Brumfield, G. A. (2014). The effectiveness of reading accommodations for high school students with reading disabilities (Publication No. 3610453) [Doctoral dissertation, Walden University]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global. https://www.proquest.com/docview/1500411026

Walden University (Minneapolis, MN); ProQuest document ID: 1500411026

The accommodation under examination was oral administration of a statewide science assessment, as provided by in-person readers ("read-aloud"). The researcher noted that by virtue of having in-person reading provided for test-takers, the accommodated testing sessions were longer in duration, thereby possibly providing the extended-time accommodation as well.

Eighteen (18) grade 11 students from an urban public high school in Georgia participated, including nine students with learning disabilities in reading comprehension (and without any other identified disabilities) and nine students without disabilities achieving in the middle 70 percent of their class. Other demographic variables were reported for the school's student population and for the research participants, including race/ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status.

Performance on the Georgia High School Graduation Test (GHSGT) in science with and without oral administration was analyzed for both students with learning disabilities and students without disabilities. Specifically, each participant group was presented with one-half of the science GHSGT items under the non-accommodated condition, and one-half under the oral administration ("read aloud") condition.

The student participants with learning disabilities scored significantly higher on the GHSGT science items when receiving the oral administration ("read-aloud") accommodation than when not doing so. Students without disabilities did not score significantly differently whether provided read-aloud or not. There were no interactions between student disability (or not) condition and accommodation (or not) condition. Limitations of the study were reported, and future research directions were suggested.