Research Article
Test Accessibility: Item Reviews and Lessons Learned from Four State Assessments
Table 3
Suggested modifications for items from State A, percentages by content area.
| | Element | Language arts
(N = 67) | Mathematics
(N = 50) | Social studies
(N = 21) | Science
(N = 21) | Across Content areas
(N = 159) |
| | Passage/stimulus | | | | | | | Add a passage or stimulus | 0% | 0% | 13% | 0% | 1% | | Simplify/shorten text | 75% | 62% | 25% | 42% | 63% | | Change text formatting (bold, etc.) | 30% | 16% | 0% | 11% | 21% | | Item stem | | | | | | | Simplify/shorten stem | 45% | 45% | 36% | 48% | 44% | | Clarify question or directive | 15% | 24% | 41% | 38% | 24% | | Use active voice | 1% | 0% | 0% | 5% | 1% | | Eliminate negative stem | 0% | 2% | 0% | 14% | 2% | | Change text formatting (bold, etc.) | 10% | 29% | 14% | 24% | 19% | | Visuals | | | | | | | Add a visual(s) | 0% | 10% | 18% | 8% | 7% | | Eliminate visual(s) | 94% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 49% | | Simplify visual(s) | 4% | 25% | 50% | 10% | 13% | | Move visual(s) | 0% | 0% | 33% | 11% | 2% | | Answer choices | | | | | | | Simplify/shorten text | 14% | 9% | 6% | 15% | 9% | | Revise answer choices | 10% | 12% | 26% | 19% | 26% | | Eliminate distractor(s) | 24% | 54% | 6% | 60% | 36% | | Change the order of choices | 16% | 12% | 6% | 0% | 10% | | Balance issues | 27% | 20% | 24% | 20% | 23% | Rationale can be made for more than one correct
response | 0% | 6% | 0% | 5% | 3% | | Page/item layout | | | | | | | Embed item in passage | 45% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 22% | | Increase white space | 1% | 35% | 32% | 24% | 19% | | Change the size of item elements | 0% | 4% | 5% | 0% | 2% | | Change the font size | 6% | 0% | 5% | 16% | 6% | | Reduce spread of information across pages/screens | 70% | 14% | 18% | 4% | 36% |
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