Impact of Accommodations in NAEP

• In Event: Determining Academic Profiles and Characteristics of At-Risk Learners

Abstract

Educational assessment practices at the state, national, or international level are all concerned with fairness and appropriate test score interpretation. Recent changes in educational reforms called for the inclusion of students with disabilities in the assessments across different grades and domains. This study examines across years (from 2002 to 2011) the impact of accommodations on NAEP mathematics items. In addition to examining measurement invariance via differential item functioning (DIF), we study sources of DIF by examining item characteristics and cognitive skills of items flagged as DIF. Preliminary results based on two released blocks in grades 4 and 8 suggested a large number of items containing DIF, although it is yet unclear what specific cognitive attributes contribute to explaining it.

Authors

• Dubravka Svetina, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Xiaolin Wang, Indiana University