Page 76 - Growing Success: Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting in Ontario Schools. First Edition, Covering Grades 1 to 12. 2010

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STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL EDUCATION NEEDS
STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL EDUCATION NEEDS:
MODIFICATIONS, ACCOMMODATIONS, AND ALTERNATIVE PROGRAMS
POLICY
According to Policy/Program Memorandum No. 11, “Early Identification of Children’s Learning Needs” (1982), every school board in Ontario must have procedures in place to identify the level of development, learning abilities, and needs of every child who is enrolled in the school, and to ensure that educational programs are designed to accommodate those needs and to facilitate the child’s growth and development. These procedures are part of a process of continuous assessment and program planning that should be initiated when a child is first enrolled in school and that should continue throughout a child’s school life.
For students with special education needs, assessment and evaluation are key components of programming, as the Education Act makes clear: “‘Special education program’ means, in respect
of an exceptional pupil, an educational program that is based on and modified by the results of continuous assessment and evaluation and that includes a plan containing specific objectives and an outline of educational services that meet the needs of the exceptional pupil” (Education Act, S.1(1)).
A student’s Individual Education Plan (IEP) describes his or her educational program and any accommodations that may be required. The IEP specifies whether the student requires:
• accommodations only; or
• modified learning expectations, with the possibility of accommodations; or
• an alternative program, not derived from the curriculum expectations for a subject/grade or a course.
For a student with special education needs who requires modified or alternative expectations, assessment and evaluation of his or her achievement will be based on the modified curriculum expectations or alternative expectations outlined in the student’s Individual Education Plan (IEP). For a student with special education needs who requires “accommodations only”, as described in his or her IEP, assessment and evaluation of achievement will be based on the appropriate subject/ grade/course curriculum expectations and the achievement levels outlined in the curriculum documents. (Note that the IEP also identifies accommodations for provincial large-scale assessments, which are consistent with accommodations required for regular classroom assessment and evaluation and permitted by the Education Quality and Accountability Office [EQAO].)
Policy for reporting the achievement of students with special education needs using the elementary and secondary provincial report cards and the Elementary Progress Report Cards is outlined in Chapter 6, “Reporting Student Achievement”.