Comprehensive Test Of Basic Skills Research Articles

IMPROVING READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH PHILOSOPHY FOR CHILDREN

The reading comprehension achievement of two groups of fifth grade students, 80 experimental and 20 control, was compared on pre and post measures using the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills, reading comprehension subtest. The experimental group was exposed once each week to materials from the Philosophy for Children program as a supplement to their regular reading program for eight months of the school year. The reading comprehension achievement of two subsets of the experimentals, those above grade level and those below grade level on the pre‐test, was also analyzed. Results with above grade level students support previous studies indicating that including philosophical skills in the reading program leads to greater achievement than would be expected in normal development. Further, the results of the low level students reveal that such skills may also lead to improved reading comprehension achievement.

Validity of a primary screening device as a predictor of subsequent academic achievement.

Correlations among scores on motor, visual, auditory, and language subscales of a primary device, Yellow Brick Road, with subsequent academic achievement on Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills were moderate (.35 to .81). Comparisons of the third grade boys (n, 113) and girls (n, 111) on the screening device yielded little difference. Implications for screening and educational strategies were discussed.

The Identification of Students Likely to Fail the North Carolina Competency Tests

The study investigated the degree to which it was possible to identify students who were likely to fail a high school competency test from data contained in their cumulative folders. The criterion measures were students' scores on the reading (SHARP) and math (TOPICS) tests of the North Carolina Competency Test. The predictor variables included: sex; race; paternal and maternal educational level; sixth and ninth grade subtest scores on the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills; and eighth grade subtest scores on the Differential Aptitude Test. The results indicated that a subset of the predictors could be utilized to accurately identify students who were likely to fail the SHARP and TOPICS.

The Effects of a Computer-assisted Instruction Program on Basic Skills Achievement and Attitudes Toward Instruction of Spanish-speaking Migrant Children

This study investigated the effects of a computer-assisted instruction (CAI) program on basic skills achievement and attitudes toward instruction of Spanish-speaking migrant children. The study used two comparable groups of third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade, Spanish-speaking migrant children. One group used CAI to supplement instruction while the second group served as a control. The academic achievement gains and attitudes of the groups were compared. Children (256) were administered the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills twice during 1 year and a Students’ Attitude Instrument at the end of the year. The results indicated that students who used the CAI program had greater achievement gains than did students who participated in the regular classroom program. However, students who were in the non-CAI program had more favorable attitudes toward CAI than did students in the CAI program.

The Effects of a Computer-Assisted Instruction Program on Basic Skills Achievement and Attitudes toward Instruction of Spanish-Speaking Migrant Children

This study investigated the effects of a computer-assisted instruction (CAI) program on basic skills achievement and attitudes toward instruction of Spanish-speaking migrant children. The study used two comparable groups of third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade, Spanish-speaking migrant children. One group used CAI to supplement instruction while the second group served as a control. The academic achievement gains and attitudes of the groups were compared. Children (256) were administered the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills twice during 1 year and a Students’ Attitude Instrument at the end of the year. The results indicated that students who used the CAI program had greater achievement gains than did students who participated in the regular classroom program. However, students who were in the non-CAI program had more favorable attitudes toward CAI than did students in the CAI program.

Arithmetic achievement as a function of introversion-extraversion and teacher-presented reward and punishment

Following Eysenck (1967), Gray (1973) and Wakefield (1979), it was hypothesized that the arithmetic achievement of extraverts would be better than introverts in those classrooms in which teacher-presented rewards predominated, and the arithmetic achievement of introverts would be better than extraverts in those classrooms in which teacher-presented punishment predominated. Five classrooms were rank-ordered according to their ratios of teacher-presented reward to teacher-presented punishment. A total of 101 fourth and fifth grade students from the five classrooms were then administered the Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (JEPQ) and an arithmetic pretest. Subsequent to 40 school days, the students were administered the arithmetic posttest. Partialling out arithmetic pretest scores, lie scale scores from the JEPQ, and total arithmetic raw scores from the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS), regression analysis of arithmetic posttest scores with the interaction of extraversion scores from the JEPQ and classroom rank-order of the ratio of teacher-presented reward to teacher-presented punishment yielded significant results supporting the hypothesis. Additional analysis indicated the presence of non-hypothesized interactions of the Psychoticism and Neuroticism scales of the JEPQ with reward-punishment and extraversion.

Redundancy in the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills

The Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS) Form S consists of 11 subtests, eight of which are combined to yield three subtotal scores and one Total Battery score. As part of the long term evalua tion of an early childhood preschool program, the CTBS was ad ministered to one sample of beginning fourth grade pupils and one sample of beginning sixth grade pupils. A factor analysis was per formed for the fourth grade sample on Level 1 and for the sixth grade sample on Level 2 of the CTBS. Results of both analyses showed but one common factor, with scant evidence for the useful ness of the eight different subtest or three subtotal scores produced by the CTBS.

A Five-Year Study of the Effects of a Skill-Centered Approach to the Teaching of Reading

This article reports the results of a five-year study of the effects of implementing a skill-centered approach to the teaching of reading. The results are particularly relevant in light of the recent controversy over methods of teaching children to read. Several approaches to teaching reading are discussed and the implementation of one of the approaches, the skill-centered, in a large school district is described. The impact of implementation in the district was substantial. Results from 80 elementary schools indicate that students in grades kindergarten through six learned reading skills and improved their overall reading performance. Four subtests of the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills were administered to students in grades four and six: Reading Vocabulary, Reading Comprehension, Using Reference Materials, and Using Graphic Materials. The first two subtests were also administered to grade eight students. The investigators conclude that a skill-centered approach is practical and a viable, if not superior, approach to teaching children how to read.

The Relationship of the General Educational Performance Index Measure to Other Indicators of Educational Development in Each of Three Samples From an United States Army Population

For each of three samples of 223, 124, and 54 individuals (enlisted personnel) representing military populations of different ability levels, relationships were found between total (mean) scores on achievement examination batteries or on their subtests and corresponding scores on a relatively new test battery entitled General Education Performance Index (GEPI), a comparatively short examination with five subtests essentially parallel in content to five subtests of the General Education Development (GED) test battery that requires about 10 hours to administer. Although composite (mean) scores on the GED test battery could be predicted with a relatively high degree of accuracy from those on the GEPI composite (the correlations varying between .52 and .70), scores on one subtest in either battery could be forecast from those in a corresponding subtest in the other battery with somewhat limited accuracy (the correlations ranging from .28 to .57). Subtests in Reading and Language of the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS) provided coefficients falling between .40 and .68 in relation to composite scores on the GED and GETI test batteries, whereas the Nelson Reading Test (NRT) and the General Technical (GT) Composite Score of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) furnished, respectively, corresponding coefficients ranging between .01 and .30 and between .12 and .36. Demographic variables pertaining to grade level and age of examinees yielded for the most part no signficant relationships with the several test measures.

Reflection-Impulsivity as a Predictor of Children's Academic Achievement

To examine the implications of differences in reflection-impulsivity for later academic achievement, 70 children were administered the Matching Familiar Figures test (MFF) in grade 4 and the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS) in grades 4, 5, and 6. Children identified as reflective based on grade 4 MFF performance scored significantly higher on the CTBS achievement battery at all grade levels than those classified as impulsive. However, the 2 groups did not differ on the grade 5 or grade 6 achievement measures when scores were adjusted for initial differences in grade 4 CTBS. Similarly, while each of the continuous variables MFF error score and MFF response latency was significantly predictive of grade 5 and grade 6 achievement test scores, neither of the MFF variables significantly improved the prediction of academic performance when current level of achievement was statistically accounted for. Sex differences in the relations between the MFF variables and the achievement measures were identified; MFF error score was more strongly related to later academic achievement for boys than for girls, while MFF response latency was a better predictor of academic achievement for girls than for boys.

The Validity of Seven Easily Obtainable Economic and Demographic Predictors of Achievement Test Performance

Involving about 850 fourth grade pupils in 11 schools of a desegragated metropolitan school district, this study examined the relationship between seven easily obtainable background variables and achievement test performance on the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills—Battery Total (CTBS-Battery Total). A multiple correlation of .52 was obtained between a composite of seven predictors and the measure of achievement. A five-variable economic predictor model yielded a multiple correlation of .49 with the achievement measure. In a cross-classification analysis, "high," "medium," and "low" economic groups were compared with respect to achievement; significant differences ( p < .01) were found for all pairs of comparisons. The "high" group represented what might be called "middle class" or "middle income" students. The mean scale score for the "high" group corresponded to the 67th national percentile. It was concluded that the assessment of instructional programs or of schools must take into account economic and background variables.

Academic achievement as a function of specific and global measures of self-concept.

This study examined the correlations between academic achievement and factor specific, as well as global, measures of self-concept for 314 fourth and sixth grade boys and girls divided into grade level groups with and without Spanish surnames. The Primary Self-Concept Inventory was used to measure self-concept on six scales: physical size, emotional state, peer acceptance, helpfulness, success, and student-self. A global self-concept score was derived by totaling the scores on the six scales. Achievement was measured as total score on the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills. The two specific measures of self-concept that were most reflective of school performance, success and student-self, tended to show low positive correlations with achievement. The remaining specific measures, as well as the global measure, tended to show no relationship to achievement. These results suggest that an area specific model of self-concept is more useful than a global or undifferentiated model. Further, the low correlations between school related self-concept and achievement suggest that, as a group, students frequently have rather inaccurate academic self-concepts.

The Validity of Traditional Cognitive Measures and of Scales of the Study Attitudes and Methods Survey in the Prediction of the Academic Success of Educational Opportunity Program Students

For a sample of approximately 100 Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) university students who had been admitted to a special summer preparedness program at a major metropolitan campus in the California State University College system, validity coefficients of traditional cognitive measures and of the scales of the Study Attitudes and Methods Survey (SAMS) were calculated with respect to each of three criterion measures of academic success. The most valid predictor was the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills, (Reading Vocabulary) measure, although high school grade point average and college entrance examination scores yielded statistically significant validity coefficients. In two of three stepwise multiple regression analyses, the SAMS—Academic Drive-Conformity and SAMS— Alienation scales provided the second and third greatest proportions of statistically reliable variance to the prediction of the academic criterion measure in question.

Teacher's locus of control and student achievement gains

Ten female fifth-grade teachers, 40 fifth-grade males, and 40 fifth-grade females were classified as internal or external (locus of control) on the basis of their scores on Rotter's (1966) Internal-External (I-E) Control Scale and the Intellectual Achievement Responsibility Questionnaire (Crandall, Katkovsky, & Preston, 1962). Measures of students' achievement and intelligence were obtained from the California Test Bureau's Short Form Test of Academic Aptitude (1970) and the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (1968). The major finding of the study was that both male and female students, regardless of their locus of control, gained more on the achievement measure under internal teachers than under external teachers.

The California Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills: a Predictor of Success for High School Freshmen

The California Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills: a Predictor of Success for High School Freshmen