Barton, K. E., Sheinker, A., Edelblut, P., Elliot, S., & Mikulas, C. (2003, April). Comparability and accessibility: On line versus on paper writing prompt administration and scoring across students with various abilities [Paper presentation]. Annual meeting of the National Council on Measurement in Education, Chicago, IL, United States.

All participants were administered two writing prompts (online and paper-based) counter-balanced by mode of administration and prompt. Participants were also allowed to use their usual accommodations as identified on IEPs, including oral presentation of directions or entire test, clarification of directions or entire test, extended time, scribe, and small group administration.

A sample of 630 students in grades 4-6 was selected to participate in this study, but data from only 347 students were used. Of those, 127 (37%) participants were students with mild to moderate disabilities (i.e., learning disabilities, speech and language disabilities, emotional disabilities).

Questionnaires addressing computer literacy, accommodations, and accessibility were given to all students participating. Writing prompts were scored via paper and online formats and analyzed via descriptive and inferential analysis.

Results indicated that students without disabilities obtain higher scores than those with disabilities. There were significant differences between essays scored online and by hand scorers; however, there were no differences between students' performance online or on paper.