In the past, students with disabilities were frequently excluded from statewide testing. With changes in federal laws, states are seeking ways to increase the participation of students with disabilities in testing. Many have developed lists of allowable accommodations to facilitate participation. Although there has been an increase in research on how accommodations can aid in the measurement of skills among students with disabilities, many questions remain unanswered. The degree to which accommodations may compromise the integrity of tests is not clear. As a result, accommodation decision making is difficult. A review of research on 5 frequently allowed test accommodations (dictated response, large print, Braille, extended time, and sign language interpreter for instructions) was conducted; 36 studies were identified. Results indicate mixed support and nonsupport for providing these accommodations to students with disabilities. Guidelines for effective accommodation decision making and administration are discussed, and recommendations for future research are given.

Although more students with disabilities are attending college than ever before (Dukes & Shaw, 1999; Henderson, 2001), they are much less likely to graduate from college than their peers without disabilities (Horn & Bobbitt, 1999; National Council on Disability, 2003). This lower graduation rate for young adults with disabilities is of great concern given that there is a growing demand for a highly educated workforce and a corresponding decrease in jobs available to those who are not college educated (Kazis et al., 2007). One practice that may facilitate the learning of students with disabilities in postsecondary educational environments is the provision of accommodations. Accommodations are changes in the presentation of instructional or testing materials, changes in (how) students are expected to respond to instructional or testing materials, changes in the scheduling of instruction and/or testing, and changes to the setting in which materials are presented (Thurlow, Ysseldyke, & Silverstein, 1995). Although research directly linking accommodations with success in college among students with disabilities is currently limited, research does suggest that providing accommodations in other educational settings has promoted the inclusion of students with disabilities in general education activities (Olson & Goldstein, 1996; Sireci, Scarpati, & Li, 2005). Rules and procedures for determining which accommodations a student should receive vary considerably from secondary to postsecondary settings. In high school settings, the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA; 2004) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (1973) mandated the provision of accommodations for students with disabilities. In particular, these laws require that students with suspected disabilities be evaluated (although criteria for identification differ depending on the law), and if a student is determined to have a disability and needs special education and related services, then the school must provide a "free and appropriate public education." Under IDEA (2004), students with disabilities must be provided with accommodations that are deemed appropriate by the Individualized Education Program (IEP) team. The IEP must contain "a statement of any individual appropriate accommodations that are necessary to measure the academic achievement and functional performance of the child on State and district-wide assessments" (34 C.F.R. § 300.322). Under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, schools are 415098C DE34310.

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Research support for providing a read-aloud accommodation (i.e., having an individual read test items and directions aloud) to students with disabilities has been somewhat limited, particularly when merely examining effects of the accommodation on overall test scores for general groups of students with disabilities. We examined data on accommodated and nonaccommodated performances of students with specific reading disabilities on math test items anticipated to be highly sensitive to accommodation effects due to their level of reading and math difficulty. We conducted analyses across 3 consecutive years of data from an elementary and middle school statewide assessment program. Within the elementary data set we identified a significant Accommodation Group × Reading Difficulty interaction effect, such that the accommodation appeared to more positively impact student performance on items that were classified as difficult to read. We describe other identified effects and discuss limitations of the study, as well as implications.

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