Accommodations

For the purposes of this assessment, accommodations are alterations to the assessment that do not jeopardize the integrity or content of the assessment, yet give all students an equal opportunity to demonstrate what they know and can do as part of the assessment process. To ensure consistency across all participating provinces and territories, please note the permitted accommodations listed below.

Accommodations can be made for selected students if, and only if, the students receive such accommodations in assessment situations during their regular school program.

All students, regardless of whether they are eligible for accommodations or not, are permitted to use any resource they are accustomed to using in their science classroom, including:

  • a calculator (graphing or non-graphing);
  • manipulatives;
  • a dictionary;
  • a bilingual dictionary (e.g., English-French or other language); and/or
  • a thesaurus.

In addition, some students may be provided with the following accommodations:

  • additional time;
  • additional breaks, as long as they are supervised during the breaks;
  • an alternate setting; and/or
  • use of a scribe (typing verbatim: the scribe must type what the student says, without editing).

Any accommodations provided to students for the assessment must be identified on the Session Report Form, which the test administrator will complete on assessment day.

If you have any questions about possible accommodations, or how an accommodation can be implemented during the PCAP assessment, please contact CMEC at pcap-ppce@cmec.ca.

Students with special education needs (SEN) should be identified with the appropriate SEN code in the SEN column of the Student Identification Form. SEN codes are purely informational and will not exempt students from the PCAP assessment. For the list of possible SEN codes, please see Special Education Needs Codes.

The intention of PCAP is to be as inclusive as possible, and all students are encouraged to participate as long as they are capable of understanding the initial test instructions. Students with a SEN code can participate in PCAP with an accommodation or an alternative format. For the list of permitted/available accommodations, please see Accommodations. For the list of available alternative formats, please see Alternative Formats.

Watch this video to learn about accommodations and codes for students with special education needs.