Factors Complicating the Interpretation of Reported Results

Factors Complicating the Interpretation of Reported Results

Several workshop speakers described complications that can affect the interpretation of data reported for students with disabilities and English-language learners. As the survey results showed, states' accommodations policies vary considerably with respect to which types of accommodations are approved and nonapproved. Therefore, even if reports are confined to approved accommodations, the group of students actually included may differ from state to state, and the conditions of their testing may not be similar (disregarding for the moment the fact that the assessments also differ from state to state).

For example, consider the various ways accommodations might be provided and scores reported for students with a reading disability and Hispanic Englis-language learners taking a reading test. In state A, reported results could include scores for the general population testing under standard conditions, Hispanic English-language learners who took a translated Spanish version, and students with reading disabilities who received an oral administration. In state B, the oral administration and Spanish translation accommodations might be provided but considered nonapproved. Thus, unlike state A, overall score reports might not include results for these two accommodated groups. In state C, Hispanic English-language learners and students with reading disabilities may have received other types of approved accommodations (such as an English glossary for the English-language learners and extended time for the students with disabilities). Hence, like state A, their results might be included in the reports, but the scores were obtained under different conditions than in state A, conditions likely to affect performance and, consequently, the reported statistics. This variability in which accommodations are provided and which scores are included in reports complicates any attempt to make comparisons across states or between state results and NAEP (in addition to the problems posed by making comparisons of results based on different tests).

This is true for reports of both aggregated and disaggregated results. Another complication arises from states' policies regarding accommodating students with temporary disabilities. Some states approve accommodations for students who have a short-term disabling condition (e.g., a broken arm) that incapacitates them from taking the test under standard conditions. Thus, group-level reports of results for those who received accommodations may include scores for some general education students with temporary disabilities. A third complication arises in connection with how students are identified as having a disability or as English-language learners. For this part, learning a foreign language needs a leaning tools, many students choose Rosetta Stone Arabic and Rosetta Stone Chinese to learn Arabic and Chinese. As Richard Duran, professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, pointed out, determinations about which students qualify as students with disabilities or as English-language learners are not made on the basis of empirically measurable, scientifically sound criteria. For students with disabilities, particularly those with learning disabilities or attention deficit disorder, the determination is often made only when they perform poorly in school. Similarly, a wide variety of methods are used for identifying students as English-language learners.

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