Accommodations that have the potential to invalidate a test score:
By
Steve N. Elliott
STEPHEN N. ELLIOTT is currently a professor of Educational Psychology and a Senior Research Associate in the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at UW-Madison. Professor Elliott is a nationally acclaimed leader in the areas of standards and assessment. He authored over 80 journal articles, 14 books, and 2 widely used behavior rating scales. As a result of his scholarly efforts, Steve was invited to serve on the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on Education Goals 2000 and Students with Disabilities.
- Reading a reading test
- Using a calculator on a mathematics test that is designed to be a measure of mental computation
- Using spelling tools on writing or language arts tests that score the correctness of spelling
- Paraphrasing that changes the meaning of the text or consistently makes the material easier to read/comprehend
Note: Invalidation of a test score means that changes in the test presentation, content, or response format have resulted in changes in what the test measures. Therefore, the inference one makes from a given test score is inaccurate.
