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7. Summing Up: Synthesis of Issues and Directions for Future Study
Pages 70-79

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From page 70...
... Thus, states and other testing programs are obligated to ensure that all students have access to the test or an equivalent alternative, particularly in high-stakes situations. ADAPTING TEST DESIGN TO TEST PURPOSE Discussants also returned to another key point made by Colemanthe importance of clearly articulating both the purpose of any given assess70
From page 71...
... If understanding text written in the passive voice is not one of the targeted skills a test is designed to measure, items should be written in the more familiar active voice. Test developers should be sensitive to vocabulary usage and avoid unfamiliar words that are not related to the construct being measured.
From page 72...
... The implications of this variability are discussed below. Variability in Policies Complicates Comparisons of Aggregated Results Margaret Goertz, co-director of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education, stressed that standardization in policies is particularly important if policy makers want to compare student assessment results across states or between states and NAEP.
From page 73...
... Variability in Implementing Policy Another source of variability is in the way state policies are implemented. David Malouf, educational research analyst with the Office of Special Education Programs at the Department of Education, pointed out that decision making about which students receive which accommodations is primarily the responsibility of the IEP team, which has considerable flexibility in selecting accommodations needed to enable a child with a disability to participate.
From page 74...
... Changes in States' Policies Complicate Interpretation of Trends Goertz discussed the impact of changes in policy, practice, and demographics on reported results for accommodated students and on tracking student performance over time. She described four important sources of change identified by speakers: student demographics; how students with disabilities and English-language learners are served; state assessment policy on who is tested in what areas and with what kinds of tests; and state accommodation and reporting policies.
From page 75...
... He asked, "Can we turn fear about how an assessment accommodation might distort measurement of proficiency on the targeted construct into figuring out how accommodations help measure examiners' maximum proficiency on the construct? " Duran finds that popular views of acceptable accommodations often result from confusion about what is being measured.
From page 76...
... In addition, categorical labels are very gross descriptors, and there can be substantial within-category variation that mediates the effects of an accommodation, making the effects difficult to detect. Understanding the Meaning of Aggregated Results Johnson contemplated the meaning of test reports that combine data for accommodated and nonaccommodated test takers, given the current state of research on the comparability of results from different administrative conditions.
From page 77...
... This is a particularly urgent issue in light of the recently passed legislation. He also encouraged researchers to examine the relationships between performance of achievement tests and relevant background variables, such as length of residence in the U.S., years of exposure to instruction in English, English-language proficiency levels, the characteristics of school curriculum, availability of first- and second-language resources, and other factors that interact to create different patterns of performance on assessments.
From page 78...
... Although at this time sample sizes are not large enough to allow reliable reporting at the clisaggregatecl level, NAEP's future plans for combining state and national samples may produce large enough samples to allow for clisaggregation of various groups of students with clisabilities. Johnson foresees that when this happens, NAEP will not be able to withstand the pressure to report clisaggregatecl results.
From page 79...
... SUMMING UP 79 single factor, sometimes even combining students with disabilities and English-language learners into a single population. Malouf suggested that NAEP researchers find ways to increase sample sizes to allow study of the effects of specific accommodations and to conduct more fine-grained analyses of accommodations and NAEP.


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