This study explored the performance of sixth grade students with and without disabilities on a mathematics assessment aligned to state standards when provided a calculator as an accommodation. The study utilized a pre/posttest design. No student was given access to a calculator on the pretest, and approximately half of the students were randomly assigned to have access to a four-function calculator on the posttest. The results suggest that both students with disabilities and students without disabilities benefited from access to a calculator. The findings raise implications for calculators as a valid accommodation on assessments and suggest directions for future research.

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Calculators serve as general tools in mathematics classrooms; however, they also serve as a common accommodation for students with disabilities. Yet, their role as an accommodation is not without controversy. Using a single-subject design study, the researchers explored if students with disabilities solve more mathematics problems aligned to grade-level standards when they use a calculator than when they do not. The researchers also analyzed whether calculators assist students more with solving computation versus word problems. On average, students answered more questions correctly when they had access to a calculator. However, the tool was not generally an effective intervention given the low percentage of nonoverlapping data and, generally, small Tau-U for each student as well as instability and decreasing trends. The results lacked a consistent pattern of students benefiting from calculator use with regard to answering computation versus word problems.

Students with learning disabilities struggle with word problems in mathematics classes. Understanding the type of errors students make when working through such mathematical problems can further describe student performance and highlight student difficulties. Through the use of error codes, researchers analyzed the type of errors made by 14 sixth grade and 15 seventh grade students with language-based learning disabilities educated with either a standards-based or traditional mathematics curricula on word problems representing number and operations and algebra standards. Two main findings occurred: (a) the open-ended word problems were challenging to students with learning disabilities as demonstrated through the high rate of unanswered questions and incorrect answers, with the most frequently committed errors representing a lack of understanding of the mathematics; and (b) no relationship existed between curricula and correct or unanswered questions for sixth grade, but statistically significant relationships existed in the seventh grade, favoring the standards-based curriculum.

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