Back to Testing: Real Talk on Accommodations, Accuracy, and Avoiding the Chaos

As districts head into a new testing season, the work starts long before test day: aligning terminology, standardizing accommodations, training new coordinators, and keeping data in sync across systems.

In our recent webinar, Back to Testing: Real Talk on Accommodations, Accuracy, and Avoiding the Chaos, Education Advanced’s Carie Barthelemess spoke with Caitlin Vandenhouten of SameGoal about practical, low-stress ways to prepare, so all student’s accommodations are accurate, every campus is aligned, and every coordinator has the tools and reports they need.

How Can Districts Set the Stage for a Smooth Year?

Vandenhouten: From the very beginning, make sure all your staff are on the same page and understand the process. Start by getting your list of allowable accommodations (every state has different guidelines) and standardize that language across your district.  

In SameGoal, district bank values let you create a predefined list, so document authors use consistent terminology, which then feeds cleanly into TestHound.

Barthelemess: This is the time of year to have those conversations. Everyone’s busy getting the year underway, but early alignment saves so much time later. Check your accommodation lists, confirm any state updates, and make sure your rollover from last year in TestHound is complete. Ensure students, teachers, rooms, and alerts are all in place before testing begins.

Why Is Consistency Key Across Teams and Campuses?

Vandenhouten: Consistency simplifies everything, especially training. When your middle school staff follow the same process as your high school, and your special education team follows the same process as your 504 team, it’s easier to answer questions and maintain accuracy.  

With SameGoal, all programs live in one platform, so accommodations are entered the same way no matter the plan.

Barthelemess: That consistency also protects you when staff changes happen. If someone retires or moves to another school, your process doesn’t start from scratch. With TestHound, everything is already documented—your students, your rooms, your reports—so new coordinators can step in confidently.

How Does Integration Simplify Testing Coordination?

Vandenhouten: Integration limits how often data has to be entered. Information from plan documents flows directly into testing coordination reports and then into TestHound, which means less risk for human error and cleaner data. Testing coordinators can review those reports nightly and fix anything before it becomes an issue.

Barthelemess: Consistency in TestHound comes from its nightly feed with SameGoal. That is so nice that we have that integration with our systems!

As soon as a student’s accommodation changes, TestHound sends an alert, so coordinators know immediately. You’re not waiting for an email or trying to track changes manually, instead, everything updates automatically.

What Helps Schools Catch Errors Before Test Day?

Vandenhouten: Start early and review often. Pull last year’s accommodations to make sure nothing’s missed, and look for patterns in your data. If you find something off, you have time to fix it calmly instead of on the day of testing.

Barthelemess: TestHound alerts are built for that. You’ll see notifications when new students enroll, when program statuses change, or when accommodations update. You can print master accommodation reports anytime to review with your special programs teams and confirm that everything matches between SameGoal and TestHound.

Vandenhouten: SameGoal also has a TestHound report you can run directly in the system to cross-reference accommodations. It’s an easy way to double-check that what’s documented is exactly what’s being sent over.

Barthelemess: And at the district level, you can even download the nightly accommodation file to see exactly what’s being ingested. If something looks off, like an accommodation not allowed by your state, you can correct it ahead of time instead of discovering it during testing.

How Can Districts Support Staff Through Training and Resources?

Vandenhouten: Both SameGoal and TestHound have responsive help desks and live support, real people you can talk to. In SameGoal, you’ll find a question-mark icon that links to support guides, tutorials, and our blog for updates.

Barthelemess: Every member of our support team has been a testing coordinator, so they understand the challenges firsthand. You can submit a support ticket or chat live with someone if a support team member is available.  

We also offer weekly webinars and TestHound Tune-Ups, which are open office hours where coordinators can drop in with questions and get quick answers.

If you have new staff, our knowledge base has step-by-step training videos for building and campus coordinators. And if you need customized help, we’re always happy to schedule one-on-one sessions.

Final Thoughts

Vandenhouten: Testing coordination isn’t easy; there are a lot of moving parts and real-world implications, but our goal is to make the process as simple as possible.

Barthelemess: Preparation and partnership make all the difference. When systems communicate and teams stay aligned, testing stops feeling overwhelming and starts feeling manageable. It’s about giving every student the right support, every time.

If you missed the live session, you can watch the full webinar here to hear the complete conversation and access strategies for connecting evaluations to meaningful professional growth.

If your school is interested in new ways to improve the learning experience for children, you may also be interested in automating tasks and streamlining processes so that your teachers have more time to teach. Education Advanced offers a large suite of tools that may be able to help:

• Evaluation: A staff evaluation solution for documenting every step of the staff evaluation process, including walk-throughs, self-evaluations, supporting evidence, reporting, and performance analytics.
• Pathways: A graduation tracking tool that enables administrators and counselors to create, track, and analyze graduation pathways, ensuring secondary students stay on track to graduate.
• TestHound: Our test accommodation software helps schools coordinate thousands of students across all state and local K-12 assessments while considering various accommodations, such as for reading disabilities, physical disabilities, and translations.