A Comparison of the Reading Abilities of a Junior College Population and the Readability Levels of Their Texts

Abstract

EDRS Price MF-$0.65 HC-$3.29 Community Colleges, Content Reading, *Junior College Students, *Readability, *Reading Ability, Reading Difficulty, *Reading Level, Reading Materials, *Textbooks The differences between the reading abilities of 359 community-college students in selected classes and the readability diffic'clty of the texts used in those classes were examined. The Diagnostic Reading Test, Form A was administered to the subjects, and results showed that 35.9 percent of the population read at or above grade level 13; 33.5 percent read at grade levels 10, 11, or 12; 19.1 percent read at junior-high level; and 11.4 percent read below grade level 7. Thus, almost two-thirds of the subjects were reading below grade level. The texts used in the 16 classes were analyzed according to the Dale-Chall formula, and 14 of the 29 texts were more than one grade level above the reading ability of the students who used them. Five of the texts were rated at grade level 16, or graduate level, and the classes in which they were used had average reading ability rated from grade levels 10.9 to 12.2. It was recommended that teachers give more attention to the readability levels of the texts they select and that publishers assist this effort by advertising the readability levels of specific texts and other materials. Tables and references are included. (VJ) A COMPARISON OF THE READING ABILITIES OF A JUNIOR COLLEGE POPULATION AND THE READABILITY LEVELS OF THEIR TEXTS by Jon M. Hagstrom Columbia Junior College a 1., In the summer of 1969 this writer conducted a study L7 c, _,, c_, w W > C.3 IW . al LA. ,-, 0,of readability of textbooks for three different courses -c v, 0 W J 0 1.5 17, 1 Z glossary, the end-of-chapter questions, etc. As part of I ir= w 0 1 0 D O. La 0 the report, in other words, suggestions were made on how 0 0 0Lai j: the student could best study-read the text. While conductEg ing the readability portion of the study, it soon became apparent that the majority of the texts being evaluated O were beyond the reading abilities of many of the students 0C:) for whom they were intended. Two of the three texts in one O course, for example, were rated on the Dale-Chall formula CD at grade 16 or graduate level in difficulty. These texts were being used by students in a non-transfer terminal course in intriductory biology. Even without testing -Lie students for their reading ability, it would be logical to assume that the students would not be able to effectively deal with these textbooks and learn from them. In order to determine whether in fact such discrepancies did exist and whether these discrepancies were college wide, it was decided to conduct a more thorough study,. Such a study would entail two factors: the assessment of the Cep reading abilities of the students at the college, and the CP assessment of the readability levels of the texts and teacher A paper presented at the Western College Reading Association, Los Angeles, California, April 1, 2, 3, 1971.