A Guide For All: 'Access 2.0' Updates Target Wording, Organization

Will Graves

This summer, the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) will publish the Access for All Guide 2.0, an updated version of the helpful document that will provide more clarity and additional resources for general education teachers.

The guide is intended to provide educators with evidence-based tools they can implement in the classroom to improve every student’s ability to learn through different adaptations.

MDE and staff from the Mississippi State University Research and Curriculum Unit (RCU) began the process of updating the original document last fall with the goal of replacing key terminology with language that will provide general education teachers with a better understanding of how the document can aid in providing quality classroom instruction for all students.

The new version replaces accommodations and modifications with adaptations. The change came about because accommodations and modifications are more commonly associated with special education. The intent of the guide is to be a resource for teachers to meet the learning needs of all students, not just one group.

To encourage further use of these classroom adaptations for all students, not only those with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), the new document provides educators with four specific types of adaptations that address four select student populations.

“There are many things you can do in your classroom that are available to every child,” said RCU Project Manager Ginny Sanders. “By providing the four types of adaptations for the four select student populations, we have been able to take the suggestions for instruction and align them with the specific classroom adaptations teachers can use.”

The guide’s adaptations and suggestions for instruction are beneficial for teachers to help students succeed both academically and socially — two areas where many students struggled throughout the past year.

As learners made their way back into classrooms after extended periods of at-home education due to the pandemic, many teachers noticed students had difficulty keeping up with objectives and meeting benchmarks.

After hearing general education colleagues discuss these concerns, Mandy Crawley, a third grade special education teacher at New Albany Elementary School, said she knew the guide would be a great resource to help those teachers get their students reaccustomed to the learning pace and environment of the classroom.

“With all of us coming back from the pandemic and having to deal with so much learning loss, I gave a presentation to my general education teachers to explain what the guide is and how they could use it to help students who are struggling,” Crawley said. “So many times, we think of accommodations as something we do only for special education students, and the teachers didn’t realize there were tools available that can be used with struggling general education students.”

Crawley’s presentation was a success and led to general education teachers implementing adaptations in their own classrooms. After returning to school, many students struggled with reading and comprehension lessons, so teachers began making adaptations that ultimately improved their reading scores.

“My teachers really wanted to do something to help their students, and they were very open to learning about the guide,” she said. “With COVID-19, we knew it would be a tough year. After my teachers were so welcoming to the idea of using it for their own students and had success, my hope is that more general education teachers across the state will take advantage of this resource and feel more comfortable with using it.”

New Albany School District (NASD) Special Services Director Kristen Richey said the guide is an impactful tool that helped teachers in her district meet the learning needs of every student.

“Our teachers have not had such a comprehensive tool at their fingertips until the guide was created,” she said. “Our motto at NASD is: Preparing all for success. The guide provides strategies for instruction, as well as adaptations to the instruction, to help us meet every student's need and work toward our school district's vision.”

MDE will publish the new guide as a digital document. Although the useful section tabs for deficit areas in the printed publication will no longer be part of the document, teachers will be excited about the new document’s robust color-coded organization and the addition of resource links.

“I am extremely excited about the updated guide. Because the use of accommodation and modification were so prevalent, many educators, without meaning to, associated it with special education due to the common language,” Richey said. “The updated language, along with the online accessibility, will make the guide more user-friendly and broaden its availability to educators. I am excited to see all the possibilities this opens for the students of Mississippi.”