Development and Validation of a Reading Comprehension Scale

Abstract

This study developed and validated a scale that measures the reading comprehension of the Filipino learners. This study attempted to address the need for a reliable, valid screening tool suited for Filipino learners, with a high level of feasibility that can be used in the classroom to identify what reading comprehension type a student belongs to by developing a validated scale of reading comprehension for junior high school learners in the local context. The Reading Comprehension Scale, a 13-item instrument that was based on four themes (applied, interpretive, affective and lexical reading comprehension) was designed and crafted. The design used in this research was a mixed-method approach wherein 15 students participated in the interview for the item-generation who answered questions based on the Meta-Comprehension Strategy Index of Schmitt (1990). A sample of 476 students participated in the administration of the initial instrument. Cronbach Alpha, as a test of its reliability, was used to indicate the degree of internal consistency of the items and content validity to test the appropriateness of the generated statements. Results showed that the Cronbach alpha ranged from 0.569-0.639 which is considered good reliability. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin and Bartlett’s Test were used to examine the appropriateness of factor analysis. The approximate of Chi-square is 1408.237 with 465 degrees of freedom, which is highly significant with a p-value of 0.000 at 0.01 level of significance. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy is 0.734 which is greater than 0.5, therefore the Factor Analysis was valid. Based on the statistical values, the scale developed is valid and reliable.