Standardized Testing Experiences for Deaf Students

Standardized tests are often used to make decisions about educational performance, promotion, and placement; they can even be used as gatekeepers to higher educational programs and careers. Yet, testing experiences for deaf students are not always accessible, and the results may not be an effective measure of their knowledge and skills. This page provides information to help improve understanding of barriers deaf students encounter with standardized testing experiences and what can be done to improve those experiences.

Key components of testing

Tests measure what students know and can do in a content area such as math. Test makers start by choosing areas of math to focus on, such as subtraction of two-digit numbers. The test's goal is to measure students' knowledge and ability in this area of focus, which is called a target construct. 

Three important testing terms are validity, reliability, and equity.

A common problem with test measurement is that some items require access skills that create a barrier to accurately measuring the intended construct for deaf students. Access skills may include, for example, hearing directions or reading or writing English at an advanced level, when those skills are not being assessed. When access skills interfere with measuring target constructs, tests are not equitable.

A test must be accessible and allow students to show what they know and can do to be equitable. Watch this series of community story videos to understand more about how deaf people's communication and language backgrounds impact their access to the content of standardized tests. 

Understanding Test Accessibility

Providing deaf students with as much opportunity as possible to show what they know and can do on a test requires test coordinators, educators, and IEP team members to understand what is being measured. Testing experiences are more effective when both the deaf students’ backgrounds and what is being measured on a test are considered. Teams tasked with making test accommodation decisions can provide information about accommodation and make recommendations to improve test equity for deaf students. 

Student Backgrounds

A common problem with test measurement is that some items require access skills that create a barrier to accurately measuring the intended construct for deaf students. Access skills may include, for example, being able to hear directions or reading or writing English at an advanced level, when those skills are not being assessed. When access skills interfere with measuring target constructs, tests are not equitable.

Deaf students represent a full spectrum of communication backgrounds, educational backgrounds, language backgrounds, and other disabilities. This is why it is crucial to know the characteristics and needs of deaf students who will be included in a test.

• Deaf children enter school with varying language and communication skills. Most deaf people (more than 90%) are born to hearing parents, many of whom do not use sign language. Lack of a shared language between deaf children and their families can lead to delays in language acquisition. 

• An increasing number of deaf students attend their local public school. Access to classroom learning in general education classrooms may not be fully accessible learning for deaf students, even with instructional accommodations. 

• Deaf students have a wide range of exposure to language models during critical early language acquisition years. Even deaf children with some access to sound, may experience reduced quality and frequency of communication with their family and peers. For those students who come to school having experienced language deprivation, they are thus both learning new content while also acquiring language, even into high school. This directly impacts a deaf individual’s learning and performance on standardized tests. Competency in English-language skills is very important to scoring well on tests that are made in English. This means the tests may be less equitable for these deaf test-takers due to their language learning experiences.

Test accessibility is critical to test fairness. Assessments must be flexible enough to allow students an accurate, fair, and reasonable opportunity to show what they know and can do. Understanding the degree to which a test is accessible requires understanding what is being measured. 

Responding to that question requires both understanding the deaf student's background and knowing which English Language Arts skills and knowledge are being assessed, as well as how the test will evaluate those skills. Test specification documents clearly specify what (constructs and sub-constructs) and how (item types) skills and knowledge are assessed. See the examples below.

English Language Arts Test Specification - Grade 4

Item Development

Examining test items to understand how constructs are being measured is important to considering how equitable tests are for deaf students. Test items are the most basic unit of the larger assessment design. The assessment depends on items prompting student responses that accurately reflect what they know about the target construct. A single item goes through many revisions from first draft to its final vetted form. Accessibility considerations are grounded in the principles of universal design of assessment. For example, universal design emphasizes having multiple ways to view and interact with content. Item development must include, minimally, the following key points:

• Think intentionally and challenge assumptions about the needs of diverse populations of students. Often, an alternate approach to presenting test item content benefits a range of students.

• Have a clear target construct in mind on what the test item is designed to measur,e and keep that target consistent for all students. 

• Ensure that the people and contexts included in item development are representative of diversity. Students must see people and situations from many different walks of life highlighted in the test items. Item writers and reviewers must also reflect diverse perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds. 

• Aim to keep content free of bias, avoiding culture-specific content that favors one cultural group. For cases where the test content makes a specific cultural reference, provide enough context so that students from all cultural backgrounds are able to respond meaningfully.

• Where test construct permits, develop items that are amenable to accommodations, such as renderings in braille or translations in American Sign Language. Identifying these areas requires experts to be involved early in the item writing and review process. 

• Use simple and clear instructions and procedures. Students must fully understand what they are being asked to do.

• Create item formats that are as clear as possible. For example, use test item formats that help emphasize the important content (e.g., with bold or underline), use clear graphics, and pay attention to the overall layout of the test item. 

• Maximize language readability and comprehensibility of the test item, using developmentally appropriate grammar and vocabulary.

Language Complexity

The last point about language complexity deserves special attention. Many aspects of language can complicate a test item without having anything to do with what the item is measuring. These aspects need careful consideration in test item development. For example, clear and consistent terminology, active instead of passive voice, and simple and logical syntax all contribute to clear communication for all students as well as optimal translation and interpretation.

Yet, sometimes, item writers use overly complex linguistic structures, such as conditional clauses, figures of speech, and multiple adjectives and adverbs. Unless these linguistic features are an essential part of the test item target, they can be distracting and increase item difficulty, particularly for students who are emerging English users or who have a disability such as dyslexia. 

Developing equitable tests requires attention to deaf students' backgrounds and also what is being measured as defined by the constructs and sub-constructs so that you know whether what is being measured is amenable to accommodations. When thinking about deaf students' access to tests, take the time to review test constructs and sub-constructs, and review items when possible to understand possible barriers. In the next module strategies for addressing these barriers are presented.

Accessible Testing and Accommodations

For many deaf individuals, even when tests are designed well, they are not equitable. Accommodations can reduce testing barriers and allow deaf test takers a better chance to show their knowledge and skills. Decisions about which accommodations a student should use are specific to the student’s needs and preferences and must consider that accommodations should not interfere with what is being measured. Understanding why accommodations are important and what accommodations are common for deaf students is important to improving test equity. 

Testing Accommodations

“Some of the great [K-12 state assessment accessibility improvements] I have seen have been for students who are deaf ... you see now that, for example, ASL signing is provided as part of an online test platform, where in the past that never would have happened and there may not have even been an interpreter for the student.”

— Dr. Martha Thurlow, former director of the National Center on Educational Outcomes

Use of accommodations for tests is supported by law. The U.S. Department of Justice’s ADA Requirements for Testing Accommodations (4) states; “A testing entity must administer its exam so that it accurately reflects an individual’s aptitude, achievement level, or the skill that the exam purports to measure, rather than the individual’s impairment.

The Department of Justice further states: 

If a candidate requests the same testing accommodations he or she previously received on a similar standardized exam or high-stakes test, provides proof of having received the previous testing accommodations, and certifies his or her current need for the testing accommodations due to disability, then a testing entity should generally grant the same testing accommodations for the current standardized exam or high-stakes test without requesting further documentation from the candidate.  So, for example, a person with a disability who receives a testing accommodation to sit for the SAT should generally get the same testing accommodation to take the GRE, LSAC, or MCAT.

Matching students with accommodations depends on several factors including:

• students' needs and disability,
• targeted constructs,
• purpose of the test,
• testing protocols.

There is no ‘one size fits all’ methodology for determining which accommodation(s) are best for the deaf student on a given test. The methodology is often more of an art than a science. Case-by-case accommodation decisions are important for deaf people, as each person and test are unique. Taking time to explore the deaf person's background and the test content and characteristics is key to making good decisions. 

Resources

• For more information on test accommodations, visit our testing accommodation pages:

Accessible Testing Experiences for Deaf Students

Testing Accommodations for Deaf Students

Planning Effective Testing Accommodations

• For a deeper discussion, schedule an appointment.

• Testing Term