HLP 13

Adapting curriculum tasks and materials for specific learning goals is well known to special educators given that accommodations and modifications are included in IEPs.  This is a broad HLP in that adaptations take on many forms depending on the instructional or testing situation, age and grade level of the student, and other factors.  In addition, many instructional adaptations could also be considered scaffolds, which is HLP 15 Provide Scaffolded Supports.  There is shared language and evidence between HLP 13 and HLP 15.  In this brief review, the focus is on research support for assessment adaptations.  Research supporting the use of instructional adaptations is in the forthcoming section for HLP 15.

Teachers make numerous adaptations to assessment and regular learning situations and environments to support positive student outcomes.  Over the past 20+ years, Thurlow and her colleagues have led the way in understanding assessment accommodations’ prevalence and effectiveness for students with disabilities (see Thurlow & Bolt, 2001; Thurlow & Kopriva, 2015).  Others (e.g., Witmer et al., 2015) have explored the impact of adaptations on student performance across a range of instructional and testing settings.

Thurlow and Kopriva (2015) and others (e.g., Witmer et al., 2015) note research support for individual accommodations is more prevalent for assessment than instruction.  A key reason for this is individual accommodations used in classroom learning situations can be difficult to evaluate given their integration into other instructional approaches and settings (Gregg, 2012).  This is similar to measurement issues with other HLPs such as HLP 17 Use Flexible Grouping and HLP 18 Use Strategies to Promote Active Student Engagement.  This does not mean these practices should not be used or considered with caution.  Instead, they are examples of the many practices that are essential to an educator’s repertoire that do not lend themselves to being studied individually by research methods such as randomized control trials (McLeskey et al., 2017).  Shriner and Ganguly (2007) referred to the “often untidy” nature of accommodations and how researchers have a difficult time evaluating the impact of any given tool or approach, given the sizeable number of students with various disabilities spread across the country’s content areas, grade levels, and instructional situations. 

As a critical component of explicit instruction, educators must be able to adapt curriculum tasks and materials so that students with disabilities can meet the stated learning objectives.  Special educators may make adaptations by highlighting relevant information, changing task directions, and adjusting content amount and depth (Mastropieri et al., 2024). Material adaptations may include:

• making substitutions for text material (e.g., audiotaping content, reading content aloud, using other media, working individually with students),
• simplifying text (e.g., making abridged versions, providing outlines and summaries, using multilevel supports), and
• highlighting key concepts and information (e.g., previewing content, developing study guides, summarizing or reducing content), or
• adapting learning objectives (e.g., targeting and prioritizing learning objectives critical to curriculum content).

Task adaptations may include:

• providing and teaching guided notes for notetaking during whole group instruction,
• providing and teaching graphic organizers during whole group instruction, or
• reducing the number or types of practice opportunities assigned during independent practice.

Educators make adaptation decisions because they monitor student performance closely either through formal (e.g., assessments, evaluations) or informal (e.g., observation, opportunities to respond) means (Leatherman & Wegner, 2022; Mason et al., 2022).  With a clear understanding of the learning objectives and of student intersectional characteristics, educators can predict student need(s) while designing explicit instruction lessons and include adaptations at any part of the modeling, guided practice, and independent practice stages of the lesson.  In addition, requiring frequent responses of students by providing multiple opportunities to respond during instruction and close monitoring of their performance allows educators to make “on the spot” adaptations such as including additional, simplified examples; reducing the complexity of the directions or material presented; highlighting critical concepts; or providing additional, individualized instruction when students are not meeting demands during a lesson. 

Two specific types of adaptations implemented according to a student’s IEP are accommodations and modifications.  Modifications are adaptations made to the level of curriculum through instruction and/or assessment (Hollenbeck et al., 1998). Accommodations are adaptations that help promote access and assist students in overcoming barriers caused by their disabilities (IRIS Center, 2023). Accommodations occur as changes across four different categories–setting, timing or scheduling, presentation, and response (Thurlow & Bolt, 2001).  In short, modifications are adaptations that alter what a student learns, and accommodations are adaptations that alter how a student learns.

Accommodations and modifications can sometimes appear similar in practice despite the distinction of modifications altering the level of content while accommodations adjust the level of accessibility.  However, educators frequently misconstrue accommodations as modifications (Ysseldyke et al., 2001).  Given their resemblance in implementation, it is crucial for educators to grasp the subtle difference: modifications involve changing the content level, whereas accommodations are about enhancing the accessibility level.  Educators working with students with disabilities must comprehend and be ready to implement both adaptations (accommodations and modifications) to support students with disabilities.  Further, educators should gather data on student performance to assess the effectiveness of the accommodations or modifications themselves as well as in tandem with other adaptations to prevent the ongoing use of ineffective adaptations.