Weston, T. J. (1999). Investigating the validity of the accommodation of oral presentation in testing (Publication No. 9925457) [Doctoral dissertation, University of Colorado at Boulder]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global. https://www.proquest.com/docview/304499966

University of Colorado (Boulder, CO); ProQuest document ID: 304499966

The accommodation was the oral presentation (read-aloud), by the student participants' teachers, of the test items/stems and the set of possible answer choices (multiple-choice). The standard NAEP section time limit of 55 minutes was followed—so as not to permit the extended-time accommodation—but the setting accommodation of small group was inadvertently provided, due to small numbers of student participants (average n of 6) with each test administrator.

Participants included 119 grade 4 students and their 19 teachers (17 were special education teachers and 2 were general educators with special education backgrounds), from 18 schools throughout 8 districts in Colorado (U.S.). Of the 119 students, 55 did not have disabilities and 64 had perceptual/communicative disorder. Additional demographic data were reported about the student participants, including details about their academic skills and the nature of their special education services. A sample of 5 teachers were observed presenting the accommodated test, and 3 were observed proctoring the paper-and-pencil test. All 19 teachers, and a sample of 18 students participated in interviews.

The math assessment was assembled from NAEP publicly-released test items at the grade 4 level. The response formats included multiple choice and short answer, excluding NAEP extended response items. Analyses separately compared performance on the calculation items across conditions and on the word problems across conditions. Participants also completed a brief reading test—assembled from Terra Nova test items on reading comprehension, at the grade 3 level—in order to establish reading skill levels. Participants' teachers also provided their approximations of the students' relative skill level on the criteria measured by the test, as well as approximate class ranking, as measured by surveys.

The 2x2x2 ANOVA analysis yielded that all students benefited from the read-aloud accommodation, and that students with disabilities benefited more than students without disabilities. Further, the students with disabilities who gained the most were those with low reading ability. The benefit for the students without disabilities did not follow reading level. Teachers' perspectives indicated that the accommodation provided both reading support and assistance for students to remain on-task. Limitations of the study were reported, and future research possibilities were suggested.