Leverage Accessible Standardized Assessments

Fridley's Story

Fridley Public Schools (Fridley, Minnesota)

Fridley Public Schools serve approximately 3,000 students in Fridley, MN. Fridley’s work to bring together assistive technology (AT), information technology (IT), and education technology (EdTech) to benefit students with disabilities has increased over several years. The district started by building educator capacity to consider and implement the use of universal tools during assessment as an essential foundation for ensuring its assessment system is balanced. The Fridley team’s focus has been to ensure that learners are able to make informed choices about what technologies and supports can help them in different situations. As staff members feel more comfortable and confident discussing and advocating for accessibility features and the use of AT supports for instruction, the door opens to align these supports during assessment opportunities.

As part of Fridley’s collaborative approach, AT specialists and special educators work closely with the district’s testing coordinator to identify the various accessibility tools and accommodations available. Building educator capacity on the allowable universal tools available as part of their summative assessments offers Fridley’s inclusive technology team the opportunity to support a broad scope of student assessment and instructional needs. Training students on the universal features for instructional and assessment opportunities ensures that students know and understand the tools available to them. Training the AT team on universal tools allows them to focus more on providing eligible students with the appropriate tools they need to access the assessment(s). For example, the AT team may provide and train a student with low vision to use a large interactive screen while teaching another to use an eye-gaze system to access their assessment.