NCEO recently rolled-out online training on accommodations decision making. The training includes case-based video clips, and contains five interactive, multi-media professional development modules. Educators are coached on best practices in how to select, administer, and evaluate the use of accommodations.

The training is available without charge, and is accessible from NCEO’s website. NCEO developed the training collaboratively with the state of Alabama, but it can be used in other states because the information in the training is not state specific.

A key feature of the training is an accommodations decision-making tool that walks the participant through the steps to take when making decisions about accommodations. This tool provides participants an opportunity to put into practice what they are learning, and the tool can be used in the future once they complete the training. The training also offers activities and other resources to build teachers’ knowledge and skills.

Participants follow the story of Emma as they go through the training. Emma is a middle school student with a learning disability. The training also provides additional case studies that include students with several different disabilities who need accommodations to access instruction and assessments.

Video clips embedded in each module model important conversations. For example, one clip shows Emma’s special education teacher talking with her math teacher about whether it might be helpful to try the read aloud accommodation so that Emma can better access her math instruction. The training especially models how educators and parents or guardians can work together to make and implement good decisions about accommodations as members of the featured student’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) team.

Nannette Pence of the Alabama Department of Education presented the online training to approximately 700 teachers across the state in the past month. “At all the trainings everyone was impressed with the idea of being able to access it at any time of day and work on it at their own progress,” Pence said. “The audience felt like everyone could benefit from using the modules for instructional and assessment purposes.”

The five training modules are:

• Thinking About Student Characteristics
• Linking Student Needs to Accommodations Decisions
• Instructional Accommodations
• Assessment Accommodations
• Monitoring and Evaluation

The training can be found at https://nceo.umn.edu/alabama.