DiCerbo, K. E., Stanley, E., Roberts, M., & Blanchard, J. (2001, April). Attention and standardized reading test performance: Implications for accommodation [Poster presentation]. Annual meeting of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), Washington, DC, United States.
DiCerbo, K. E., Stanley, E., Roberts, M., & Blanchard, J. (2001, April). Attention and standardized reading test performance: Implications for accommodation [Poster presentation]. Annual meeting of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), Washington, DC, United States.
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Summary
Accommodation
Study 1: Students completed a one-time administration of the test. A month later, they completed either a two-day or three-day administration of another form of the test. Students were randomly assigned to receive either the two-day or three-day administration. Overall, students had the same amount of time to complete the test.
Study 2: Students completed reading and mathematics tests along with ADHD Rating Scale; purpose was to identify any relationships between attention and standardized testing.
Participants
Study 1: 939 third grade students (492 females and 447 males) participated in the study. There were 657 Non-Hispanic White students, 183 Hispanic students, 51 Native Americans, and 48 African-Americans included. Disabilities were not specified for these participants.
Study 2: 789 students with similar demographics as Study 1. Disabilities were not specified for these participants.
Dependent Variable
Study 1: Participants completed equivalent forms (S&T) of the Stanford Achievement Test 9th edition, Primary 3, Reading Comprehension test. Each form contained nine passages with a total of 54 questions and a time limit of 50 minutes.
Study 2: Participants completed Stanford 9, Primary 3, reading comprehension, reading vocabulary, math problem-solving, and math procedures subtests. They also completed districtwide assessments in reading and in mathematics (to establish participants' ability levels in these areas). Finally, Teachers of the participants completed the ADHD Rating Scale-IV.
Findings
Overall, participants' scores were twelve scaled score points higher for the divided-time administration than for the one-time administration (ES=.25). Hispanic students, in particular, significantly increased their scores under the multiple day administration. A time by reading comprehension ability interaction was also evident (p<.001). Poor and middle readers appeared to receive more benefit from the accommodation than high readers. Further, sustained attention was deemed an important element of successful completion of achievement tests, in that higher attention scores predicted higher Stanford 9 scores on each of the four subtests examined, controlling for ability level.