The Predictive Validity of the Minnesota Reading Assessment for Students Inpostsecondary Vocational Education Programs

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the predictive validity of the Minnesota Reading Assessment (MRA) when used as a means of projecting the potential performance of postsecondary vocational-technical education students. The MRA scores of 50 students randomly selected from those who had participated in the field-testing of the MRA were correlated with student grade point averages (GPAs), teacher ratings of students' overall performance and reading ability, standardized reading test scores, and disadvantaged status. Multiple regression analyses were performed by using scores from the MRA, Stanford TASK, and disadvantaged status for prediction of teacher ratings of students' reading abilty and student GPAs. Findings confirmed that the MRA was a valid predictor in determining postsecondary vocational-technical students' performance as reflected by GPA and teacher-rated reading ability, although the error in prediction varied between the criterion variables. The MRA did not seem to be as closely related to teacher ratings of overall student performance as was the Stanford TASK. TASK scores also tended to be more substantially correlated than the MRA with each of the criterion variables.