Teachers’ Differentiated Assessment Practices for Secondary Students with Exceptionalities: The More, the Better?

Pei-Ying Lin

Abstract


A majority of the students with special needs who wrote the large-scale assessments received multiple test accommodations (e.g., assistive technology, computer, scribe) that change the regular test administration conditions in ways that support these students in demonstrating their knowledge and skills. This study examined bundled accommodations by conducting a comprehensive review of 11 groups of students with special needs writing large-scale math and literacy assessments in Ontario, Canada. We concluded that receiving complex bundled accommodations did not necessarily mean better math or literacy achievements. However, we found that teachers may offer more accommodations to students for a high-stakes literacy test than they did for the low-stakes math assessment. Furthermore, the results of this study show that high percentages of bundled accommodations were provided with only one student in a given group with special needs. Directions for future research and implications for education are also discussed in this paper.


Keywords


accommodations; disabilities; large-scale assessment; literacy; math

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References


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ISSN: 2454-6623