Jerome, M. K. (2007). The state of accommodations for fifth grade students with disabilities on the Virginia SOL reading, writing, and math tests (Publication No. 3289706) [Doctoral dissertation, George Mason University]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global. https://www.proquest.com/docview/304322852
Notes
George Mason University (Fairfax, VA); ProQuest document ID: 304322852
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Summary
Accommodation
The use of test accommodations as offered across a state, and the impact of accommodations on the performance of students with disabilities in statewide assessments, were examined. There were at least 26 accommodation codes in the dataset; the numbers of accommodations concurrently provided to students with disabilities were also analyzed.
Participants
An extant database of student characteristics and assessment results in Virginia (U.S.) included 11,064 writing scores, 13,606 math scores, and 15,212 reading scores from grade 5 students with disabilities. Students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) encompassed nearly half (49.2%) of the data set of examinees with a disability, followed by students with other health impairments (OHI) at 15.5% and speech language impairments (SLI) with 11.8%. However, other disability groups such as severe disabilities (SD) and deaf-blindness (DB) represent less than 0.1% of the testing sample.
Dependent Variable
The extant dataset of scores on the state assessments in the state's 2006–2007 test administration was analyzed for patterns of performance. These assessments included the Virginia Standards of Learning Programs (SOLs) English: Reading, Literature & Research Test, English: Writing Test, and the Mathematics Test at the grade 5 level.
Findings
Approximately 78% of students with disabilities used an accommodation during the state assessments, while 70% of students used more than one accommodation. The pass rate of all students with disabilities was consistently lower than the state-reported pass rate for all grade 5 students on the Spring 2004 administration, with students using accommodations having the lowest performance rate. Limitations of the study were reported, and future research possibilities were suggested.