On the Legislative Front

The Grade 10 Literacy Test
by Eva Nichols

Currently there is a topic that comes up almost every time I visit a chapter, meet members of LDAO or receive an e-mail. This is the results of last October's Grade 10 literacy test. The focus is how students with learning disabilities performed on it and whether it is fair to expect students to have to pass this test in order to be able to graduate from secondary school in Ontario.

In this column I am going to share with you some factual information and some personal opinions related to this topic.

As everybody knows, in the school year starting in September, 2001, students have to pass the Grade 10 literacy test, consisting of standardized tests in reading and writing, in order to obtain a secondary school graduation diploma.

In October 2000, students who were currently in Grade 10 wrote a "pilot" test, the results of which are not applicable to their future graduation. This is probably just as well, since only 61% of English speaking students and 51% of French speaking students, who are working towards a secondary school diploma, passed the complete test. While it is not possible to compare the English and French results due to the differences in the testing process, both sets of results were disappointing. Of those students who did not pass, most had difficulties with both reading and writing, a smaller number passed reading but failed writing and a much smaller number passed writing but failed reading.

Regrettably, at this stage we have not yet had any breakdown of these results for students who are in special education or in particular have learning disabilities. However, we do know that the students who are attending the Provincial demonstration schools, i.e., are identified as students with very severe learning disabilities, performed significantly better than the provincial average for all students. How can that be? Presumably because they were extremely well prepared and had access to the accommodations that they required in order to be successful at test taking.

The purpose of this test is to determine whether students have acquired the reading and writing skills that they are expected to have learned by the end of Grade 9. The tests are based upon the provincial curriculum. Students who do not pass the test are expected to receive remedial help and may retake the test. Students who did not pass the test last October may, and we hope will, receive the requisite remedial help, but do not have to retake the test. Students who are not working towards a secondary school diploma are exempted from the test. LDAO hopes that there are very few students with learning disabilities who are not working towards a secondary school diploma and, therefore, automatically exempted from taking the test.

My reason for saying this is the strongly held belief that almost all (if not all) students with learning disabilities can acquire literacy skills, provided that they are taught appropriately and have access to accommodations, when taking a test. Students with learning disabilities have average intelligence, which is an essential requirement for the comprehension component of such tests. Of course, students with learning disabilities also have specific psychological processing difficulties, which result in problems with information processing tasks such as reading or writing. That is what having a learning disability means. But with accommodations such as having the material provided on audiotape rather than just in print, being allowed to use a computer, audiotaping responses or having answers scribed, most students with learning disabilities should be able to compensate for their difficulties.

The LDAO policy endorsing the literacy test is based entirely on this belief and is well supported by research. As you will note, the key piece here is the provision of appropriate accommodations during the testing process.

During last October's test, 7% of students utilized accommodations, in accordance with the Ministry of Education's accommodation policy for these tests. Although, as I mentioned earlier, we do not know how well those students did on the tests or even exactly what accommodations they used, we have heard that there were problems in some places, where schools did not have a computer for every student who needed one, where there were not enough audio-tape players to provide one to every student whose IEP specified its use as an appropriate accommodation, etc. These glitches have to be eliminated before the "real" test is administered to students in October, 2001.

However, there is another significant issue. The EQAO accommodation policy stipulates that students may use accommodations for the testing process, provided that their IEP describes in detail the accommodations that they need and those accommodations meet the policy criteria for defining allowable accommodations. The issue here is that modifications that students may receive are not allowed for the testing. Furthermore, that certain strategies that teachers use in the class room as a part of the teaching process (specific skill instruction) are deemed modifications for this type of testing and are therefore not allowed. An example of this might be the discussion of a question before the student has to answer, breaking down a complex task into smaller logical units and allowing the student to do these one at a time, rather than having to deal with it all. These are beneficial strategies, but not accommodations allowed in the Grade 10 testing process.

Let me share with you a set of definitions of these terms that have been recommended for inclusion in the supporting document developed for operationalizing the new definition of learning disabilities.

The term "specific skill instruction" describes appropriate teaching and training, built on the individual's identified strengths and focusing on the development of compensatory strategies in those weaker skill areas where the learning disability interferes with the learning process. Specific skill instruction must be individualized. The teaching/ training process must be adjusted to match the individual's learning style, rather than assuming that the individual will eventually learn (no matter what the teaching process is), provided that "he tries harder". Traditional remedial techniques of "teaching, testing and re-teaching in essentially the same way" frequently do not work for students with learning disabilities.

Examples of specific skill instruction include differentiated teaching strategies, e.g., reducing the number of specific tasks to be done without reducing the standard or expected quality, allowing for an extended learning period to achieve mastery, reteaching a particular skill in a substantially different way from that used with the whole class and emphasizing the importance of acquiring learning and compensatory strategies.

Accommodations are defined as alterations and changes in the way individuals with disabilities are enabled to function to demonstrate and apply their skills and knowledge. Accommodations are aimed at eliminating or ameliorating a disadvantage, without altering the validity of the process for carrying out the task in question. Examples of successful accommodations may include the use of adaptive technology, assistance provided by another person, such as a note taker or scribe or having extra time to carry out certain tasks. It is particularly important that any identified and recommended accommodations are directly linked to the strengths and needs of the person with a learning disability. The obligation to provide accommodations is mandated in law. This obligation applies throughout the individual's life span.

Modifications are not synonymous with accommodations nor are they mandated in law. Furthermore, in an educational setting, modifications are usually viewed as ways in which the learning expectations, curriculum content, materials used, standards demanded and/or outcomes are changed, (usually lowered). This is why modifications are not acceptable during the administration of standardized tests and examinations, including the tests administered by the Education Quality Accountability Office as well as licensing examinations that individuals write to be able to work in certain professions and occupations.

Students with specific learning disabilities are able to learn provided that they are taught the way that they learn best. They can usually demonstrate their skills and knowledge provided that they have access to accommodations appropriate for their needs. While access to specific skill instruction is an essential component of the teaching/learning process, most students with learning disabilities are able to work within the parameters of the provincial curriculum, without necessarily having to rely on significant modifications of the curriculum.

It is important to distinguish between the use of modifications in standardized tests and exams, versus modifications of curriculum. In the former case, modifications are not appropriate because they alter the meaning and validity of test results. However students with learning disabilities, especially in the elementary grades, will sometimes need to work on modified curriculum expectations for a particular part of their academic program. For example, a student in Grade 5 may be working on the provincial curriculum in most areas, but may need to have some intensive help with certain specific skills, where he or she has problems arising from having learning disabilities. Some students may even need to have access to curriculum modifications in a specific area, such as math. This means that in the student's IEP, current level of achievement, annual program goals and learning expectations should be filled out for the skill areas that are modified from the regular curriculum, even when most of the curriculum is not modified.

Parents and teachers have to work together to ensure that students with learning disabilities have IEPs that list the accommodations that the students need in the educational setting. In particular, it is important that the accommodations are listed for the student's successful participation in the provincial examinations. It is important that these are true accommodations. They should not be mixed up with modifications, i.e., working at a different standard than the provincial curriculum or with certain teaching strategies, which, while very helpful in a classroom setting, may interfere with the consistency and validity of the testing process.

The other key requirement is to assist students with preparing for the test. For example, it is important to reinforce the steps that students need to take when they are first handed the test paper, to use a marker or some other visual cues to break down the steps necessary for answering a complex question, to work out how much time they need to answer each question and then timing themselves, etc. These are all important strategies that the students need to learn to apply when writing an examination. In addition, students should practice reading the types of questions that appear on these literacy tests and explain what they understand them to mean. They can also look at the sample answers available that were acceptable and better than acceptable. In what way are these different from the answers that are not acceptable?

October 2003

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