A comparison of graphic and visual test accommodations in measuring urban fifth-grade English language learners' science content acquisition

This randomized control-group posttest only experimental study investigated the effects of several kinds of test accommodations in measuring English Language Learners' (EL) science content acquisition. These accommodations included embedding contextual clues such as visuals and graphic organizers (i.e., graphs, charts, or tables) in a 20-question multiple choice life science test for 86 urban Fifth-grader English Language Learners. Each of the three randomly distributed parallel test forms contained the same text but each differed in their use of pictures and charts.; The results demonstrated that there was no significant difference between the percentages of correct responses for the traditional, visual, and graphic organizer test items when English Learners and Native English Speakers were compared. However, there was a significant but moderate positive correlation between the percentages of visual responses and those of graphic organizers for these students. There was a significant but moderate correlation between the ability to read in another language and the percentage of correct visual responses and the ability to read in another language and the percentage of correct graphic organizer responses. The students' language proficiency level was significantly correlated to the total number of their correct responses as well as to their percentage of correct visual responses. Most students received science instruction in English. There was a significant correlation between the amount of time teachers spent teaching content related to that found on the examination and the percentage of total correct responses by their students regardless of the test accommodation.; The results suggest that assessment designers include more questions with visuals to provide context. The results also imply that elementary teachers should incorporate visuals and graphic organizers in their instruction and their own classroom assessments. In addition, because students with higher language proficiency were able to access the discourse patterns in this study to correctly answer more questions, this would suggest that classroom teachers should offer their students increased opportunities to practice academic language since this will be the language used within school tests and exit examinations.