Sustained attention and an alternative test format for limited English proficient students

The administration format of many standardized achievement tests in use today requires students to maintain attention to the task for extended periods of time. Although attention is considered to be a limited and finite cognitive resource, researchers have not examined the extent to which sustained attention requirements affect student performance on achievement measures. For Limited English Proficient (LEP) students the attention requirements are likely to be even more demanding due to language issues. This research examined the effect of an alternative administration format on the standardized test performance of third-grade Hispanic LEP students (N = 138) within the academic areas of reading comprehension and mathematics. The alternative administration format was designed to lessen the sustained attention demands required by the standardized administration format by dividing the administration format of each test into two separate administration sessions for each academic area, instead of the traditional, one-session administration format. Additionally, teacher responses to a nine-item questionnaire relating to attention were used to predict which students would benefit from the alternative administration format. Results indicate that students performed significantly higher under a divided-time administration format as compared to a single-time administration format in reading comprehension and mathematics. While an interaction effect was detected between gender and administration format for reading comprehension, with males demonstrating a larger increase than females in scores during the divided-time administration, no interaction effect was observed for mathematics. Additionally, teacher questionnaire responses regarding student attention were significant predictors of which students would benefit most from an alternative administration format. Results suggest that a divided-time administration format may be an appropriate accommodation for some LEP students, particularly students having difficulties sustaining attention to the task. Finally, results provide support for the argument that current standardized achievement measures are not valid indicators of academic achievement for students classified as LEP.