Choosing Between Accommodation and Modification for a Student With Dyslexia
Marcus is a ninth grader with dyslexia who reads at roughly a fourth-grade level but comprehends grade-level content well when material is read aloud. His biology class requires reading a 12-page textbook chapter per week and answering 10 short-answer questions. His IEP includes extended time and text-to-speech. On the last two unit tests, Marcus scored 45% and 50%. He completes homework with his resource teacher but fails content tests. The general education teacher argues Marcus should be moved to a modified curriculum with shortened assignments and a reduced question count. Marcus's mother wants him to stay in the general curriculum and eventually earn a standard diploma. The team meets to review his program.
1. Should the team adopt the teacher's proposed modified curriculum, or keep the general curriculum with adjustments? Justify your recommendation.
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Keep Marcus in the general curriculum and strengthen supports before considering any modification. The data show a test-access problem, not a comprehension problem: Marcus comprehends grade-level content when it is read aloud, and his failing scores coincide with print-heavy unit tests. A modified curriculum (shortened assignments, fewer questions) would lower expectations and could foreclose the standard-diploma pathway his mother wants-a high-stakes consequence that should require clear evidence the general curriculum is not working with appropriate supports in place.
Before modifying, the team should verify the text-to-speech accommodation is actually being delivered on tests and that test items are not measuring decoding rather than science knowledge. If tests remain inaccessible, the team can adjust how content is accessed (read-aloud test items, reduced reading load on the test while keeping the same concepts) without reducing the standards themselves. Modification is the last step, not the first response to low scores.
2. The teacher says, "Shortening his assignments isn't lowering standards-it's just good teaching." How should the team distinguish an accommodation from a modification here?
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The distinction turns on whether the student is expected to meet the same standard. An accommodation changes how the student accesses or demonstrates learning without changing what is learned or the level of mastery expected-e.g., text-to-speech, extended time, having test items read aloud. A modification changes what is taught or the performance expectation-e.g., fewer questions, reduced content, a lower mastery bar.
Shortening an assignment can be either, depending on intent and effect. Cutting 10 questions to 5 because all 5 still sample the same concepts and Marcus must master them is closer to an accommodation of volume. Cutting content or lowering the required accuracy is a modification. The team should ask: After this change, is Marcus still expected to demonstrate the same grade-level knowledge? If yes, it is an accommodation; if no, it is a modification and must be documented as such with its diploma implications explained to the family.