According to NCLB, students who have an Limited English Proficiency designation are eligible for Standardized Testing Accommodations. Since native language assessments will not be an option until the state develops guidelines for them, NSBSD will address the form of the assessments by providing reasonable accommodations as necessary.   If  the LEP students have adequate oral, reading, and  writing English proficiencies that yield valid results on state assessments, then accommodations will not be provided. If the LEP students do not have adequate oral, reading, and writing English proficiencies to give valid results on state assessments, then accommodations are necessary. The only assessment that will not have accommodations is the English Language Proficiency Test, since this measures the students' abilities with the language.

A committee, which may include parents (and a translator, if necessary), building administrator, student's teacher or counselor,  Bilingual Dept. representative, and District Test Coordinator, will meet to determine if testing accommodations are necessary or not for the student's assessment to be valid. Parents are notified in advance through a Parent Letter, which outlines the procedure. The committee fills out a Testing Accommodations Form with the accommodations that may be used during the test. After the testing takes place, the form is completed, indicating which accommodations were actually used in the test. This form then goes in the student's file at the Bilingual Department.

Teachers may want to use some accommodations in their ongoing assessments with all students, but especially those with an LEP designation. Here are some possible testing strategies to use before, during and after classroom assessments.