Examining Equity in Test Accommodations: Overcoming a Methodological Challenge of Sparse Data

• In Event: Roundtable Session 21
  In Roundtable Session: Equity Issues in Education Policy

Abstract

The present study examined the equitability of accommodation policies and practices by examining student performances in the Ontario Secondary Literacy Test (OSSLT). The methods of log-linear analyses and odds ratio were employed to investigate whether or not accommodated students with learning, emotional, behavioral, or multiple exceptionalities have the same probability of achieving the provincial standards as their non-accommodated peers with disabilities. We found that the estimations of odds ratio from a treatment arm correction method (Diamond et al., 2007) are more precise than the other two approaches (adding 0.50 to each cell; Sweeting et al., 2004). In addition, the likelihood of achieving the standards may differ among students with disabilities who received or did not receive various combinations of accommodations.

Authors

• Pei-Ying Lin, University of Saskatchewan

• Yu-Cheng Lin, University of Texas- Rio Grande Valley