McKevitt, B. C. (2001). The effects and consequences of using testing accommodations on a standardized reading test (Publication No. 3020768) [Doctoral dissertation, The University of Wisconsin-Madison]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global. https://www.proquest.com/docview/250178353

The University of Wisconsin-Madison (Madison, WI); ProQuest document ID: 250178353

Students received either teacher-recommended accommodations or test content read aloud (via human voice recordings) plus teacher-recommended accommodations on part of the test.

Grade 8 students (n=79) with and without disabilities in a suburban junior high school in the Midwest (U.S.) participated. Forty students (50% of sample) were students with disabilities; disability categories were not reported for the participants.

Students completed two alternate parts of the TerraNova Multiple Assessments Reading test, level 18.

Teachers selected accommodations that they thought were valid and fair for use on the standardized test. Individualized packages of accommodations with or without a read-aloud accommodation had minimal benefit for groups of students with and without disabilities and did not benefit one group over another. However, accommodations had a positive effect on many individual test scores within groups. In general, teachers and students, who were tested, expressed mixed feelings about accommodations and testing.