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High-stakes standardized assessments are gateways to future educational opportunities, such as college or graduate programs. Over the last decade, the move to online digital assessments brought accommodations to the forefront—even embedding many accommodations in the assessments for access by all (on designated sections of the test).

Ensuring that students who need accommodations are allowed to use their tools on tests is an important part of being able to demonstrate their true aptitude.

Knowing your state and local requirements for testing accommodations is the first step. Ensuring your students are using their tools so they have no problem proving proof of use is important and then preparing your accommodations for testing is the last step.

Screenshot shows the Co:Writer Test Mode for Assessments tool

Co:Writer has always had test mode built in, but it has gotten some impressive upgrades.

Over 35 features (including Topic Dictionaries, predict ahead, speech recognition, speech-to-text, and more…) are adjusted when you select your assessment (now supporting 50+ assessments). It’s already built into Co:Writer through our Google Chrome Extension and Google Chrome App. Check with your local regulations and authorities to confirm that Co:Writer can be used on your state assessment. States do not endorse specific products, and all of the work done to comply with state regulations were based on published requirements.

Why use Co:Writer for testing accommodations? We’re always methodical when we build something. This is no exception.

Here’s what we do:

List of students with one selected on left, list of assessments with STAAR-Spelling on right selected

• Setup/Management — Select your assessment from the drop-down menu in a centralized location and Co:Writer automatically adjusts over 35 features to comply with testing accommodation requirements for any number of selected users.

• Test Settings — A drop-down menu provides automatic settings adjustment to comply with state assessments.

• Student Settings — Co:Writer retains all student settings (colors, text size, fonts, number of guesses, text-to-speech voice, rate, pitch, etc.) and only restricts features disallowed on the chosen assessment.

• Installation — Co:Writer Test Mode is built into the same tool your students use throughout the year. No additional installation is required.

• Test Security — Co:Writer, in Test Mode, does not send any text outside of the secure writing environment—eliminating the risk of compromised security.

• Proof of Accommodation Use — Co:Writer data shows when the tool was issued to each student and usage data to prove it was used for the required time period leading up to the assessment.

Thumbnail of the front page of the PDF resource

Already have Co:Writer? Download (PDF) our Co:Writer in Test Mode.

ACT
ACT Aspire
ACT QualityCore
ACT WorkKeys
AzMERRIT – Arizona’s Measurement of Educational Readiness to Inform Teaching
CMAS – Colorado Measures of Academic Success
CoAlt – Colorado Alternate Assessment Program
DeSSA – Delaware System of Student Assessments
FSA – Florida Standards Assessment
Georgia – Georgia Milestones
I AM – Indiana’s Alternate Measure
IAR – Illinois Assessment of Readiness
ILEARN – Indiana’s Learning Evaluation Assessment Readiness Network
Indiana – ILEARN, IREAD, IAM: Non-Standard Accommodation
IREAD – Indiana Reading Evaluation and Determination
ISASP – Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student ProgressISAT – Idaho Standards Achievement Test
K-PREP – Kentucky Performance Rating for Education Progress
KAP – Kansas Assessment Program
LEAP – Louisiana Educational Assessment Program
Louisiana – Louisiana: End-of-Course Test
M-STEP – Michigan Student Test of Education Progress
MAP (MO) – Missouri Assessmet Program
MAP (MS) – Mississippi Assessment program
MCA -Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments
MCAP – Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program
MCAS – Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System
MEA – Maine Educational Assessment
Missouri – Missouri: End-of-Course Test
Nevada – Nevada: End-of-Course Test
New York – New York State Assessments
New York – Regents Exams
NH SAS – New Hampshire Statewide Assessment System
NJSLA – New Jersey Student Learning Assesssments
North Carolina – North Carolina: End-of-Grade Test
NSCAS – Nebraska Student-Centered Assessment System
Ohio – Ohio: End-of-Course Test
OSAS – Oregon’s Statewide Assessment System
OST – Ohio’s State Tests
OSTP – Oklahoma School Testing Program
PACE – Performance Assessment of Competency Education
PARCC – Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers
PEAKS – Performance Evaluation for Alaska’s Schools
Pennsylvania – Keystone Exams
PSAT – Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test
PSSA – Pennsylvania System of School Assessment
RICAS – Rhode Island Comprehensive Assessment Program
SAGE – Student Assessment of Growth and Excellence
SAT – Scholastic Assessment Test
SBAC – Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium
SCReady – South Carolina College-and-Career Ready Assessments
SOL – Standards of Learning
South Carolina – South Carolina: End-of-Course Test
STAAR – Predict
STAAR – STT, TTS
STAAR-Spelling
STAAR-Transcribe
TCA
TCAP – Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program
TELPAS – Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System
Tennessee – Tennessee: End-of-Course Test
Utah – Utah Aspire Plus
Wisconsin – Wisconsin Forward
WY-TOPP – Wyoming Test of Proficiency and Progress

Students with writing difficulties may find themselves not completing longer writing assignments due to slow output or poor spelling and grammar. This may create an insurmountable hurdle come test time. Allowing students to use speech recognition can help them navigate around that barrier. So, how do we go about building a pathway to using speech recognition as AT? How can we best use this technology as an accommodation for our students, throughout the year and during testing?

Animation shows the Co:Writer Speech Recognition tool

Speech recognition with word prediction within Co:Writer is the key to unlocking the writer inside every student. Helping them complete their everyday assignments and get comfortable using the tools so they are prepared come test time.

Listen to Daniel Cochrane and Kelly Key share a systematic process for using speech recognition as AT for writing and how it can be translated to use for testing.

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Most states stipulate that in order to use accommodations on the assessment, students must have access to and use those accommodations well ahead of assessment time.

Oftentimes proof of use is required. Co:Writer and Snap&Read provide the data that shows when students received access and also includes usage data. This is particularly valuable for states that specify the specific time period a student needs access to their accommodations to qualify to use them on the assessment.

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