The Effect of a Read Aloud Accommodation on Test Scores of Students With and Without a Learning Disability in Reading.
As prescribed by the 1997 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, all special education students are eligible to receive testing accommodation on state-and district-wide assessments. These accommodations are intended to lessen the effects of the students" disabilities so more interpretable and appropriate test score information is gathered. Some of the most commonly used accommodations are as follows: flexible scheduling, flexible setting, revised test format, and revised item presentation/response variation. Although these accommodations are generally accepted in the field of special education, there is a scarcity of convincing data regarding the effect of such accommodations on students" performances. .
One frequently used accommodation involves reading aloud a test to a student but under standard test administration the student would have to read the questions to him or herself. This accommodation is commonly used with students who have a learning disability in reading or for students whose slow language development has delayed their growth in early reading skills. The read aloud accommodation should only be used to help those students with a reading deficit not to give them an advantage over those students who do not receive this accommodation. Also, this accommodation should not be used during a Reading Comprehensions test or during a Reading Vocabulary test, where student's true skills are being measured. .
Tindal and Fuchs performed a thorough review of the empirical studies that examined the effects on test scores that the altering of the test administration conditions causes. Altogether there were twelve studies that investigated the effects of specific accommodation, several of which examined extended time on tests from one particular norm-referenced test.
