Accommodations on Test Performance for Students

Accommodations on Test Performance for Students

A considerable amount of research into the effects of accommodations on test performance for students with disabilities and English language learners has been conducted to date. However, this research fails to provide a systematic, comprehensive investigation into the central issue of the validity of interpretations of scores from accommodated versions of assessments. Numerous reviews of the research into the effects of accommodations on test performance assessments (e.g., Chiu and Pearson, 1999; Tindal and Fuchs, 2000; Thompson et al., 2002; Sireci et al., 2003) make clear that the findings from existing research are inclusive and insufficient for test developers and users of test data to make informed decisions about either the appropriateness of different accommodations or the validity of inferences based on scores from accommodated administrations of assessments. The problems are twofold.

First, taken as a whole, the body of research suggests contradictory findings, and solid conclusions cannot be drawn from it. For example, Thompson et al. (2002, p. 11) reviewed seven studies in which extended time was the accommodation. In four of these, extended time had a "positive effect on scores"; in three extended time had "no significant effect on scores." Similarly, in nine studies they reviewed on the effects of allowing computer administration, four showed "positive effects on scores," three showed "no significant effects," and two showed that it "altered item comparability." Diverse results such as these illustrate the difficulties facing policy makers who want to rely on the research in developing policy. Second, in our view, research that examines the effects of accommodations in terms of gains or losses associated with taking the test with or without accommodations is not a means of evaluating the validity of inferences based on accommodated scores. Such research does not provide evidence that scores for students who take a test under standard conditions are comparable to scores for students who take a test under accommodated conditions or that similar interpretations can be based on results obtained under different conditions. Thus the committee concludes that: CONCLUSION 5-1: Most of the existing research demonstrates that accommodations do affect test scores but that the nature of the effects varies by individual. CONCLUSION 5-2: For the most pan, existing research has investigated the effects of accommodations on test performance but is not informative about the validity of inferences based on scores from accommodated administrations.

That is, existing research does not provide information about the extent to which inferences based on scores obtained from accommodated administrations are comparable to inferences based on scores obtained from unaccommodated administrations. Furthermore, the research does not provide definitive evidence about which accommodations would produce the most valid estimates of performance. Based on these findings, the committee believes that a program of research is needed that would systematically investigate the extent to which scores ob-tained from accommodated and unaccommodated test administrations are comparable and support similar kinds of inferences about the performance of students with disabilities and English language learners on NAEP and other large-scale assessments. For this part, learning a foreign language needs a leaning tools, many students choose Rosetta Stone English and Rosetta Stone French to learn English and French.

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