Foster equitable and accessible assessments by enabling tools and accommodations for individual students

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Students may have specific learning requirements for assessments that are essential for their success. To support this, we are offering the ability to enable tools and accommodations for individual students to provide a fair and inclusive assessment experience for all students. 

Mastery assessments offer tools like calculators, line readers, and rulers for educators and administrators to make available on specific assessments. These features helped to provide equal access to tools for all students who were taking that assessment. For example, a Grade 6 mathematics teacher may wish to make a basic calculator available for all of their students to assist with calculations.

While there are tools that need to be enabled for each assessment, educators and administrators also need to be able to provide specific students with the accommodations that support their unique learning profiles and documented needs. 

With individual student accommodations, educators and administrators are able to ensure that individual students have consistent access to the supports they need to demonstrate their learning. These accommodations can now be applied by educators at the class level so that students receive the same tools and accommodations across all assessments for that class, or globally by administrators so that students have access to these resources on every assessment they take in Mastery.  

How to Apply Individual Student Accommodations  

Educators can enable tools and accommodations for specific students right from their Mastery Tracker. To do so: 

1. Find the student and select Edit
2. Scroll to Tools and Accommodations 
3. Select the supports that students should have access to on formative and/or benchmark assessments for that class
4. Click Save

This student will now have access to these resources on every assessment for that class.

Administrators can enable tools and accommodations for students that will appear globally across every assessment that students take in Mastery. To do so:

1. Go to Manage Students 
2. Find the student and select Edit 
3. Scroll to Tools and Accommodations 
4. Toggle on formative assessments and select the supports you wish to make available on these types of assessments. Then, you can do the same for benchmark assessments, if desired. 
5. Click Save

This student will now have access to these accommodations across all of their assessments, regardless of the class that they’re in.  

Ensure Consistent Access to the Tools Students Need 

The Mastery team is committed to ensuring that students have the most fair assessment experience so that educators and administrators can gain access to the most accurate pictures of students' understanding. Individual student accommodations ensure that students have consistent access to the supports they need to demonstrate their learning.