State accountability systems assume standards based instruction and test content are highly aligned and opportunities to learn the content exist equally for all students. This alignment between content taught and tested is important to understand achievement, yet it is rarely examined. Teachers from Grades 3 to 8 participated along with students…

We examined instructional processes in classrooms where students with and without disabilities received mathematics instruction to understand the relationship among key instructional process variables and achievement as measured by interim and end-of-year summative assessments. Teachers (N = 78) completed instructional logs daily and administered…

The stakes of large-scale testing programs have grown considerably in the past decade with the enactment of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Race To The Top (RTTT) legislations. A significant component of NCLB has been required reporting of annual yearly progress (AYP) of student subgroups disaggregated by sex, special education status, English…

We examined the relationship among key instructional process variables and the achievement of students with and without disabilities as measured by both interim and end-of-year summative assessments. Examination of the instructional process data indicated that students with and without disabilities receiving mathematics instruction in the same…

Motivated by the multiple-measures clause of recent federal policy regarding student eligibility for alternate assessments based on modified academic achievement standards (AA-MASs), this study examined how scores or combinations of scores from a diverse set of assessments predicted students' end-of-year proficiency status on statewide achievement…

Federal policy on alternate assessment based on modified academic achievement standards (AA-MAS) inspired this research. Specifically, an experimental study was conducted to determine whether tests composed of modified items would have the same level of reliability as tests composed of original items, and whether these modified items helped reduce…

This study investigated the effects of using modified items in achievement tests to enhance accessibility. An experiment determined whether tests composed of modified items would reduce the performance gap between students eligible for an alternate assessment based on modified achievement standards (AA-MAS) and students not eligible, and the…

This study examined the effects of testing accommodations on students' test performances and reactions to the use of testing accommodations. Participants (N = 170) were fourth- and eighth-grade students, with and without disabilities. All students were administered, with and without accommodations, equivalent forms of widely used math and reading…

Two questions motivated this study: (a) Does test familiarity influence teachers' judgments of their students' test performance? and (b) Does the disability status of students influence their teachers' judgments? Teachers (n=19) judged item performances for one student with disabilities and one student without disabilities (n pairs=19) from their…

Examines the effects of testing accommodations on the mathematics test scores of a sample of fourth-grade students, which included students with disabilities (SWD) and students without disabilities (SWOD). Primary analyses indicated that SWDs experienced a larger effect in the accommodated condition than did SWODs. The SWDs profited more than…

This study examined the effects of testing accommodations on the mathematics and reading test scores of a sample of 119 fourth graders and 78 eighth graders. The sample included 49 fourth-grade students diagnosed with a disability and 39 eighth-grade students diagnosed with a disability. All students were tested under two conditions (i.e.,…

This study examined student, parent, and teacher perceptions of the use of testing accommodations and the relationship between student perceptions of testing accommodations and their disability status and grade level. Students with and without disabilities completed math and reading achievement tests with and without accommodations. Students,…