Takeaways for Researchers

Researchers have important roles in the extended time accommodations process:

• Researchers develop questions about accommodations based on practical problems faced in schools and other real-world settings.

• Researchers disseminate their results to interested stakeholders, to improve decision making.

Takeaways for researchers from our work:

• On a low-stakes mathematics exam, among 4th and 8th grade students with disabilities who have extended time accommodations, those who use text-to-speech, scratch paper, Zoom, or other such features/accommodations also spend more time on test items. 

• Among students with extended time accommodations, higher self-reported effort was associated with spending more time on items.

• Among both 4th and 8th graders, students who were eligible for free/reduced-price lunch spent less time on test items.

• Most students (in either 4th or 8th grade) who received extended time accommodations didn't use any of their extra time, and of those who used it, most didn't gain any more points during the extra period of time.

• Among both 4th and 8th graders, which school a student attended had a substantial impact on whether the student received extended time accommodations; schools appear to have different thresholds and decision-making processes.

What researchers can DO, based on this research:

Researchers may wish to build on our findings with additional research:

• Our research utilized 4th and 8th graders taking a low-stakes exam; it is important to extend these findings to (a) older students in high school and higher education, and (b) exams that have real consequences (higher stakes) for students

• Our research utilized observational data; additional research might use experimental designs to improve causal inferences. For example, to test whether the relationship between effort and time use is causal, researchers might manipulate motivation and observe the effect on time use.

• Our research found that which school a student attended had a substantial association with their likelihood of receiving extended time accommodations, even after controlling for other factors. Additional research would explore which schools tend to grant extended time more or less readily and why.