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Candace Cortiella: You used the term “target skills” several times. Can you explain what is meant by target skills?
Lindy Crawford: Sure. A target skill is the core content that’s being either taught or tested. Researchers will refer to it as the construct of interest. It has nothing to do with how the student accesses or gets to the skill, or how the student shows his knowledge or skill in that skill or that content.
Candace Cortiella: And, by contrast, what is meant by modifications?
Lindy Crawford: Modifications actually do change that target skill or the construct of interest. They often reduce learning expectations or affect the content in such a way that what is being taught or tested is fundamentally changed.
Modifications are instructional or test adaptations that allow the student to demonstrate what he knows or can do, but they also reduce the target skill in some way. So if a child is provided with a modification, generally it will lower the performance expectations, and a modification may do that by reducing the number of items required or the complexity of the items or the task required. In essence, a student doesn’t demonstrate what he knows or can do in that target skill or that content because the modification changes it to such a degree that the student’s product no longer represents what we think it does.
Another way of thinking about this is that the inferences we make about what a student really knows end up being inaccurate, and we may unintentionally overestimate the knowledge and skills that the student actually has.
Candace Cortiella: Do you think that accommodations and modifications are frequently confused in the process of designing individualized instruction for students with disabilities such as learning disabilities?
Lindy Crawford: I think they’re sometimes confused because teachers do not always know how to separate the target skills from the access skill. I think it would be helpful if teachers begin by identifying the target skill the student needs to know and then identifying the skills the student needs to access it or respond to that target skill. And once the teacher has identified these target skills and access skills, they’re better able to maintain the target skill expectations but accommodate the student around the access skill.
Candace Cortiella: What is the danger of such confusion between accommodations and modifications?
Lindy Crawford: Three dangers come to mind (and there are probably more). First, if we confuse the two and we make changes to the target skill, we end up with incorrect assumptions about what a student truly knows.
Second, if we provide students with modifications, we’re more than likely to reduce our expectations for them. But if we hold all students to the same performance expectations while providing access to the content, through use of accommodations, then we can maintain those similar expectations for students.
And finally, by providing modifications instead of accommodations, we limit students’ opportunity to learn and possibly contribute to learned helplessness in future work environments because we reduce our expectations of kids when we provide them with modifications or “crutches,” if you will, around the content.
Candace Cortiella: Why is it important for parents and also for students (as appropriate) to understand the difference between accommodations and modifications?
Lindy Crawford: Well, teachers, parents, and other people don’t make an inference about a student’s performance such as, for example, “She is proficient at multiplication,” or “He understands the process of osmosis.” But if that student demonstrates that skill and/or that knowledge with help of a modification, then that inference we make is incorrect.
But if the student demonstrates his skill and knowledge while using an accommodation, then our inferences are, in fact, correct or accurate. Parents and students also need to know that in high-stakes test situations such as state tests, modifications automatically invalidate a student’s score, and this has very negative consequences for students. Parents and students also need to know that in advance of a testing situation. I also think it’s important for students to understand the difference so that they can self-advocate for accommodations as opposed to modifications.
