PASSING STANDARDIZED ASSESSMENTS WITH FADING PROMPTS

Abstract

Introduction: No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 mandates that all students perform at a level of proficient on state assessments. This includes students with learning and intellectual disabilities who are inherently performing below grade level. Given that schools are held accountable for meeting these goals and some states are not allowing students to graduate if they do not pass the assessments, this is a large concern for students, parents, teachers, and administration

Method: Forty-five students with a disability in writing or an intellectual disability participated in this quasi-experimental, single-group, pretest-posttest design that evaluated the effectiveness of the Fading Prompts through Graphic Organizers method for students with learning and intellectual disabilities in written expression as measured according to the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment.

Results: Data analyses were conducted through the use of four dichotomies for percent differences, which compared teacher administered pretests and posttests, pretests and the state administered PSSA, teacher administered posttests and the PSSA, and the participants’ PSSA and the average state PSSA score. All forty-five students performed at a below basic level during baseline and a proficient level on the posttest. The learned skills generalized to the PSSA with forty-three students earning a passing score of proficient, while two students advanced to basic.

Conclusion: Based on the outcomes of this study, it is highly recommended that this program be utilized at least for students with learning and intellectual disabilities until further research can be done.