Perceptions of Fairness and Equity of Accommodated Classroom Assessments for Students with Disability

Research on assessment accommodations for students with disabilities is well-documented in the literature. Assessment accommodations are the arrangements made by the teacher such as allocation of more time on the tests to give disability students a fair and equal opportunity to show their learning as well as possible. However, much of the research on this area has focused on the types of accommodations that are available for teachers to give to these students in standardized testing contexts, with little research on how teachers percieve and practice accommodations in their ongoing assessments (i.e., such as asking questions). Therefore, this project aims to understand how teachers, disability students, and their parents understand the practice of assessment accommodations within classrooms. To address the purpose of this project, researchers at my host university has started a study in secondary-schools in Australia. I will join this big project and bring my research expertise in assessment fairness to analyze how we can create assessment accommodations that are fair for disability students based on the responses of teachers, disability students, and their parents. The results of this study will also help think about fairer accommodation practices for students with disabilities in Canadian secondary schools.

Faculty Supervisor:

Christopher Deluca

Student:

Partner:

Australian Catholic University

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Education; Health and Related Sciences & Technology; Other

University:

Queen's University

Program: