This present study examines the psycho-emotional and psychophysiological effects that variations in the tempo of background music have on learners who are completing reading comprehension tests while being monitored used multi-modal computer technology. Results of seventy-four (N = 74) participants indicated that listening to fast tempo music…

Extended time is frequently recommended for students with disabilities (SWD) with an intent to remove barriers to accurate measurement of their underlying knowledge and skills. However, empirical findings have varied in terms of whether extended time conditions are an appropriate method for doing so, raising questions of whether frequent…

Students who are unable to complete an assessment due to circumstances beyond their control (e.g. illness) are often asked to submit a request for special consideration. However, few studies have looked at the reasons why these requests are made, or whether certain students are more likely to submit requests than others. The current study looked…

Access arrangements are the way in which awarding bodies for public examinations in England, such as the General Certificate of Secondary Education, make reasonable adjustments for students with special educational needs and disabilities. SENCos have expressed concerns about the onerous nature of managing requirements for access arrangements, both…

This systematic review investigated the topics studied and reporting practices of published meta-analyses in educational measurement. Our findings indicated that meta-analysis is not a highly utilized methodological tool in educational measurement; on average, less than one meta-analysis has been published per year over the past 30 years (28…

Introduction: This study evaluated performance and engagement on the tactile science alternate assessment based on alternate academic standards (AA-AAS). This assessment was designed for students with significant intellectual disabilities and visual impairments (i.e., blindness and low vision). Four primary research questions guided this study.…

Despite the availability of access arrangements for tests and exams for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities, many autistic children and young people have low academic achievements. There is also a lack of consensus on what their educational priorities should be and a failure to link their school programmes to longer-term…

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of how students with disabilities, including students with significant cognitive disabilities and English learners with disabilities, can be included in local assessments used for instructional and programmatic decision making--that is, for formative purposes. This article focuses on formative…

Understanding educators' perceptions about the validity and ease of providing various accommodated test administrations is critical for assisting them in promoting the accessibility of testing and instruction. One-hundred forty-eight educators completed a survey of their perceptions of the validity and ease of providing over 30 different test…

English learners (ELs) comprise approximately 10% of kindergarten to Grade 12 students in US public schools, with about 15% of ELs identified as having disabilities. English language proficiency (ELP) assessments must adhere to universal design principles and incorporate universal tools, designed to increase accessibility for all ELs, including…

A recent, widely publicized scandal involved students who obtained fraudulent diagnoses of learning disabilities in an effort to get accommodations on college admissions tests. Although the exact circumstances of the scandal are unusual, the methods used to obtain diagnoses and accommodations illustrate widespread problems with current policies.…

Language test developers have a responsibility to ensure that their tests are accessible to test takers of various backgrounds and characteristics and also that they have the opportunity to perform to the best of their ability. This principle is widely recognised by educational and language testing associations in guidelines for the production and…

Out-of-level testing is an underused strategy for addressing the needs of students who score in the extremes, and when used wisely, it could provide educators with a much more accurate picture of what students know. Out-of-level testing has been shown to be an effective assessment strategy with high-achieving students; however, out-of-level…

Assessing English learners (ELs) in US schools is challenging because many widely used assessments have not been designed with ELs in mind. Yet if teachers are sensitive to how ELs may perform differently from native speakers on such assessments, these assessments reveal useful information about ELs' language and literacy skills. This mixed-method…

Kindergarten entry assessments (KEAs) have increasingly been incorporated into state education policies over the past 5 years, with much of this interest stemming from Race to the Top--Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) awards, Enhanced Assessment Grants, and nationwide efforts to develop common K-12 state learning standards. Drawing on…