Research On The Academic Assessment Accommodations For The Students With Handicapped In The United States

Students with handicapped may not participate in the paper and pencil test, and therefore they need some accommodations to express their true academic knowledge and skills. Academic assessment accommodations are changes in the academic assessment to provide multiple measures for the students with handicapped and strive to meet their needs without destroy the validity of the academic assessment. In China, with the development of this practice, the problem of the academic assessment for the students learning in the regular classroom becomes more and more obvious and the academic assessment accommodations should be produced urgently to promote the establishment of the academic assessment system for the students learning in the regular classrooms. The history of the academic assessment accommodations for the students with handicapped in the United States can be traced back to the end of the1930s. During the past decades, the experience and lessons can become important resource in promoting the establishment of the academic assessment system for the students learning in the regular classrooms.Based on the need of the participation of the students with handicapped in the academic assessment and the establishment of the academic assessment system for the students learning in the regular classrooms in China, this research presents the definition of academic assessment accommodation, traces its development for the students with handicapped in the United States, introduces its system and collects the research findings in this field in the United States.The result shows that the United States has accumulated a wealth of experience in the assessment accommodation for the students with handicapped, including having set up reasonable expectations to the students with handicapped, established relatively complete laws and policies, considered the need of the students as the basis, advocated teamwork, established systematic operating process and monitoring system and conducted research to direct the practice. But there are still some problems, including the poor validity of the decision making by the teachers and the shortage of the related research.On this basis, considering the actual situation of the development in practice and research about the academic assessment for the students learning in the regular classrooms in China, this research propose several recommendations to promote the establishment of the academic assessment system for the students learning in the regular classrooms and ensure the students with handicapped can participate in the academic assessment equally. These recommendations include changing the concepts to the students learning in the regular classrooms, improving related laws and policies, enlarging the accommodating objects appropriately, strengthening the team building of people who provide the accommodations and carrying out empirical research to guide practice.