Articles

Changes in Status and Performance Over Time for Students With Specific Learning Disabilities With the shift from No Child Left Behind (NCLB) to Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), accountability models are being changed. Given the past 15 years of reporting on student subgroups and IO years using various growth models, accountability systems can now be better informed. In this study, we analyze identification and services of students with specific learning disabilities (SLDs). First, we document the degree to which they…
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Accommodations in Digital Interactive STEM Assessment Tasks: Current Accommodations and Promising Practices for Enhancing Accessibility for Students with Disabilities In this article, we describe current research findings on assessment accommodations and universal design within the context of emerging interactive digital assessment tasks that employ simulations such as in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). STEM education in many classrooms now includes digitally based activities such as science simulations and virtual laboratories that have been shown in some cases to promote…
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A Validity Argument for a Mathematics Curriculum-Based Measure: Implications for Response to Intervention Decision-Making Within a response to intervention (RTI) framework, many schools initially group students into tiers on the basis of normative achievement. Using a screener and benchmarks with curriculum-based measurement (CBM), students are classified as being academically “at-risk” or not. In the current study, we present a validity argument for the use of a mathematics CBM as a classification tool within RTI and explore the relation between a…
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Estimating School Effects with a State Testing Program Using Transition Matrices For the past decade, the accountability model associated with No Child Left Behind (NCLB) emphasized proficiency on end of year tests; with Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) the emphasis on proficiency within statewide testing programs, though now integrated with other measures of student learning, nevertheless remains a primary metric for reporting achievement. We examine transition over categories across two years for three cohorts of middle school students as one…
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Exploring the Robustness of a Unidimensional Item Response Theory Model with Empirically Multidimensional Data Unidimensionality and local independence are two common assumptions of item response theory. The former implies that all items measure a common latent trait, while the latter implies that responses are independent, conditional on respondents’ location on the latent trait. Yet, few tests are truly unidimensional. Unmodeled dimensions may result in test items displaying dependencies, which can lead to misestimated parameters and inflated reliability estimates. In this…
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Assessment of Students with Learning Disabilities: Using Students’ Performance and Progress to Inform Instruction. The combination of RTI and formative assessment, particularly curriculum-based measurement (CBM), provides an explicit system for better understanding and validating instructional decision-making using student responses. Tindal, G., Alonzo, J., Sáez, L., & Nese, J. F. T. (2017). Assessment of students with learning disabilities: Using students’ performance and progress to inform instruction. In K. Ercikan & J. W. Pellegrino (Eds.), Validation of Score Meaning in the Next…
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Modeling Reading Growth in Grades 3 to 5 with an Alternate Assessment. Modeling growth for students with significant cognitive disabilities (SWSCD) is difficult due to a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, missing data, test scaling, group heterogeneity, and small sample sizes. These challenges may account for the paucity of previous research exploring the academic growth of SWSCD. Our study represents a unique context in which a reading assessment, calibrated to a common scale, was administered statewide to…
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Achievement Gaps for Students with Disabilities: Stable, Widening, or Narrowing on a State-wide Reading Comprehension Test? Reading comprehension growth trajectories from 3rd to 7th grade were estimated for 99,919 students on a state reading comprehension assessment. We examined whether differences between students in general education (GE) and groups of students identified as exceptional learners were best characterized as stable, widening, or narrowing. The groups included students with disabilities (SWD) from 8 exceptionality groups and 2 groups of academically gifted students…
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Influence of Opportunity to Learn Indices and Education Status on Students’ Mathematics Achievement Growth. We examined instructional processes in classrooms where students with and without disabilities received mathematics instruction to understand the relationship among key instructional process variables and achievement as measured by interim and end-of-year summative assessments. Elliott, S. N., Kurz, A., Tindal, G. & Yel, N. (2016). Influence of opportunity to learn indices and education status on students’ mathematics achievement growth. Remedial and Special Education. Published online before print August…
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Using Explicit and Systematic Instruction to Support Working Memory. Differences in working-memory capacity affect how students learn new skills and complete activities. Students with learning disabilities often experience challenges associated with limited working-memory capacity. This article offers strategies both for recognizing and supporting working-memory processing constraints and to facilitate working-memory processing during reading and math instruction. Smith, J. L. M., Sáez, L., & Doabler, C. T. (2016). Using explicit and systematic instruction to support working memory. Teaching Exceptional Children, 48, 6,…
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