Predicting performance on a statewide reading achievement test in Spanish with aimswebPlus Spanish

Abstract

AbstractThe Every Student Succeeds Act requires that states make efforts to offer statewide achievement tests in languages, other than English, that are present to a significant extent in the state. Currently, four states offer Spanish reading or language arts assessments as part of their statewide testing program. In these states, practitioners may be interested in screening students who will complete the Spanish assessments to identify those who are at risk for poor performance. Spanish versions of curriculum‐based measures of reading appear well suited for this purpose. We conducted a retrospective analysis of data collected in a high‐performing district in Texas to investigate the predictive validity and diagnostic accuracy associated with the aimswebPlus Spanish scores when predicting statewide Spanish reading assessment performance for students in Grades 3 through 5. Across grades and seasons, the aimswebPlus Spanish scores explained a small amount of variance in statewide Spanish reading assessment (r 2 = 0.17–0.30). When risk on the aimswebPlus was determined using the national 35th percentile, screening decisions were associated with poor sensitivity (range = 0.50–0.72). Decisions were associated with higher specificity (range = 0.67–0.84) with adequate specificity obtained in four of six comparisons. Limitations, practical implications, and future research directions are discussed.