Accommodations: Adaptations made to accommodate special needs, such as providing a large-sized font for visually impaired students. Accommodations are intended level the playing field, but not provide any advantage to those receiving them.

Alternate Assessments: A special form of an assessment that has been constructed to measure the same broad construct, but in a way appropriate for students with extreme disabilities.

Civil Rights Act of 1967: The 1964 Civil Rights Act made it illegal in the United States to discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex in public establishments and required employers to provide equal employment opportunities.

DIF: see Differential Item Functioning

Differential Item Functioning (also DIF): A type of analysis that statistically determines whether or not individual test items perform differentially for relevant subgroups.

Error variance: Variance in test scores due to random or irrelevant sources.

Judgmental review: A method for detecting bias that uses the opinions of individuals representing relevant subgroups of the population of potential examinees to assess the fairness of items on a test.

Modifications: In terms of testing, a modified test is one that has been changed from its original forms to such an extent that it can no longer be considered an accommodated version of the original test. See alternate assessments.

Random error: Error that occurs by chance and is not consistent or predictable. Contrasts with systemic error.

Standard error of measurement: A statistical index of measurement error which gives an estimate of how much an examinee´s score might vary across multiple administrations of the same test. The standard error also indicates how close a person´ score probably is to their typical level of performance on that test.

Systemic error: Error that occurs in a predictable manner for all, or a subgroup, of test takers. Contrasts with random error.

True variance: Variance in test scores due to actual differences in the measured trait or ability.

Universal design: One design that can serve a diverse population.

Variance: A statistical index that describes how much test scores differ from each other. Variance is comprised of both the actual differences in examinees and the random influences which affect test performance.