The guidelines of seven states specifically state that testing accommodations must be consistent with accommodations used for the individual student in his or her typical classroom instruction. Guidelines from the other states have similar statements about the alignment of testing accommodations and accommodations implemented in daily classroom instruction. In addition to lists of accommodations, other kinds of information in state guidelines include elaboration of information, deference to other sources, and discussions of the decision-making process. This additional information provides useful clarification for using modifications. Ohio's guidelines indicate that it only allows those accommodations accepted by the test publisher.
Several states require parental knowledge or participation in the decision-making process.
While most states separate information on eligibility for accommodations from their guidelines on accommodations, four states reiterate this point when presenting the accommodations guidelines. Reporting Most states did not indicate whether the testing results of students using accommodations would be included in the local or state statistics. Maryland and Mississippi were the only states among the 18 examined with high stakes exams for students to indicate that all scores would be included in reporting the final testing results. While the reliability for each of these states is high, those persons retrieving the information found that either the information presented was not clear, did not include enough information on how to include the largest number of students with disabilities, or the information provided was not well organized. The remaining states received ratings of 2 or 3.