Researchers at the University of Vanderbilt have recently released a new checklist, the “Test Accessibility and Modification Inventory,” to assist test creators in creating “accessible” tests that can measure content area knowledge for students with disabilities and those that are mastering English. The challenge is in creating tests that eliminate unneeded obstacles in measuring content knowledge for students with disabilities and students mastering English while not making the tests so simple that general education students can complete them without having to demonstrate their competence. Therefore, the Vanderbilt researchers hope that by following their field-tested questions, test creators can ask themselves the necessary questions in order to eliminate common problems that make tests less accessible. Examples of items the checklist suggests include: •using three multiple-choice answers instead of four •more frequent, but shorter prose sections in reading comprehension evaluation •using illustrations only when directly related to the answer. The researchers state that these steps eliminate unneeded “distractors” while still adequately evaluating students’ actual knowledge of the material. The need for creating accessible tests is largely driven by the testing requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act. The law’s regulations allow a proportion of students with disabilities to take different types of tests than general education students. Two percent of all students, or about twenty percent of students with disabilities, can be counted as proficient when they take alternate tests based on modified, but grade-level, academic standards. Those tests can have fewer questions, fewer multiple-choice options and require a lower level of reading skill. The Improve Group has done multiple evaluations with organizations and government agencies evaluating populations with disabilities or that are mastering English. There are complicated cultural and pedagogical issues involved in evaluating these types of populations. With the growing need to evaluate and address the issues concerning these populations, especially in education, tools such as the “Test Accessibility and Modification Inventory” need to continually evolve. Hopefully, such tools can be used to create better tests for all students.