PERFORMANCE OF DEAF STUDENTS ON A STANDARD AND MODIFIED MINIMUM COMPETENCY TEST

The objects of this research study were: (a) to examine the relationships among deaf students' performance on standard and modified minimum competency tests and some measures of academic success and intelligence, and (b) to determine whether controlled syntax and vocabulary in the response sections of the reading test and the question sections of the mathematics test would help improve deaf students' performance on the minimum competency test.

The study used a sample of 32 hearing-impaired students from seventh, eighth, and ninth grades at the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf. The predictor variables included intelligence quotients, grade point averages, and scores on the Stanford Achievement Test. The criterion variables were scores on the standard and modified 8th Grade Testing for Essential Learning and Literacy Skills (TELLS) tests. Descriptive, correlational, and inferential analyses were performed on the data.

Scores on the TELLS tests were significantly related to the scores on the Stanford Achievement Tests and were not as closely correlated to intelligence quotients and grade point averages. Use of t tests showed no significant difference in the mean scores in the standard and modified TELLS reading tests. A significant difference existed, however, in the mean scores of the standard and modified TELLS mathematics tests.

The results of this research suggest the following: (a) deaf students in this study did not perform very well on the TELLS tests, (b) performance on the Stanford Achievement Test is a good predictor of performance on the TELLS test, (c) the test modification to control syntax and vocabulary in the questions in the TELLS mathematics test was effective in improving deaf students' performance, and (d) there is no useful purpose in deaf students' writing both TELLS and Stanford Achievement Tests.