Elliott, S. N., Kratochwill, T. R., & McKevitt, B. C. (2001). Experimental analysis of the effects of testing accommodations on the scores of students with and without disabilities . Journal of School Psychology , 39 (1), 3–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-4405(00)00056-X

Journal Article

Elliott, S. N., Kratochwill, T. R., & McKevitt, B. C. (2001). Experimental analysis of the effects of testing accommodations on the scores of students with and without disabilities. Journal of School Psychology, 39(1), 3–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-4405(00)00056-X

Tags

Autism; Elementary; Emotional/Behavioral disability; Extended time; Health; Individual; Learning disabilities; Math; Multiple accommodations; Multiple content; No disability; Oral delivery; Oral delivery of directions only; Physical disability; Reading; Reinforcement; Science; Speech/Language disability; U.S. context

URL

http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-school-psychology/

Summary

Accommodation

Students were provided either a standard package of accommodations (extra time, support with understanding directions and reading words, verbal encouragement), or accommodations based on their individual needs as described in their individualized education programs or by teacher recommendation.

Participants

One-hundred grade 4 students from an unspecified state (U.S.) participated. Participants were 59 students without disabilities, and 41 with disabilities—including learning, emotional, cognitive, speech/language impairment, autism, health impairment.

Dependent Variable

Performance on complex math and science performance assessments served as the dependent variable. Assessments were developed by master teachers; some items were sampled from the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)'s Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics. Scoring for these assessments was based on a five-point descriptive set of performance criteria.

Findings

The average effect size of accommodations for the 41 students with disabilities was .83. Students with disabilities who were provided accommodations scored similar to or better than students without disabilities who completed the items under standard testing conditions. Testing accommodations had a large effect on a significantly higher percentage of students with disabilities (63.4%) than on students without disabilities who received teacher-recommended accommodations (42.9%) or the standard accommodations package (20%). Testing accommodations had a medium to large positive effect on more than 75% of students with disabilities, but also on 55% of students without disabilities. Accommodations had negative effects for approximately 17% of the students with disabilities and only 7% or less of the students without disabilities.  [See also McKevitt, 2000; McKevitt et al., 1999; McKevitt et al., 2000; Elliott et al. 1999]