MacArthur, C. A., & Cavalier, A. (1999). Dictation and speech recognition technology as accommodations in large-scale assessments for students with learning disabilities . University of Delaware Education Research and Development Center.

Report

MacArthur, C. A., & Cavalier, A. (1999). Dictation and speech recognition technology as accommodations in large-scale assessments for students with learning disabilities. University of Delaware Education Research and Development Center.

Notes

Attachment study from the Inclusive Comprehensive Assessment Systems Project

Broken Link: http://www.doe.state.de.us/aab/DSTP_research.html

Tags

Dictated response; Dictated response (scribe); Dictated response (speech recognition system); Electronic administration; Electronic administration; Electronic administration; High school; K-12; Learning disabilities; Middle school; Multiple ages; No disability; U.S. context; Writing

Summary

Accommodation

All students completed writing tests during each of the following three conditions: (a) handwriting (HW), (b) dictation to a human scribe (DS), and (c) dictation to a computer using speech recognition software (SR).

Participants

The participants were students in middle school (mostly grade 8) and high school (all in grade 10) in Delaware (U.S.). Students with learning disabilities (LD) and students without disabilities comprised the sample.

Dependent Variable

The impact of the accommodation was measured by asking students to write essays. The prompts for the essays were designed to be similar to those used in the Delaware writing test. Overall quality of writing was judged using a rubric based in the Delaware Department of Education writing assessment.

Findings

The results demonstrate that dictation helped students with LD produce better essays than they could produce by handwriting. The best essays were produced when dictating to a scribe. Essays composed by students with LD by dictating to speech recognition software were not as good as when using a scribe but were better than their handwritten essays. The performance of students without LD was equivalent in all three conditions.