Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment Systems Braille Reading Assessment: An Exploratory Study

Autor/inn/en	Posey, Virginia K.; Henderson, Barbara W.
Titel	Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment Systems Braille Reading Assessment: An Exploratory Study
Quelle	In: Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 106 (2012) 8, S.488-499 (12 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0145-482X
Schlagwörter	Adult Students; Visual Impairments; Braille; Reading Tests; Job Skills; Daily Living Skills; Test Items; Item Response Theory; Field Tests + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Adult; Adults; Student; Students; Erwachsenenalter; Studentin; Schüler; Schülerin; Visual handicap; Sehbehinderung; Lesetest; Produktive Fertigkeit; Alltagsfertigkeit; Test content; Testaufgabe; Item-Response-Theorie; Praxisübung
Abstract	Introduction: This exploratory study determined whether transcribing selected test items on an adult life and work skills reading test into braille could maintain the same approximate scale-score range and maintain fitness within the item response theory model as used by the Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment Systems (CASAS) for developing tests. Methods: In concert with a focus group of practitioners, CASAS and the American Printing House for the Blind selected 25 test items in a life and work context that were previously field-tested with approximately 30,000 sighted adult education students. These test items were adapted for a contracted braille format. Both qualitative data and statistical data were collected during and after the braille reading test was field-tested. Results: Sixty-five youths and adults, about 50% of whom were aged 18 or younger, participated in the field testing of the CASAS braille reading test between September 2005 and April 2007. The scale-score range for the braille test was slightly lower than for a similar version in the print format. No significant difference was found between the adults who were visually impaired (those who were blind or had low vision--braille readers) who took the braille test and the sighted adults who took a print version of the brailled test items. Discussion: Valuable suggestions for constructing and administering braille tests were made as a result of the study. New braille assessments will incorporate refreshable braille displays to allow test takers to gain better access to more information and the computing environment. Implications for practitioners: The results support the value of customizing a reading test in a braille format to ensure realistic tasks in the lives and work of adult students who are visually impaired. Hard-copy braille will remain important in future standardized assessments, as will options that offer computer delivery with universal design features. (Contains 3 tables.) (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	American Foundation for the Blind. 11 Penn Plaza Suite 300, New York, NY 10001. Tel: 800-232-5463; Tel: 212-502-7600; e-mail: afbinfo@afb.net; Web site: http://www.afb.org/store
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10