FAQ Archive

FAQ2: Accommodation or Modification? What's the difference?

The terms accommodation and modification are often used interchangeably in education. However, there is a difference.

An accommodation is a teaching support or service that a student needs in order to meet the expectations or goals of the general education curriculum. An accommodation addresses the questions of how a student will learn.

A modification is a change in the general education curriculum. When the goals or expectations of the general education curriculum are beyond the student's level of ability, a modification is needed. A modification addresses what a student will learn: instructional level, content, and performance criteria.

Strategy is another term that is often used interchangeably with accommodation and modification. A strategy is a skill or technique that assists in learning.

Consider the issue of time. Many students who have learning disabilities or attention deficit disorder (ADD) are truly time-impaired. They are always late, late for that very important date. They have great difficulty estimating how long it will take to complete a task. When they are interested in a task, like chatting with their friends in the hallway, time passes too quickly. When they are bored with a task, time is torture and their eyes become glued to the clock.

An accommodation for a student with time impairment would be to acknowledge this very real problem and make allowances for it while reinforcing on-time behaviors. For example, if a school has a policy about tardies, this policy might need to be flexible for this student. Let's say the school policy states that if a student is late three times to class, he is supposed to be sent to the In School Suspension (ISS) room on his fourth tardy. The student then misses the whole class period and the academic instruction for that time. This policy denies the student access to curriculum instruction. Bad idea. But, he is denying himself access to instruction by being late and interfering with the other students' learning when he arrives late to class, isn't he? What should be done about the tardies? The most important goal is to have the student in class on time so he can benefit from academic instruction without interrupting the teaching-learning process.

One possible accommodation would be to excuse a tardy for every five on-time arrivals. A simple check in the teacher's grade book for on-time and a "T" for tardy would be simple to tally. If a student has not earned an excused tardy, then he must make-up his tardy time at a time most inconvenient for him such as passing time, lunch time, or after school.

Make-up time does not have to be equal to or more than the time lost. If a student was tardy to my class, I used to keep them one minute after dismissal. A routine exchange took place: "Are you on time? No. See you after class. Watch the clock because you owe me one minute." That one minute lasted forever because they were losing valuable social time in the hallways, but not enough time that would cause them to be tardy for their next class. If that gentle reminder to be on time didn't work , they were invited to eat lunch with me in my room. Loss of social time is a much bigger consequence for adolescents than missing a class sitting in ISS doing nothing.

As the student develops the habit of being on-time, increase the number of on-time behaviors to earn an excused tardy increasing the expectation toward meeting the school policy. Again, the most important goal is to have the student in class so he can benefit from academic instruction.

Sometimes, these students have a very difficult time getting up in the morning and are often late to school: late to bed and late to rise. This is normal adolescent development, but students with ADD seem to have more problems with this. A modification for this student would be to modify her schedule so that she does not have a first period class and begins her school day later or that she has an independent study or online course during that slot in her schedule, but she is allowed to do this work on her own time schedule and arrive later to school while still being "on time." Some folks just do better working the night shift.

An effective strategy for this student is the use of timers. We have many timers in our house because I am always setting off the fire alarm when cooking and my husband often floods our campsite when filling the water tank. We start these tasks then get distracted by something more interesting and the timer draws our attention back to the task at hand. Many adolescents need more than one alarm clock to get up and on their way to get to school on time!

James Madison University has an online resource for teaching and learning strategies that is quite extensive.

While doing research on the web about accommodations and modifications, I mostly found approved accommodations and modifications for taking tests. The National Center on Educational Outcomes web site lists accommodations for test taking by state.

Most local school systems provide a menu of accommodations that have been approved for different disabilities. One place to begin looking for approved accommodations is at the State Board of Education. However, the Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) is a tool for developing an appropriate educational plan for the individual student who may need a non-standard accommodations. The IEP process is an opportunity for all of the participants to think outside-of-the-box or creatively to ensure that a student is given necessary supports that will enable him to meet the goals and expectations of the general education curriculum.

In my most recent full-time teaching position as a Resource Specialist Teacher for students with learning disabilities and behavioral problems, my team members and I created an accommodations checklist. To involve the parent and student, I would send a copy of this chart home for them to discuss and bring to the IEP meeting. At the IEP meeting, I would ask them to tell us which accommodations they thought would be beneficial to the student. As an IEP Team, we would agree to the accommodations that would benefit this student in the general education classroom.

Immediately following the IEP meeting, a copy of these accommodations was placed in the mailboxes of all of the student's teachers. The accommodations were also recorded on a master grid that was e-mailed as an attachment to all Instructional Staff a few days before grade reports were to be completed. Therefore, the student's teachers had been invited to participate in the discussion of appropriate accommodations at the IEP meeting, had been give a written copy of the approved accommodations in writing following the IEP meeting, and were given e-mailed reminders about the accommodations each grading period.

I left this school in 2003, and the special education department is still using this accommodations chart with some minor modifications. If you choose to use this form or modify it in any way, please credit the Del Norte High School Special Education Department in Del Norte Unified School District in Northern CA for their work.

Other resources:

Accommodations, Modifications, and Alternate Assessments: How They Affect Instruction and Assessment

PACER provides an extensive list of accommodations.

PEAK Parent Center's List of Accommodations & Modifications, posted on PEATC.org site

Please contact me if you have questions about accommodations, modifications, or strategies for adolescents with learning disabilities, behavior disorders, or attentional differences.