Research on UniversalDesign of Assessments

Making Assessments Accessibleand Valid for All Students

David MaloufOffice of Special Education

ProgramsU.S. Department of Education

Universal Design of Assessment:

The Whole Elephant

Designing assessments to be inherently accessible and valid for the widest possible range of students.

Universal Design of Assessments

• Improving America’s Schools Act of 1994

• 1997 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

• No Child Left Behind Act of 2001• Upcoming reauthorization of the

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

Series of Federal Laws

• Under Title I, all students were to be included in assessments, public reporting, and accountability.

Improving America’s Schools Act of 1994

• Added requirements for students with disabilities to be included in State and district-wide assessments.

• Introduced alternate assessments• Required public reporting of

aggregated and disaggregated data

Individuals with DisabilitiesEducation Act (1997 reauth.)

No Child Left Behind Act of 2001

•Increased assessment demands•Increased requirements for including students with disabilities and students with limited English proficiency

•Accountability for subgroups

From the Regulations for theNo Child Left Behind Act:

§200.2 State responsibilities for assessment

(b) The assessment system required under this section must meet the following requirements:

.......(2) Be designed to be valid and accessible for use by the widest possible range of students, including students with disabilities and students with limited English proficiency.

President’s Commission on Excellence in Special

Education

• Created in 2001 to recommend reforms in America’s special education system

• 13 Public hearings and meetings, plus written input

• Reported in July 2002

President’s Commission on Excellence in Special

EducationRECOMMENDATION—INCORPORATE UNIVERSAL DESIGN IN ACCOUNTABILITY TOOLS: Ensure all tools used to assess students for accountability and the assessment of progress are designed to include any accommodations and modifications for students with disabilities.

Upcoming reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities

Education Act (IDEA)

Senate Bill 1248

Universal design. The State educational agency (or, in the case of a districtwide assessment, the local educational agency) shall, to the extent possible, use universal design principles in developing and administering any assessments under this paragraph.

§612(a)(16)(A)(ii)(E)

The pressure is on...

Will we do quick retrofits of tests and called them “universally designed”?Will we simply port tests onto computers and call them “universally designed”?

Inclusive PopulationConstructs designed for accessibility

Accessible items

Amenable to accommodations Simple and clear

instructions and procedures

Maximum readability Maximum legibility

Three Research Projects on Universal Design of Assessment

• “Development Techniques for Universally Designed Assessments”– Sandra Thompson, University of Minnesota

• “Access to Assessment via Technology”– Jacqueline Kearns, University of Kentucky– Bob Dolan, CAST

• “Project MAP (Making Accommodations Personalized”– Gerald Tindal, University of Oregon

Development Techniques for

Universally Designed

AssessmentsNational Center on Educational Outcomes

University of Minnesota

Sandy Thompson

http://education.umn.edu/nceo

3 Studies

•Use “think aloud” to examine student – end user - perspectives

•Analyze items for differences possibly due to design features

•Design training for item/test reviewers

“Think aloud”

•Recently interviewed 90 students using think aloud protocol

•4th and 8th grade•Used multiple choice and constructed response items from state math test

Logistics

• 10 researchers• 5 days• Worked in pairs• All sessions videotaped• Primary accommodations

included oral administration and sign language interpretation

Student Characteristics

Grade 4Grade

8

Learning Disability 10 10

Deaf/Hard of Hearing 10 10

Mild Cognitive Impairment 5 5

English Language Learner 10 10

No Disability 10 10

Overall Observations

• Students who were confident of content did not have problems with design

• Students who had no idea how to solve the problem did not have problems with design

• Students “in the middle” – not sure of content, some reading difficulty, design made a difference

Examples of Student Perceptions

• Many students didn’t see one of the cities on a map

• The name of one of the cities was “Independence” - uncommon meaning

• Box between top and bottom of item – some students did not read entire item

• Sign for parallel gave away the answer• Some students read fraction 3 5/8 as

“35 divided by 8”• Students unfamiliar with settings –

“Glee club does number,” “fitness club”

Other Observations• Some students got a lot of “help” from

sign language interpreters and teachers who wanted to make sure they understood the problem – what happens on test day?

• Some student forms reported need for oral administration when they could clearly read the items independently – are some accommodations inappropriate?

• For English language learners - is oral administration in English an appropriate accommodation on a Math test?

• Should sign language interpreters have a script to follow so they don’t “give away” some answers?

Considerations for Item Review

• Overall appearance is clean and organized

• Clear format for text• Clear format for pictures and

graphics (when essential to item)• Concise and readable text• Format allows for changes without

changing meaning or difficulty• Meets criteria for measuring what it is

intended to measure

Considerations for Test Review

• Meets general criteria for measuring what it is intended to measure

• Overall appearance is clean and organized

• Instructions are necessary, clear, and understandable

• Scoring criteria are appropriate• Others?

Alignment and Usability Need to be Considered Together

AlignmentUsability

Future Plans• Interview students with vision impairments

– Partner with American Printing House for the Blind

• Explore differential item analyses – Partner with researchers from CTB/McGraw-Hill

• Produce short awareness video – Partner with Institute on Community

Integration at University of Minnesota

• Design and pilot training for item reviewers and item developers– Partner with Missouri Department of Education

National Center on Educational Outcomes

Universal Design of Assessment: Applications of Technology

CCSSO National Conference onCCSSO National Conference onLarge-Scale AssessmentLarge-Scale Assessment

June 23, 2003June 23, 2003

Universal Design for Learning (1)

• Universal Design for Learning (UDL) extends the concept of universal design from a physical space to a cognitive space

• Based upon psychological and neuroscientific theories of learning

• Relies on scaffolds, supports, & accommodations which support students’ challenges and thus provide access to learning

• Applies to design and development of goals, methods, assessments, and materials

Universal Design for Learning (2)

• To support individual differences, students must be provided with multiple means of interacting with curriculum– Multiple means of representation– Multiple means of interaction and expression– Multiple means of engagement

• Digital technology is neither necessary nor sufficient for UDL, but it is an enabling factor

Kentucky

• Universal Design for Learning Expert Group• Instructional Technology for Student

Success (ITSS) initiative• Digital Text Network• E-Text Schools program• Senate Bill 243

– Requires any textbook offered for adoption in Kentucky schools be made available by the publisher in an accessible digital format

KY CATS Online Assessment• Web-based, individualized assessment for

qualifying students with disabilities:– Students with IEP or 504 Plan that specifies need for

"reader" as an instructional and assessment accommodation;

– Students who require and routinely use text-reader or screen-reader technologies to access printed material in classroom instruction and assessment;

– Students who have accessed and used the CATS Online Practice Area.

• Based upon success of pilot studies, 16 districts, 31 Schools, & 204 students participated in “live” CATS Online this spring

CATS Online

Maine

• Maine Learning Results emphasize inclusion of diverse students by separating goals and methods

• Maine Comprehensive Assessment System uses variety of state and local components, allowing flexibility and multiple measures of learning to accommodate learner diversity

• State assessment (MEA) tightly aligned with Learning Results

• Actively pursuing UDL as a means for increasing access to general curriculum

Overarching Research Question

How can digital technologies be used to improve accessibility of large-scale assessments in accordance with the principles of Universal Design for Learning?

Research Question 1

What are the practical, procedural, and political design and implementation features of accessible computer-based assessments?

Research Question 2

What technology pre-requisite skills do students need to use computer-based assessments?

Research Question 3

What is the impact of a computer-based universally designed assessment on the scores of students with disabilities?

Research Question 4

To what extent does accessible curriculum design impact student assessment results?

Research Question 5

Can the universally designed assessment design features be replicated with new content in a different state context?

Research Methodology

• Qualitative Studies– Interviews, observations, focus

groups

• Quantitative Studies– Survey, score analysis

• Critical Theory– Constituent reflection

Preliminary Findings To Date

• Interviewed approximately 40 students from 7 schools who took CATS Online

• Most students used the ‘text-to-speech’ feature

• Students liked the independence that the text reader provided, which allowed them to re-read questions multiple times

Features that Promote Accessibility

• Multiple means of representation – Text-to-speech– Font features (e.g. size)– Screen layout options– Textual description of images

• Multiple means of expression and interaction– Word processing– Flexible navigation

Features that Impede Accessibility

• Word processing – requires a set of skills that some students may not have

• Text-to-speech – voice quality and accuracy issues

• Layout issues – poetry, tables, etc.

Preliminary Item AnalysisPositive Exemplars

16. This diagram shows that the beams of light from two flashlights can pass through each other and then continue on unaffected. This observation illustrates which property or properties of light?

A. only particle B. only wave

C. both particle and waveD. neither particle nor wave

Learning Results: H-1, Energy. Students will understand concepts of energy. Students will be able to analyze the evidence that leads scientists to conclude that light behaves somewhat like a wave and somewhat like a particle.

MEA Grade 11Science and Technology

MEA Grade 11Science and Technology

Consider– Explicit reference to image– Redundancy of information between image and text

Scales of JusticeUse the illustration below to answer question 12.

12. “Lady Justice” is a symbol of the United States justice system. As shown in the illustration above, she wears a blindfold and carries a balance scale. Explain how this symbol represents two characteristics of the U.S. justice system.

Consider– Explicit reference to image– Redundancy of information between image and text– Multiple opportunities for response (writing vs. keyboarding)

CATS Grade 8 Social StudiesCATS Grade 8 Social Studies

Preliminary Item AnalysisNegative Exemplars

2. Which of the following is the best estimate of the sum of

Learning Results: B-1, Computation. Students will understand and demonstrate computation skills. Students will be able to use various techniques to approximate solutions, determine the reasonableness of answers, and justify the results.

.√26 + √78?

A. 10 B. 14

C. 52D. 104

MEA Grade 11 MathMEA Grade 11 Math

Consider– Ability of text-to-speech tools to recognize and represent the

square-root symbol– Potential invalidation of item when square-root symbol is

“decoded” by human or digital reader

CATS Grade 8 MathCATS Grade 8 Math

Consider– Transferring of stimulus to paper for response– Use of text-to-speech with image labels– Representation of image to blind students

30. Alex is watering part of his garden with a sprinkler that covers a circular area shown in the diagram below.a. What is the total area of Alex’s garden? Show your work.b. What is the area of the part of the garden that is being watered by the sprinkler? Express your answer to the nearest square foot. Show your work.c. What percent of his garden is being watered by the sprinkler? Express your answer to the nearest percent. Show your work.BE SURE TO LABEL YOUR RESPONSES (a), (b), and (c).

Alex’s Garden

Concerns & Conclusions

• Applying universal design to instruction and assessment: which comes first? (Chicken and egg problem)

• Practical considerations of use of technology e.g. security, scalability, cost

• Need for seamless integration of instructional and assessment technologies to ensure valid, accurate, and fair testing