Accommodation Study

Quality Indicators Study

Postsecondary Study

Project Staff

Reference Materials

Interdisciplinary Human Development Institute

The Interdisciplinary Human Development Institute-UAP at the University of Kentucky, is conducting a three-year, multi-state investigation to study how students with deaf-blindness fare in large-scale assessment systems.  This project collaborates with federally funded Deaf-Blind projects in three states (Kentucky, Louisiana, and Tennessee) to verify the primary research objective: How do students with deaf-blindness fare in large-scale assessment systems? This inductive, theory-building study utilizes a descriptive and comparative design within a case study approach.  The following research questions guide the study:

1)  What are the exemption rates for students who are deaf-blind in large-scale assessments?

2)  How do student scores in both alternate and general assessment compare with their peers both with and without disabilities?

3)  How are accommodations for students participating in the general assessment determined, implemented and with what result?

4)  To what extent do the performance standards for the alternate assessment correlate with indices of best practices for students who are deaf-blind?

5)  To what extent do student scores in their final year of school correlate with positive outcomes upon graduation?

6)  To what extent are teachers of students who are deaf-blind modifying their curricular and instructional practices to align with the assessment?