Digital Module 15

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Accessibility of Educational Assessments

Module Overview

In this digital ITEMS module, Dr. Ketterlin Geller and her colleagues provide an introduction to accessibility of educational assessments. They discuss the legal basis for accessibility in K-12 and higher education organizations and describe two key factors that interact to influence accessibility of educational assessments: (1) test and item design features and (2) examinee characteristics. They highlight the outcome of this interaction in various situated examples and discuss the role accessibility plays in evaluating test validity as well as the principles of universal design during test development and test accommodations during operational deployment. The module includes an interview with Dr. Martha Thurlow, an expert in accessibility, who provides an important perspective on the past, present, and future of accessibility for educational assessments. The module is designed to be relevant for students, test developers, and users of educational tests in K-12 and higher education settings. It contains audio-narrated slides, interactive activities, and quizzes as well as curated resources and a glossary.

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Meet the Instructors

Leanne Ketterlin Geller, Southern Methodist University

Leanne is a professor at Southern Methodist University, specializing in applied measurement and assessment. She holds the Texas Instruments Endowed Chair in Education and directs the center on Research in Mathematics Education. Her scholarship focuses on supporting all students in mathematics education through application of instructional leadership principles and practices. She has served as Principal Investigator for federally and state funded research grants to develop and implement formative assessment procedures and valid decision-making systems for students with diverse needs in the general education curriculum. She has published numerous articles and book chapters, and presented original research findings at local, national, and international conferences, and serves on the editorial boards for the International Journal of Testing and Assessment for Effective Intervention. She works closely with teachers and administrators to support their application of measurement and assessment principles in school-based decision making. Dr. Ketterlin-Geller was a high school science teacher and trained as a K-12 administrator.

Robyn K. Pinilla, Southern Methodist University

Robyn is a Ph.D. student and Graduate Research Assistant in Research in Mathematics Education at the Simmons School of Education and Human Development at Southern Methodist University. Her specific research interests are in early childhood spatial reasoning and problem solving, and equity and access within assessment for all students. She served as an elementary school assistant principal and early childhood Special Education teacher prior to beginning her Ph.D. studies. In this work, she developed an assets-based approach to first celebrate student and teacher success before triangulating their current development with next steps and targeted objectives. This informal application of the curriculum, instruction, and assessment framework prepared her to begin her doctoral studies under the advisement of Dr. Leanne Ketterlin-Geller. She continues advocating for authentic and practical instruction and assessment that is accessible to all through research and local, state, and national collaborations.

Brooke Istas, Southern Methodist University

Brooke is a Graduate Research Assistant and doctoral student at the Simmons School of Education and Human Development at Southern Methodist University. Her research interests center on adult learners perceptions of mathematics. Brooke is also a consultant, an adult education mathematics subject matter expert, and Cowley College Mathematics Faculty. She is recognized nationally for her knowledge of mathematics and mathematical instructional strategies. She has given several presentations at state and national conferences on enhancing mathematical instruction, understanding higher level mathematical content, teaching math at a distance, and on-line instruction; always willing to share her learning with others. She is also the Subject Matter Expert (SME) for the LINCS (Literacy Information and Communication System) Math and Numeracy and Science Community of Practice; also a reviewer for the Math/Numeracy and Science online resource collection that is a part of the Basic Skills Collection.

Ann Marie Wernick, Southern Methodist University

Ann Marie is a Graduate Research Assistant and doctoral student at the Simmons School of Education and Human Development at Southern Methodist University. Her research interests focus on teacher induction, coaching models, practice-based teacher education, teacher evaluation systems, and mixed-reality simulations. Before her time at SMU, Ann Marie earned her M.Ed. from the University of Notre Dame, where she served as an ACE Fellow. She then spent the next seven years as a classroom teacher and instructional coach. During that time, she taught middle school English Language Arts and History in public, private, and parochial schools both in the United States and abroad. In each of these settings, she gained valuable experience mentoring and coaching novice teachers, which fostered her interest in teacher induction and pre-service teacher coaching in both alternative certification and traditional teacher preparation programs.