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Adult and Community Learning Services

Assessment Update, November 2009

MAPT

Accommodations and the MAPT: Accessibility for All Learners, by April Zenisky, PhD, Center for Educational Assessment, UMASS Amherst

Among the various activities that UMass and ACLS collaborate on involving the MAPT, test accommodations and general accessibility are areas in which a great deal of work has taken place. Following is an update on our recent activities in this area.

One new feature MAPT test administrators might notice as you test students this fall is the slightly different look of the MAPT. Over the summer, UMass' Center for Educational Software Development (CESD, also known as the people behind the OWL system) completed a major redesign of how OWL looks for all of their users. The MAPT itself works the same as it always has, but now the new user interface allows for better use of the available space on the screen due to reductions in size of the left navigation menu and top banner bar. The color scheme has been changed, and when a learner is taking a MAPT test, his or her name stays in the upper-left corner of the screen. Many of these changes were in part made to keep OWL in conformity with Internet standards for accessibility and ease of use.

Accommodations have always been an important topic for those of us who work on the MAPT. The 'standardized' part of standardized tests such as the MAPT involves maintaining consistency in test administration across learners and settings to the extent possible given the test-taker population and the range of disabilities present in that group. As testing policy, the use of accommodations provides students with disabilities the opportunity to demonstrate knowledge and skills without being limited by a disability. The MAPT itself, by being a computerized test, offers administrators and learners a great deal of flexibility. Any accommodations used, however, should be consistent with the instructional accommodations that are given to a particular student in everyday classroom activities and must maintain the standard administration of the test to the greatest extent possible.

Permissible accommodations for the MAPT fall into the following four categories: Timing, Test Setting, Test Presentation, and Response. Each of these categories is discussed below.

• Timing: The MAPT is untimed for all learners. Also, though we recommend that the MAPT be completed in one sitting, in extreme cases where learners need more time, the test may be stopped at any time and returned to within 15 days. Such "restarts" limit the degree to which we can infer how well learners will do on other tests, including future MAPT assessments, and so they should only be used when absolutely needed.

• Test setting: The MAPT must be administered in a quiet place with limited distractions. The MAPT is flexible in terms of where it can be administered in that it can be taken anywhere in a center where there is a computer, a connection to the Internet, and a test administrator nearby. Where possible, separate rooms and/or individual or small-group administrations are permissible.

• Test presentation: MAPT test administrators may assist learners in a variety of ways. Administrators may read directions aloud to learners, translate directions into languages other than English (including sign language), increase or decrease font size and display resolution on the computer screen, and use other screen magnification devices as available. However, it is generally not appropriate to read the questions and answers to students. If normal classroom practice for an individual student is to read all materials aloud, please contact ACLS first before administering the MAPT to that student.

• Response: There are several permissible accommodations for responses. Learners may use touch screens and other manipulation equipment that are consistent with materials used in everyday classroom instruction. In addition, if students have disabilities that inhibit their use of the computer mouse in everyday classroom activities, then test administrators may assist the learner with the computer mouse provided that the assistance reflects a learner's exact directions/choices. Please note that this accommodation is not for learners who are merely unfamiliar with using a mouse. A computer tutorial before taking the MAPT is required in such cases.

If you have any questions about using accommodations for the MAPT, please contact Dr. April Zenisky at UMass' Center for Educational Assessment or Jane Schwerdtfeger at ACLS.

BEST Plus

This following recently came from the Center for Applied Linguistics, the test publisher of BEST Plus.

As the publisher of BEST Plus, the Center for Applied Linguistics would like to remind BEST Plus program and test administrators of the importance of periodic scoring recalibration. The reliability of test scores hinges on scoring accuracy. Therefore, periodic scoring recalibration is a good practice in standardized oral proficiency testing.

Several options are available to check test administrators' adherence to the BEST Plus Scoring Rubric.

• Test administrators should review their Test Administrator Guide before each round of testing. This includes reading over Sections II (Test Administration Procedures) and III (Scoring BEST Plus), and reviewing the BEST Plus Scoring Rubric and the Language Complexity Reference Sheet.
• When feasible, test administrators may get together in a small group to conduct a consensus scoring activity.
• The BEST Plus Scoring Refresher Toolkit expressly designed for recalibrating BEST Plus scoring, may be used. (For more information on the Toolkit, please visit http://calstore.cal.org/store/detail.aspx?ID=335. Note that this product can only be purchased by program administrators.)

If you or your test administrators have any questions about scoring BEST Plus or recalibration, contact our user support line at 1-866-845-BEST (2378) or via e-mail at best-plus@cal.org Monday through Friday from 10 AM to 6 PM EST.

In addition, adult ESL practitioners may also be interested in the Center for Adult English Language Acquisition (CAELA) Network Web site. The CAELA Network provides information and resources focusing on high-quality professional development for educators working with adult English language learners and makes research findings and evidence-based resources available to practitioners across the nation that work with this population. You can download many resources, including the latest research-to-practice brief, Managing Programs for Adults Learning English. This brief is the third in a series written specifically to address issues relevant to program managers whose programs serve adults learning English. The complete series and many other resources are available free online.

Please forward this e-mail to other adult ESL practitioners, especially BEST Plus test administrators.

Status of National Reporting System Approval of ABE Standardized Tests

ACLS has not received any information from the NRS (National Reporting System) as to which tests have been approved for use in FY11. Until we do, we will continue to use the currently required assessments to measure learner gain: MAPT, TABE Forms 7/8, BEST Plus, and REEP Writing Assessment. As soon as any information is forthcoming, we will let program staff know.

Questions? Please contact Jane Schwerdtfeger at janes@doe.mass.edu