Making standardized testing accessible
Making standardized testing more accessible for students with disabilities
Jamal Abedi (Education), Robert Bayley (Linguistics), and researchers at UCLA's National Center for Research on Evaluations, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) are studying ways to make standardized reading tests more accessible for students with disabilities. The research is funded by the U.S. Department of Education and carried out in cooperation with the Partnership for Accessible Reading Assessment (PARA) at the University of Minnesota. The research team developed rubrics to assess cognitive and linguistic complexity of all 8th grade reading tests used for three years by three states. Analysis of the ratings is ongoing, but preliminary results indicate that both cognitive and linguistic variables have significant negative impacts on students with disabilities. Of particular interest, the results to date show that the degree of linguistic complexity within a state varies considerably from year to year and even from test form to test form. The researchers are currently writing a report on the results, which will include recommendations for improving the fairness of tests for students with disabilities, who now must be included in statewide assessments according to the mandate of NCLB.
New Linguistics Club