The Impact of Language Characteristics in Mathematics Test Items on the Performance of English Language Learners and Students With Disabilities

The impact of language characteristics in mathematics test items on student performance was evaluated for students with disabilities (SWD) and English language learners (ELL) as well as a large general student sample. Relationships were examined for test items and students at 4th, 7th, and 10th grades. The individual test item was the unit of analysis. Student performance was represented by item difficulty, or the probability of answering the item correctly. Regression analyses were conducted to examine relationships between item linguistic characteristics as independent variables with item difficulty as the dependent variable. Language characteristics had moderate effects on item difficulty at 4th grade, dropping to small-to-medium effects at 10th grade. ELL and SWD groups were not disproportionately affected by language characteristics in these test items. Difficult mathematics vocabulary had a consistent effect on performance for all students at all grades. Ambiguous or multiple-meaning words increased item difficulty at 4th grade.