The HOW Matters, An Accommodation Done Differently

How We Implement Supports Matters:

A Typical Accommodation, Done Differently.

I work regularly with a student’s family and their school. Recently, this students’ teacher implemented a very common accommodation in a way that completely changed the student’s experience.

If you don’t know me well, I’m an educational psychologist with 15 years of experience. I’ve worked in US schools and private practice, and have supported international school teams, counselors, and parents in 53 countries. I have lived in Berlin for the last 5 years, in Los Angeles, and New York.

My work sits at the intersection of two spaces: school-based culture and systems and parent partnership.

In working with international schools to develop the strong cultural foundations on which inclusion and MTSS thrive, there are often little gems worth sharing with the larger international school community.

Here is one that is small, but mighty, and often overlooked.

The accommodation of extra time is one of the most common accommodations we see, which is why this example of what took place is worth sharing.

Many students receive extra time for informal and for formal assessment because of learning disabilities, processing speed differences, anxiety, ADHD, or other needs. Often, the student begins the test or essay with everyone else and then continues after the rest of the class has finished. Sometimes they move to another space with a proctor for monitoring. Sometimes they remain in the same room. For IB exams, the process of providing additional time is of course more regulated and typically occurs at the end of the regular time period allotted. However, for internal assessment, unit tests, in class essays based tests, etc., the format of providing this accommodation is more flexible.

While the extra time on tests is important for many, emotionally, it can still be difficult. For many students, this experience can reinforce the feeling of being behind. They watch peers finish and leave. They can feel their differences being highlighted even when the support itself is appropriate and necessary.

In this case, the teacher knew to do something different.

The essay based assessment occurred first thing in the morning, so instead of having the student stay after for additional time, the teacher invited the student to come in before the rest of the class and begin early. She received the same amount of monitored extra time, but at the start rather than at the end.

That small shift changed everything for this student with a learning disability who has felt extremely discouraged throughout exam season. Let me tell you why.

When the other students arrived, she had written two paragraphs of her essay. She knew she would not have to race. She knew she would not be the last one sitting in the room again. This gave her the space to think, regulate, and write without panic.

To say this built confidence would be an understatement.

For the first time, this student knew that she could finish, and she could do so without shame about her abilities or needs. She did not spend the test time watching others leave and feeling increasingly anxious. She did not experience the accommodation as a reminder that she was behind. She experienced it as a support that helped her access what she was capable of doing.

This shift considered the student’s confidence, mental health, and learning profile.

Accommodations are as effective as the educators implementing them and the systems that allow the flexibility to implement in different ways. The real work is in helping the culture of the school to understand the nuance: how support lands emotionally, how it interacts with anxiety, how it shapes a student’s sense of competence, and how mental health and academic outcomes are deeply connected.

This is where counselors, learning support teams, and school leaders can have such a meaningful impact.

We can help educators look at how students will experience their learning and their support. We can help teams see that MTSS is not just about tiers, data, and interventions. It is about creating culture and systems where students are understood from the beginning, embraced, supported thoughtfully, and included meaningfully so they aren’t feeling their capabilities and needs as separate to the system they are apart of.

So here’s to a great teacher who knew what to do in to empower a student when it was possible to do so, and to all my colleagues who are also doing this great work on inclusion, MTSS, and school culture.

After the stress of exam season, as we round out the school year, it is good to have a win story, and it is a reminder that how we do what we do matters.

-Tara Eddy, Founder of Tara Eddy Global Consulting and Feelings in Motion