Takeaways for Parents & Caregivers

Parents have several important roles in the extended time accommodations process:

• Parents know the student best as a person, and can often comment on the student's approach to tasks at home.

• Parents give crucial input on IEP and Accommodation plans, including testing accommodation services.

• Parents advocate for their child's needs, and ensure that other team members do not overlook any of those needs.

• Parents can comment on student motivation, anxiety, and other psychological aspects of tests and academic performance.

Takeaways for parents from our research:

• In our study, students who used test features such as text-to-speech (i.e., had the computer read words aloud to them) or Zoom (i.e., zoomed in to enlarge text or figures) spent more time on test items. Therefore, students who use these features may need more time to take tests.

• In our study, among students who were receiving extended time accommodations, those students who reported putting forth more effort on the test also spent more time on test items. Therefore, if a student who has extended time accommodations does not use their extended time, this may be because of motivation problems. For instance, the student may be giving up on difficult items that they don't think they can answer.

• Most students (in either 4th or 8th grade) who received extended time accommodations didn't use any of their extra time, and of those who used it, most didn't gain any more points during the extra period of time.

What parents can DO, based on this research:

• Your active engagement in developing and reviewing the IEP with regard to extended time decision-making is important. Some potentially helpful questions to ask to guide data gathering that could then be used to help inform related decisions as part of the IEP process include the following:

  • If your child uses text-to-speech, do they have enough time during testing to use text-to-speech?

    • • • If not, more time may be 

  • If your child already is eligible for extended time, are they typically using it?

    • • • If they are not using it, consider asking more questions to figure out why.

          • • Is it because they are not motivated to use more time?

              • • If so, it may be the case that some students need more encouragement or reinforcement for using their extended time.

            • Is it because they don’t need it?

              • If so, it may be appropriate to remove it as an accommodation. Even though it may seem as though there’s no downside to extended time, the child may be missing out on instruction as they sit in a separate testing location to receive their extended time.