Brown, P. J., & Augustine, A. (2001, April). Screen reading software as an assessment accommodation: Implications for instruction and student performance [Paper presentation]. Annual meeting of the American Education Research Association, Seattle, WA, United States. http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED458273

This was a presentation at AERA, and the paper is catalogued in ERIC. Direct link: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED458273.pdf

The study investigated if assessment items administered using screen reading software measure student learning better than assessment items in a paper and pencil format.

206 high school seniors of which 96 students completed a science assessment and 110 students completed a social studies assessment. Although both students with and without reading disabilities completed the assessments, the number and percentage of students with disabilities is not listed by authors.

The assessment consisted of items from the Delaware and Pennsylvania NAEP assessment. One version of each assessment was administered in the traditional paper and pencil format while the other version was administered via a computer utilizing screen reading software.

Results of the repeated-measures ANCOVA revealed that for both the social studies and the science assessment, the students' reading score had a significant effect. However, format (screen reading versus paper/pencil) did not have a significant impact on the scores on this assessment when controlling for a student's reading ability. While the study revealed no significant differences between the performance of students completing the pencil and paper format version versus the screen reading format when controlling for reading performance, using screen reading software as an accommodation in science for students with poor reading skills might still be effective.