ERIC Number: EJ1112602
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0260-2938
EISSN: N/A
The Influence of a Response Format Test Accommodation for College Students with and without Disabilities
Potter, Kyle; Lewandowski, Lawrence; Spenceley, Laura
Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, v41 n7 p996-1007 2016
Standardised and other multiple-choice examinations often require the use of an answer sheet with fill-in bubbles (i.e. "bubble" or Scantron sheet). Students with disabilities causing impairments in attention, learning and/or visual-motor skill may have difficulties with multiple-choice examinations that employ such a response style. Such students may request and receive testing accommodations that intend to mitigate these impairments, such as circling responses in a test booklet, which contains both the questions and corresponding multiple-choice answers. The current study evaluated this test accommodation as compared to using a bubble sheet or Scantron on a multiple-choice vocabulary test. College students with (n = 25) and without (n = 76) disabilities completed a vocabulary test under both booklet (accommodated) and bubble sheet (standard) conditions. Results demonstrated that answering in a test booklet, a much preferred response mode, allowed students to attempt significantly more items than using a bubble sheet, improving their overall test scores. Booklet responding tends to improve overall performance, even for students without disabilities, calling into question the specificity and validity of this accommodation.
Descriptors: Testing Accommodations, Disabilities, Multiple Choice Tests, Vocabulary, Tests, Evaluation Methods, Scores, Reading Comprehension, Reading Tests, Questionnaires, Undergraduate Students, Statistical Analysis
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: Nelson Denny Reading Tests
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A