Diagnostic Reading Test Research Articles

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The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of (1) remediation of hypothesized component deficits given prior to remediation of known academic deficiencies, and (2) remediation of known academic deficiencies alone. A corollary purpose was to study the immediate effect, if any, of the component deficit remediation on the criterion measure. The component deficits for the Re-Cognition Function (ages 8 through 11) were: (1) haptic discrimination, defined as difficulty in noting differences in sense of touch and muscle sensation, (2) visualization deficit, defined as difficulty in recognizing wholes from sensation of the parts, and (3) figure-ground, defined as difficulty in sifting important from unimportant stimuli. The criterion measure was the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test (SDRT). Forms A and B. In this study, the SDRT was used in two ways: (1) as a basis for planning academic remediation, and (2) as pretest and posttest measures of academic improvement after component deficit remediation and academic deficit remediation. Two research questions were investigated: (1) How do scores on the SDRT of children having component deficit remediation plus academic deficit remediation compare with scores of children having academic deficit remediation only, and (2) Do scores on the SDRT improve immediately after component deficit remediation? Twenty-seven certified learning disability teachers carried out the remediation under the supervision of the researcher with 76 children labeled learning disabled by the school district, ages 8 through 11. The answer to question one was, the scores on the SDRT of children having component deficit remediation plus academic deficit remediation were higher than scores of the children having academic deficit remediation only, when effect size anlayses were made. The answer to the second question was yes, scores on the SDRT improve immediately after component deficit remediation on every subtest when effect size analyses were made. Effect size, a measure of treatment effectiveness, was calculated by finding the difference between the means of the experimental and control groups divided by the control group standard deviation. Effect size was then translated into notions of overlapping distributions of scores and comparable percentiles. Its descriptive nature made it appealing for this investigatory research of treatment effects.

Employing teachers' ratings in selection of achievement tests in reading and mathematics with a behaviorally disturbed population

The usefulness of a particular standardized achievement test with a specific population may be determined largely on the basis of experience. Sixty-six behaviourally disturbed students were administered portions of a test battery including the Reading Recognition subtest of the Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT), PIAT Reading Comprehension, the Reading subtest of the Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT), and Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test (SDRT); PIAT Mathematics, WRAT Arithmetic, Stanford Diagnostic Mathematics Test (SDMT), and KeyMath Diagnostic Arithmetic Test. Toward the end of the academic year, teachers estimated students' grade levels in reading and mathematics. Results indicated that, in mathematics, the SDMT and the PIAT predicted teachers' ratings equally well and better than the other tests; in reading, all tests predicted teachers' ratings equally well except for the PIAT Reading Comprehension, which performed less well than others. Explanations for these results are offered, together with suggestions for identifying achievement tests suitable to specific populations.

Component Deficit and Academic Remediation of Learning Disabilities

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of (1) remediation of hypothesized component deficits given prior to remediation of known academic deficiencies, and (2) remediation of known academic deficiencies alone. A corollary purpose was to study the immediate effect, if any, of the component deficit remediation on the criterion measure. The component deficits for the Re-Cognition Function (ages eight through 11) were: (1) haptic discrimination, defined as difficulty in noting differences in sense of touch and muscle sensation, (2) visualization deficit, defined as difficulty in recognizing wholes from sensation of the parts, and (3) figureground, defined as difficulty in sifting important from unimportant stimuli. The criterion measure was the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test (SDRT), Forms A and B. In this study, the SDRT was used in two ways: (1) as a basis for planning asademic remediation, and (2) as pretest and posttest measures of academic improvement after component deficit remediation and academic deficit remediation. Two research questions were investigated: (1) How do scores on the SDRT of children having component deficit remediation plus academic deficit remediation compare with scores of children having academic deficit remediation only, and (2) Do scores on the SDRT improve immediately after component deficit remediation? Twenty-seven certified learning disability teachers carried out the remediation under the supervision of the researcher with 76 children labeled learning disabled by the school district, ages eight through 11. The answer to question one was, the scores on the SDRT of children having component deficit remediation plus academic deficit remediation were higher than scores of the children having academic deficit remediation only, when effect size analyses were made. The answer to the second question was “yes,” scores on the SDRT improve immediately after component deficit remediation on every subtest when effect size analyses were made. Effect size, a measure of treatment effectiveness, was calculated by finding the difference between the means of the experimental and control groups divided by the control group standard deviation. Effect size was then translated into notions of overlapping distributions of scores and comparable percentiles. Its descriptive nature made it appealing for this investigatory research of treatment effects.

Evaluating Reading Diagnostic Tests: An Application of Confirmatory Factor Analysis To Multitrait-Multimethod Data

Diagnostic reading tests, in contrast to achievement tests, claim to measure specific components of ability hypothesized to be important for diagnosis or remedia tion. A minimal condition for demonstrating the con struct validity of such tests is that they are able to dif ferentiate validly between the reading traits that they claim to measure (e.g., comprehension, sound dis crimination, blending). This condition is rarely tested, but multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) designs are ideally suited for this purpose. This is demonstrated in two studies based on the 1966 version of the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test (SDRT). In each study, the application of the Campbell-Fiske guidelines and con firmatory factor analysis (CFA) to the MTMM data in dicated that the SDRT subscales could be explained in terms of a method/halo effect and a general reading factor that was not specific to any of the subscales; this refutes the construct validity of the 1966 version of the SDRT as a diagnostic test. Other diagnostic tests probably suffer the same weakness and should also be evaluated in MTMM studies.

Teaching reading study skills and course content to preservice teachers

Abstract Preservice teachers enrolled in four sections of a freshman level reading education course were randomly assigned to an experimental or control group. The students in the experimental group were taught reading study skills concurrently with the course content. The control group tutored children in an elementary school. Analyses of pre and posttest scores for course content, the Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes, and the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test indicated significant gains for the experimental group on course content and the SSHA. Improvement in general reading achievement on'the SDRT approached significance. Results were interpreted as evidence that when preservice teachers lack effective reading study habits and attitudes, reading educators can develop these skills as students master course content.

Criterion-Referenced Tests as Predictors of Reading Performance

One hundred and eleven subjects were utilized in a study to determine the ability of the Ginn criterion-referenced reading management system of tests (GRMS) to provide teachers with an efficient and well-organized system for individualizing instruction as well as to predict reading performance. Ginn criterion-referenced and mastery level tests were compared with a series of formal (Stanford Diagnostic Reading Tests or SDRT) scores and informal (Teacher Rating, Classroom Reading Inventory) measures of reading performance. Findings indicated that (1) all tests at the grade one level were found to be equally effective predictors of reading performance; (2) the Ginn (GRMS) tests were observed to be increasingly less effective in predicting reading performance from grade two to three; (3) the Classroom Reading Inventory (CRI) was seen to be an effective predictor of reading performance at all three grade levels; (4) as children gain greater proficiency in reading, the GRMS appears to be less capable of tracking this divergence in reading skill development.

Delinquent Self-Concepts in Juvenile Correctional Programs

Abstract Many of the leading theories of delinquent behavior incorporate an assumption that low self-esteem is a causal factor in the generation of delinquency. Based upon this assumption, many delinquency prevention programs include techniques for elevating the self-esteem of juveniles. This paper reports an evaluation of such a program through a One-Group Pretest-Posttest design. Significant changes in self-concept (as measured by the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale) and in the cognitive domain (as measured by the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test) were observed at two of five sites evaluated. In addition, problems encountered in the evaluations are reviewed and several issues to which evaluations of juvenile correctional programs should be sensitive are derived from these experiences.

Prediction of adults' reading performance as a function of auditory and visual cognitive styles and intelligence.

120 students were administered the Auditory Cognitive Styles Test and the Matching Familiar Figures Sequential Presentation Test to assess cognitive style. Estimates of intelligence were based on the California Test of Mental Maturity. Performances were used to predict achievement on the Diagnostic Reading Test: comprehension, vocabulary, and total reading. Canonical correlation indicated an over-all relationship between the cognitive style variables and intelligence in the predictor set and the three reading measures of the criterion set. Only intelligence and errors on the auditory test contributed significantly to the variance of the reading measures. Importance of auditory factors in understanding adults' reading is supported.

Reviews

Moyle, Donald (compiler) (1979) Teaching Reading.Peddie, W. S. & White, G. R. (1978). Testing in Practice–a guide to the preparation and marking of tests, formal examinations and informal assessments.Drummond, Don and Wignell, Edna (Editors), 1979. Reading: A Source Book.Roswell, Florence G. and Chall Jeanne S., (1979). Roswell Chall Diagnostic Reading Test of Word Analysis Skills.

Letters to the Editor

A child may have the right not to be taught to read in the conventional manner, but Dr Snyder (The Right Not To Read, Pediatrics, May 1979) does not have the right to be so uninformed on an issue that impacts so many of the patients whom pediatricians treat. 1. Dr Snyder makes the error of misusing standardized reading tests whose function is to rank large groups of children, with diagnostic reading tests whose function is to provide specific information to individual teachers about the strengths and weaknesses of individual children.

The Effect of Black English on the Reading Test Performance of High School Students

This study was an attempt to measure the effect of black dialect on the reading test performance of black and white high school students. Forty-six low achieving ninth grade students were administered a standard English form and a black dialect form of the read ing subtest of the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test, Level II. The dialect form was written so that the written language of the test approximated the exact oral sentence pattern of the black students taking the test. Results showed that black students administered the dialect form did significantly better (.05) than black students administered the standard English form. White students did significantly better (.01) than black students on the standard English form of the test. All other differences were not significant.

A Study of the Effectiveness of Selected Syllabication Rules and Phonogram Patterns for Word Attack

instruction and of phonogram identification as advanced decoding strategies. The study used 108 second grade pupils (who were) divided into high, average, and low readers. The subjects were distributed across syllabication, phonogram, and control treatment groups. During March, the experimental subjects received ten 25-minute lessons on the flexible application of 1 of these word analysis procedures. The small group lessons included direct instruction and practice opportunities, using both familiar and unfamiliar multiple syllable words. Analysis of covariance procedures were used to determine if pupils' post test performance on several measures differed significantly from their pretest scores. The measures were 4 subtests from the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test and 2 lists of unfamiliar stimulus words (a list of words in Context and a list of words in Isolation). The results suggested that neither syllabication instruction nor phonogram recognition strategy improved the word attack skills or the reading comprehension of the pupils tested. While the limitations of the study should be considered, the experimenter concluded that the recommendations of educators who support syllabication instruction which adheres closely to dictionary-based rules must be seriously questioned.

The reading Miscue Inventory. A promising approach to diagnosis of the reading-disabled.

Reading Miscue Inventory--RMI--opens avenues of dealing with the reading process in a scientific and process-oriented fashion which can lead to further refining of the theoretical base upon which reading is founded as well as providing diagnostic information for use by reading specialists. From such information, reading specialists are able to develop remediation on an individualized basis. Appropriate materials, procedures, and practices are developed from the qualitative analysis of miscues rather than from the information provided by standardized achievement or diagnostic reading tests. In sights are gained regarding a child's ability to use the complex process of reading. Remediation of disability, at the appropriate place in the process, is based on assumptions regarding the interrelationship of thought and language. Reading specialists are looking to psycholinguists for theoretical bases upon which to build models of the reading process. Qualitative miscue analysis is based upon recently proposed notions of the psycholinguistic nature of reading. Common concepts and understanding regarding reading and assessment of reading disability may facilitate learning disability teams in their diagnostic and remedial procedures. Until recently, these discussions have occurred mainly in reading-related research and in education circles, but learing disabilities teams are beginning to participate in the refining and clarifying of these notions of assessment and remediation. Regardless of the eventual outcome, the necessity for considering these views is basic to a fuller understanding of ways in which learning-disabled children may be helped.

The structure of the stanford diagnostic reading test in relation to the assessment of learning-disabled pupils

The structure of the stanford diagnostic reading test in relation to the assessment of learning-disabled pupils

A Study of the Construct and Criterion-Related Validity of the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test

Subjects included 143 fifth graders participating in remedial classes and forty-three fourth and fifth graders achieving below grade level in reading. Factor analysis provided information relevant to the construct "reading," while multiple correlations with direct assessments of oral reading accuracy in context and isolation served as evidence of criterion-related validity. Results suggest that, with the exception of the rate subtest, the internal organization of the SDRT is essentially consistent with the authors’ analysis of the reading task. Multiple correlations with oral pronunciation of words in isolation were significant at the .001 level while multiple correlations with orally read words in context and with rate in wpm were significant at the .05 level. In addition to information concerning the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test, observations regarding the Primary Mental Abilities Test, the Harris Graded Word List, the Gilmore Oral Reading Test, and the Silent Reading Diagnostic Tests are reported.

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

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.

Diagnostic reading test for the blind.

Diagnostic reading test for the blind.

Children Give Us Leads

1LHE PERCEPTIONS QUOTED ABOVE ARE from youngsters who were part of a Princeton Plan type study conducted in a suburban community on the West Coast. Nineteen children from the older part of the city were brought together with seventeen children from a new, then white, restricted neighborhood. This combination produced a rich potpourri of Americana: cultural heritages of English, Scandinavian, Mexican, Italian, Greek, Negro, Jewish, Filipino, Spanish, German, French and Russian. Occupations of the family bread-winners varied from unskilled and unemployed laborers to mathematicians and corporate executives; IQ scores ranged from seventy-one to 140; diagnostic reading tests revealed a range from preprimer to eighth grade. What was said and done by these twenty-two boys and fourteen girls gave the teacher a multi. tude of fascinating leads into their perceptions about cultural differences.

Evaluation of a Reading Development Program For Scientists And Engineers

SummaryPrevious investigations of reading improvement have failed to agree on the relative effectiveness of machine vs. book‐centered training methods. In this report of gains achieved and retained by 114 scientists and engineers, 42 subjects were trained with the aid of mechanical equipment and 72 by means of a book‐centered method. Equated forms of the Diagnostic Reading Tests were used as criteria of success. All participants had gained significantly in rate, comprehension, and index at the completion of training. However, follow‐up eighteen months later clearly showed the superiority of book‐centered training. A statistical analysis of pre‐, post‐, and follow‐up scores is presented, as well as correlation of reading gains with other psychometric data.

Progressive Choice Reading Techniques in a Remedial Reading Clinic

THE USE OF Progressive Choice in teaching reading was originally evolved as a remedial read ing tool. Several controlled experiments of Pro gressive Choice have been recorded, (1, 2). Each of these has been conducted with certified teachers who have had some classroom experience. The present study deals with the use of Prog r e s s i v e Choice by student clinicians with almost no class room experience, who were learning to teach read ing by the Progressive Choice method while also learning techiques for handling children. Any stu dent clinical situation always has the requirement that pupils who attend the clinic not suffer as a function of their having been involved in the student clinician's learning experience. Hopefully, of course, these pupils will take away some benefits from their experience, and it has been suggested that the mere exposure of a pupil to a considerable amount of time and individual help, no matter how good, will benefit him, since he will spend more time specifically on reading than he m i g ht in the classroom. A portion of pupils who come to remedial read ing clinics for elementary school pupils have read ing problems resulting from a lack of basic skills. The Progressive Choice Reading Method is aptly suited to the teaching of these basic skills,, A prob lem arises, however, particularly for the clinician who does not have daily contact with the pupils, when pupils have mastered some of the skills and not others; re-teaching already learned skills could expend considerable time and energy which would be of relatively little value for pupil or clinician,, To solve this problem, and to expedite remedial train ing, a Reading Skills Diagnostic Test was devised which tested the child's knowledge of basic reading skills in the sequence in which they were presented in the Progressive Choice Program. The student clinician could, therefore, test a block of skills which the child should know, and then enter the Pro gressive Choice Program at the appropriate point to teach the required skilL For the present experiment, four groups of stu dent clinicians were used. The data was collected as a result of a course in which the student clini cians were enrolled to learn remedial reading teach ing skills. The clinicians were aware that their success or failure in the course would not be meas ured in terms of the gains that the child made on reading tests, but rather in terms of their perform ance in the clinical situation and their ability to write adequate case studies. Two groups of students were required to give the Gates Primary or Advanced Primary Word Recognition Test in alternate forms at the beginning and at the end of their clinic expe rience. Two other groups gave Gates Paragraph Reading Tests. Each student clinician met with his pupil twice a week for forty-minute sessions. The clinic experience extended for twelve weeks, for a total of twenty-four sessions. On the average, six of these were devoted to testing, leaving approxi mately eighteen teaching contacts. The pupils in the study came from centralized schools in small communities of 3000 to 5000 in Western New York State. The pupils were recom mended to the reading clinic by their teachers as be ing at least a year below grade level, and generally slow to learn. Pupils in the study ranged from third grade to sixth grade. Their reading levels ranged from 1. 2 to 5. 2 at the outset of the study. The read ing grade level at the conclusion of the clinic expe rience ranged from 1. 8 to 5. 9. Group B, twenty-six student clinicians, acted as a control group. They used various testing tech niques, including Grays' Oral Reading Paragraphs and/or the Durrell-Sullivan Diagnostic Reading Test, to determine the problem of their pupils. Similarly, they used a variety of reading teaching techniques: reading with the child, various forms of opportunis tic word analysis, and filling in the hard words as the pupil read aloud. Group C was composed of 15 student clinicians. Their procedure was the same as Group A, using the Reading Skills Diagnostic Test and the Progres sive Choice Reading Material. They chose as a standardized test either the Gates Primary or Ad vanced Primary Reading Test, Form HI, Paragraph Reading. Group D (N = 33) used identical procedures to Group B, and acted as a control group for Group Co