the professional development training and resources suggested by study participants and to add their own ideas.

Presentation PowerPoints will be posted to the DIAMOND website following each presentation on the website.