Are multiple choice tests fair to medical students with specific learning disabilities?

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Psychometrics
• Disability Studies

Background:

• Multiple choice tests (MCTs) are standard for assessing medical knowledge.
• Concerns exist regarding potential discrimination against diverse student groups.
• Limited research addresses MCT fairness for students with specific learning disabilities (SLDs).

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether MCTs discriminate against medical students with SLDs.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of common accommodations for students with SLDs.
• To ensure fair assessment of medical knowledge for all students.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of mean scores from over 900 undergraduate medical students.
• Utilized eight multiple-choice progress tests (1,000 items total).
• Employed repeated-measures analysis of variance, considering disability, gender, ethnicity, and year group.

Main Results:

• No significant score difference between students with SLDs (with accommodations) and students without SLDs.
• Most students completed tests within the allotted time.
• No significant score differences observed between ethnic minority groups or genders.

Conclusions:

• Properly designed MCTs do not systematically disadvantage medical students with SLDs.
• Accommodations enable students with SLDs to perform comparably to their peers.
• MCTs can be relied upon for fair assessment across diverse student populations.