THE EFFECT OF THE READ-ALOUD AND EXTENDED TIME ACCOMMODATIONS ON NAEP FOURTH AND EIGHTH GRADE READING AND MATHEMATICS FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the read-aloud and extended time testing accommodations on the fourth and eighth grade National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in reading and math for students with disabilities. This non-experimental study used the 2013 reading and math NAEP, restricted data set, to examine the fourth and eighth grade students with disabilities with test accommodations compared to the students with disabilities who did not receive testing accommodations. This study had a large sample size and is considered to be representative of the performance of the student population within the nation. The effectiveness of the read-aloud and extended time accommodations have yielded mixed results when applied to other standardized assessments. The present study compared matched samples of students who did and did not receive the accommodation to evaluate its impact. Further, it will extend the present state of knowledge on the topic related to reading assessment into the area of mathematics assessment. Multiple regression analyses were used to determine the effectiveness of testing accommodations. Result from this study found that students with disabilities benefitted from the read-aloud accommodation. The extended time accommodations appeared to have benefitted the 4th grade students and not the 8th grade students. Gender was another variable that was explored; however, there was no conclusive findings as the statistical software used in this study did not provide an analysis of interaction effects, which is one limitation of this study. Nonetheless, this study provided some valuable information for future researchers interested in understanding the effectiveness of test accommodations