Abedi, J., Kao, J. C., Leon, S., Mastergeorge, A. M., Sullivan, L., Herman, J., & Pope, R. (2010). Accessibility of segmented reading comprehension passages for students with disabilities. Applied Measurement in Education, 23(2), 168-186. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08957341003673823?casa_token=vk7mb1KuwSMAAAAA%3ADJfq8xa8g6g7XzV_FQhvrGngF8ijWPnYf7JGjjh-ozODb3pVAKYxve2Ueo1C6cjG8uBnuNnA9wZB0g

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Researchers separated paragraphs into smaller chunks to test the reading comprehension of 8th grade students with disabilities. They found that while segmenting paragraphs did not affect the reading comprehension scores of students with or without disabilities, it led to greater test and performance reliability for students with disabilities.  

Accessibility of segmented reading comprehension passages for students with disabilities

- Chunking: “reading material chunked into meaningful units facilitates reading comprehension and efficiency”
- Segmenting: “refers to grouping things into meaningful units, but, instead of chunking words and phrases together, […] grouped ‘segments’ of passages immediately with their corresponding items” where “segmented text would also serve as a variation of ‘built-in’ test breaks”

Accessibility of segmented reading comprehension passages for students with disabilities - background

- Segmented text and reliability of the reading test
- Segmented text and performance
- Segmented text and the correlation between teacher ratings, English Language Arts (ELA) achievement test levels, and reading performance

Accessibility of segmented reading comprehension passages for students with disabilities - areas of focus

- Data collection
- Reading comprehension test
- Questionnaires 

Accessibility of segmented reading comprehension passages for students with disabilities - methodology

- Purpose of segmenting passages is to maximize students’ working memory and minimize fatigue from affecting reading comprehension test results 
- Since segmenting did not affect students’ scores (with or without disabilities), it does not impact the validity of reading comprehension tests 
- Segmenting increased test reliability for students with disabilities and it should be incorporated more because it is easier for them to handle 
- Majority of students with disabilities were also English language learners could skew findings since these students already have a harder time with reading comprehension
- Students randomly guessing when running out of time could also cause segmentation to be inaccurately represented their scores

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