Many students in special education not only need adjustments to their learning environment and instruction but to their tests as well. Your students may have difficulty sitting still for a long period of time, struggle to read the content on the test, or just take longer to process written standard essay format information. The goal of any test should be to assess your students' knowledge and understanding and because of these obstacles, some students' test results are not an accurate measure of their abilities. These accommodations will help ensure you are grading your students on what they know.

Allow for Extra Time
Sometimes the accommodation is as simple as giving your students more time to take a test than is typically allowed. Giving untimed tests, which can even carry over to another class period or the following day, will relieve some of your students' test anxiety by giving them ample time to process the information on the test.

Grade for Content
Unless you are testing your students' spelling, don't take points off for poor spelling. Unless you are testing your students' handwriting, don't take points off for poor handwriting. Many students with disabilities, particularly those with dyslexia or other reading difficulties, struggle with grammar, spelling, and handwriting. Not counting those things towards their grades in subjects such as social studies and science allows them to spend more time concerned with their actual answers than with how well they write them.