Sumner, Emma; Antalek, Catherine; Roberts, Amelia; (2025) Exam accommodations for secondary students with literacy difficulties. University College London (UCL); Nuffield Foundation: London, UK.

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Abstract

Students with literacy difficulties, including dyslexia, may present with significant challenges with reading accurately and fluently, spelling and writing (Rose et al., 2009; Snowling et al., 2020). Poor working memory and processing speed are often argued as underpinning these difficulties (Carroll et al., 2025). Given these characteristics, school examinations can be a source of struggle for students with literacy difficulties, evidenced by their often lower performance in end of secondary school exams (APPG, 2019). Access arrangements are one way in which students can be supported to demonstrate their knowledge in a test environment. Notably, there is a consistent yearly rise in the number of access arrangements being granted for GCSE and A-level examinations in England (Ofqual, 2024), indicating that more students are receiving accommodations for their exams each year. Existing research in the UK has highlighted the challenges that special educational needs (SEN) teams face in meeting the demands for assessing a high number of students for access arrangements (e.g., Woods et al., 2018). A more up-to-date understanding of the challenges facing SEN teams in conducting access arrangements assessments was required and a focus on students with literacy difficulties was warranted given the administrative demand in applying for exam access arrangements for these students. For instance, SEN teams cannot rely on diagnostic reports when applying for access arrangements for students with literacy difficulties but instead must provide a comprehensive account of evidence of need. This requirement has significant implications for SEN teams managing a high demand. Importantly, the present work sought to gather data on the views and experiences of key stakeholders around the identification and provision of access arrangements in secondary schools, crucially allowing students’ views to be heard in addition to practitioners. Further, a pressing concern was the lack of research which examines the efficacy of exam access arrangements. To date, it is unknown if secondary students with literacy difficulties in the UK benefit from the use of an access arrangement. Given the time, effort and resourcing costs that go into identifying suitable exam arrangements for students, it is important to have an evidence base to support the use of such arrangements and to reflect on what works. Four research objectives were identified: 1. To capture the current context of access arrangement provision offered to secondary students with literacy difficulties; 2. To examine the effectiveness of common exam access arrangements (i.e., 25% extra time, use of a word processor, and a scribe) in supporting students with literacy difficulties; 3. To determine what factors predict exam performance, taking into consideration the criteria used to assess the need for an access arrangement; 4. To produce guidance for schools to review their provision of exam access arrangements, based on the research findings.

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