Fincher, M. L. (2013). Investigating the effects of a read-aloud alteration on the third-grade Reading Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) for students with disabilities (Publication No. 3571373) [Doctoral dissertation, Georgia State University]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global. https://www.proquest.com/docview/1426824474

Georgia State University (Atlanta, GA) ; ProQuest document ID: 1426824474; also available on GSU ScholarWorks webpage as "Paper 87" at http://scholarworks.gsu.edu/epse_diss/87/

The effects of the oral delivery (read-aloud) accommodation, termed an "alteration" by the researcher due to its controversial use when applied to reading assessments, were investigated in this study.

Participants were drawn from the population of grade 4 students during 2005-2006 school year in a stratified-random sample of schools that represented the state's population of grade 3 students during the 2004-2005 school year, based on socioeconomic status (free or reduced price lunch), gender, race/ethnicity, disability category (along with students without disabilities), and achievement level in reading. The participants were grade 4 students (n=664) from 129 schools from throughout eight districts in Georgia, with 316 students with disabilities (from most disability categories, but none had visual impairments or multiple disabilities) and 348 students without disabilities.

Participant scores from the Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Test in reading, 3rd grade level, were collected from these grade 4 participants. Students' scores on the norm-referenced Iowa Test of Basic Skills were also accessed by the researcher for identifying reading skill levels. Students' teachers completed surveys about the nature of students' special education instruction (e.g., proportion of academic time in general education, grade level of instruction for these fourth graders), and teachers' rating of degree of students' disabilities.

Students receiving oral delivery accommodations scored statistically significantly higher than students not receiving accommodations across all reading skill levels. Further, students with and without disabilities who had poor reading skills (vs. average and above-average readers) had the significantly largest differences in scores between those receiving and not receiving accommodations. Students whose teachers rated them as having mild disabilities scored significantly highest, whether receiving or not receiving accommodations, than students with moderate or profound disability ratings. Whether students with disabilities received specific decoding interventions did not seem to be a factor in difference scores. Students receiving oral delivery who spent more than half of their academic time in general education had a larger score gain, on average, than students who spent less than half of their academic time in general education. Finally, students with disabilities provided oral delivery made larger score improvements when they received on-grade-level instruction, compared to students who received below-grade-level instruction. Limitations of the study were reported.