Standardized Reading Assessment Research Articles

Unhinged: Reading Comprehension Tests as Gatekeepers to Teaching

A teacher’s ability to read effectively is critical to that individual’s ability to teach reading skills. Correspondingly, most state departments of education require that prospective teachers earn a passing score on a standardized reading comprehension test before they can enter university-based teacher education programs or otherwise get a professional teaching license. Having witnessed quality candidates get pushed away from teaching due to poor performance on the our state’s reading comprehension measure and given that previous studies have shed doubt on the construct validity of major standardized assessments (e.g., the SAT and ACT), we examined the validity of our state’s standardized reading assessment for teachers. Using data generated by 115 college-aged participants in a prerequisite course for our teacher education programs, we found that our state’s assessment did little to measure reading comprehension. Instead, it measured students’ test-taking skills. This is exceptionally problematic because tests like this one keep significant numbers of qualified and motivated individuals from entering the teaching profession. Worse, due to the oft-researched relationship between test-taking skills to the socioeconomic background of the test-taker, these impacts may be exponentially worse for individuals from minority and lower socioeconomic backgrounds, thereby further reducing their opportunities to teach.

Examining One-Way Dual Language Elementary Latinx Bilingual Learners’ Trajectory on a State Standardized Reading Assessment

ABSTRACT The U.S. population has become more racially and ethnically diverse over time. The Latinx population growth makes Spanish the most common language encountered in non-native English-speaking populations such as Texas. The research objective of this study was to examine if implementing a One-Way Dual Language Education (DLE) Program could result in positive outcomes on the reported reading performance of Latinx bilinguals as indicated by the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) standardized assessment. This study aimed to investigate the possible impact the one-way dual language program may have on bilingual learners’ (BLs) reading assessment scores compared to other second language learners in Texas. The study analyzed the standardized state assessment reading scores in both English and Spanish of over 1100 BLs in a one-way DLE program and found that the BLs in the dataset demonstrated a positive trajectory in the mean scale scores as they progressed through elementary grades. The results provide a significant contribution to the research that supports the effectiveness of DLE programs, especially for Latinx BLs.

Effect of a Comprehensive School-Based Health Center on Academic Growth in K-8th Grade Students

ObjectiveSchool-based health centers (SBHCs) improve health care access, but associations with educational outcomes are mixed and limited for elementary and middle school students. We investigated whether students enrolled in a comprehensive SBHC demonstrated more growth in standardized math and reading assessments over 4 school years versus nonenrolled students. We also explored changes in absenteeism. MethodsParticipants were students enrolled in 2 co-located Title I schools from 2015–19 (1 elementary, 1 middle, n = 2480). Analysis of math and reading was limited to students with baseline and postbaseline scores (math n = 1622; reading n = 1607). Longitudinal regression models accounting for within-subject clustering were used to estimate the association of SBHC enrollment with academic scores and daily absenteeism, adjusting for grade, sex, body mass index category, health conditions, baseline outcomes (scores or absenteeism), and outcome pretrends. ResultsMore than 70% of SBHC-enrolled students had math (1194 [73.6%]) and reading 1186 [73.8%]) scores. Enrollees were more likely than nonenrollees to have asthma (39.7% vs 19.6%) and overweight/obesity (42.4% vs 33.6%). Adjusted baseline scores were significantly lower in math and reading for enrollees. Mean change from baseline for enrollees exceeded nonenrollees by 3.5 points (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.2, 4.8) in math and 2.1 points (95% CI: 0.9, 3.3) in reading. The adjusted rate of decrease in daily absenteeism was 10.8% greater for enrollees (incident rate ratio 0.772 [95% CI: 0.623, 0.956]) than nonenrollees (incident rate ratio 0.865 [95% CI: 0.696, 1.076]). ConclusionsSBHC enrollees had greater health and educational risk but demonstrated more growth in math and reading and less absenteeism than nonenrollees.

Language exposure within peer and family contexts and bilingual reading profiles of German–Russian and German–Turkish adolescents in Germany

Aims and Objectives: While research has focused on effects of language exposure within the family, evidence for the role of the quality and quantity of language exposure within peer contexts for the acquisition of both majority language (ML) and heritage language (HL) skills is still limited. Against this background, the present contribution investigates the patterns in which language exposure within family and peer contexts relate to different bilingual reading outcomes of migrant adolescents. Design: The data used for this contribution provide a unique opportunity to fill in this research gap as it contains standardized reading assessments in the ML and HL as well as questionnaires on language exposure within peer and family contexts. Data and Analysis: Using multinomial regression models with a sample of n = 803 adolescents with German–Russian and German–Turkish language backgrounds, we investigate the role of adolescents’ bests friends’ language backgrounds and language skills as well as adolescents’ language use with parents for the prediction of different bilingual reading outcomes (i.e., skilled bilingual readers, skilled ML readers, skilled HL readers, and low-skilled bilingual readers). Findings: The results indicate that dual inclusion into best friendships with both monolingual German as well as HL peers might be a favorable friendship pattern as it is positively related to both the skilled bilingual reading and the skilled ML reading outcome. Furthermore, we observe a tendency that skilled bilingual readers benefit from having a high-skilled HL speaking best friend. In addition, HL use with parents is an important predictor for HL skills, but not a hindrance for high ML proficiency. Effects of the peer group predictors are rather small, nevertheless they add value for explaining bilingual language outcomes controlling for relevant predictors.

Effectiveness of Remedial Reading to Struggling Readers of Grade 7 Students

This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of Remedial Reading to struggling readers of Grade-7 students at Bolo Norte High School. Specifically, it sought to 1) determine the reading comprehension level of respondents based on the pre and post-test results; 2) evaluate the significant difference between the reading comprehension level based on the pre and post-test results; and 3) design an extension service to support the existing remedial reading program of Bolo Norte High School. This study used descriptive and documentary methods utilizing secondary data: PHILIRI pre-test and post-test results of 120 Grade-7 students at the school who have been identified as struggling readers based on their performance on the standardized reading assessment administered by the school. The result of the level of reading comprehension of the respondents on the pre-test was 6.68, interpreted as “Emerging.” The post-test result after the first five months of implementation was changed to 11.10, interpreted as “Developing.” A paired T-test was conducted to determine the significance of this improvement. The t-value of -9.21 and the associated p-value of 0.000 suggest a significant difference between the pre and post-test scores. This data indicates that remedial reading is effective in improving reading comprehension. However, the post-test score did not achieve the intended outcome. Therefore, the researchers proposed an extension service program to support the existing remedial reading program of Bolo Norte High School called Project CASARO (Creating Alliance in Supporting and Assisting Reading Opportune for BNHS-LN.

Improving Reading Literacy Rate of ALS (Alternative Learning System) Students Through Casaup-Literacy Program

ne of the imminent programs the government instituted for this concern is the Alternative Learning System (ALS) which aims at providing opportunities for students who are not succeeding in the traditional classroom setting to obtain academic credit, career exploration activities, and extended teacher/peer support in an alternative setting where the ultimate goal is that obtaining a diploma. The study aimed to determine the reading levels of the respondents before and after the administration of a reading intervention program. The Reading program was conceptualized as an extended service to enhance the reading abilities of the ALS students. It employed the descriptive type of research to gather facts and information regarding the reading performance levels of the respondents. The respondents of the study consisted of 70 students from ALS Program of the DepEd ALS Program. The researchers utilized the Functional Literacy Test (FLT) a standardized reading assessment tool which was administered before the intervention and after the reading program. T-test was used in the treatment of the data. Based on the findings; generally, the respondents’ age ranges from 15-23 with a minimal percentage of the ages 42-51. This shows that students tend to stop their education after attending basic education. The mean results of the pre-test which is 4.0294 are far behind the results of the post-test, which is 9.4411 mean, this indicates a highly significant difference is evident in the statistical treatment. A t-value of -29.583 resulted and a p-value of 0.000 was obtained from the data. This proves a high significance is displayed in the results and that the intervention program has proven its effectiveness in the reading performance of the ALS Students.

Research Note: Testing the Simple View of Reading in Adolescents and Adults With Down Syndrome.

The Simple View of Reading is a well-supported framework in typical development that proposes that reading comprehension is predicted by word identification and language comprehension abilities. Although there has been some research examining relations between reading comprehension, word identification, and language comprehension, there has been little research directly testing the Simple View in individuals with Down syndrome, a population that often has difficulties with reading comprehension. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to test the Simple View model in English-speaking readers with Down syndrome and examine the contributions of word identification and language comprehension abilities to their reading comprehension success. Twenty-one adolescent and adult readers with Down syndrome (16-36 years of age) completed standardized reading, language, and IQ assessments. Multiple regression assessed the contribution of word identification/phonological decoding and language comprehension skills to reading comprehension outcomes. The full model explained 59% of the variance in reading comprehension. However, language comprehension emerged as the only significant unique predictor, explaining 29% of that variance. Together then, word identification and language comprehension explained approximately 30% of the variance in reading comprehension. The pattern of results suggests that language comprehension is particularly important to reading comprehension success for individuals with Down syndrome, at least those who can already identify printed words. To support reading comprehension development for individuals with Down syndrome, practitioners, educators, and parents should support language comprehension processes.

Evaluation of a School-Based Headsprout Intervention for Improving Literacy

Headsprout Early Reading is a computer-based program designed on behavioral principles to enhance the basic skills that underpin the initial development of reading. In a within and between groups design, and using primary schools within Northern Ireland that had a currently high proportion of disadvantaged pupils, children who were behind their peers in progress with reading were randomly allocated to an intervention group (n = 79), where the target was to work through 80 reading training episodes within a school year, or a teaching as usual group (n = 44). Reading skills were assessed in all children before, at the midpoint, and after the intervention using a flashcard-based phonics identification test with three levels of difficulty, and before and after intervention using a standardized reading assessment, which generated a sentence reading age and a phonics reading age. Both groups showed increased scores on all measures over the 6 months of the study, but the intervention group showed markedly greater improvement. Importantly, the mean scores on sentence reading age and phonics reading age for the intervention group increased by over 17 months and 12.1 months, respectively, as opposed to 7.6 months and 7.8 months with the control group. These findings also validated the use of the flashcard-based phonics identification test with this population. This study indicates that widespread use of Headsprout Early Reading in mainstream education could be highly effective.

Is the treatment weak or the test insensitive: Interrogating item difficulties to elucidate the nature of reading intervention effects

Intervention research in education is sometimes criticized for the use of experimenter developed assessments, especially when these are over aligned with treatment. At the same time, intervention researchers sometimes prefer locally developed assessments because they appear to be more sensitive to treatment effects even when the test is not subject to the criticism of over alignment. This paper examines the question of test sensitivity to treatment effects for experimenter developed and standardized tests for the specific case of reading in grade 8. We examine similarities and differences between a specific experimenter developed test and widely used standardized reading assessment. Analyses show these particular tests to be quite comparable. The paper concludes with an examination of test sensitivity by simulating treatment effects of different magnitudes. These analyses highlight some potential limitations of the standardized test for detecting small to moderate effects depending on the ability range of the students participating in intervention. The implications for intervention research and identification of students under response to intervention are discussed.

Rate of Stuttering and Factors Associated With Speech Fluency Characteristics in Adult Struggling Readers

Stuttering is a disorder that affects about 1% of the population and manifests as speech disfluencies. Reading difficulties and disabilities are commonly found in this population. Nonetheless, speech disfluencies have not been explored in adult struggling readers (ASRs). In the current study, we examined the rate of stuttering in ASRs as well as the relationships between their speech fluency and reading skills. A total of 120 participants were interviewed about their experiences with reading and administered standardized reading and reading-related assessments. Speech fluency and the criterion for stuttering were based on the interview. About 18.3% of the sample met the criterion for stuttering. ASRs who stutter (ASRs-S) and ASRs who do not stutter (ASRs-NS) did not differ in their reading and reading-related skills. ASRs-S had higher rates of negative correlations between reading and reading-related skills compared with ASRs-NS. Correlation patterns between performance on standardized assessments point to higher rates of uneven skills or dissociations in ASRs-S. These findings may have implications for the assessment and instruction for ASRs.

Examining the Associations Between Parent Concerns and School-Age Children's Language and Reading Abilities: A Comparison of Samples Recruited for In-School Versus Online Participation.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between parent concerns about children's oral language, reading, and related skills and their children's performance on standardized assessments of language and reading, with a particular focus on whether those relationships differed between children recruited for in-school versus online participation. This study used data from a larger, longitudinal project focused on children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD) and/or dyslexia. The "in-school" sample (n = 133) completed assessments in-person before school closures, and the "online" sample (n = 84) recruited via advertisements completed assessments online. Parents completed a checklist of concerns. All children completed norm-referenced assessments of language and reading. The two recruitment strategies yielded samples that differed in racial diversity (higher in the in-school sample), caregiver education levels (higher in the online sample), and word reading test scores (higher in the online sample). Parents in both samples reported higher levels of concerns about literacy skills than oral language skills, and the correlation between parent concerns about literacy and children's word reading test scores was stronger than the correlation between parent concerns about oral language and children's language test scores. Researchers and clinicians should be aware of how recruitment strategies and assessment modalities (e.g., in-person vs. tele-assessment) may impact participation in studies and clinical service. A reliance on parent concerns about oral language to prompt a language evaluation may contribute to low rates of identification of children who meet criteria for DLD. Future research can consider parent concerns about literacy, attention, and executive functions as indicators of a need for language evaluation, especially considering the high comorbidity between language and other developmental disorders.

Anxiety, Motivation, and Competence in Mathematics and Reading for Children With and Without Learning Difficulties.

Knowledge of the relations among learners' socio-emotional characteristics and competencies as they engage in mathematics and reading is limited, especially for children with academic difficulties. This study examined the relations between anxiety, motivation, and competence in mathematics and reading, within and across domains, in an academically-diverse set of 8–13-year-old learners (n = 146). To measure anxiety and motivation across domains, we paired existing measures of math anxiety and reading motivation with researcher-developed analogs for reading anxiety and math motivation. Participants completed standardized assessments of mathematics and reading, anxiety and motivation surveys for math and reading, and a measure of nonverbal cognitive ability. Results showed high internal consistency for all anxiety and motivation scales (Cronbach's alpha = 0.76–0.91). Pearson correlations showed that within and across domains, participants with higher competence had lower anxiety and higher motivation. Higher anxiety was also associated with lower motivation. Regression analyses showed that for both math and reading, within-domain motivation was a stronger predictor of competence than anxiety. There was a unidirectional across-domain relation: socio-emotional characteristics for reading predicted math competence, after accounting for nonverbal cognitive ability, age, gender, and within-domain anxiety and motivation. Results contribute to knowledge of the socio-emotional characteristics of children with and without learning difficulties in association with reading and math activities. Implications of a unidirectional socio-emotional link between the two domains can advance research and theory of the relations among socio-emotional characteristics and competence for academically-diverse learners.

Child-Centred Teaching: Helping Each Child to Reach Their Full Potential

Research has shown that schoolteachers often prepare children for success in standardized reading assessments by ‘teaching to the test.’ Concurrently, research exploring children’s emergent literacies and ‘school readiness’ has shown that early childhood teachers often feel pressured to ‘prepare’ children for school and may do so by focusing on print-related literacies, to the detriment of earlier stages of the oral-to-print continuum. This raises the concern that teaching children as a group, preparing them for the next ‘stage of education,’ will disadvantage children who are working below or above expected levels of development. Our study explores the teaching approaches used with a group of foundation-year children who achieved more advanced reading outcomes than children from four adjacent classrooms in their first year of schooling. We collected the reading and letter-identification outcomes of 16 children in the teacher’s foundation-year class and interviewed her about her practices. Findings showed that the teacher used her knowledge of what the children should achieve in standardized assessments as a minimum expectation and moved beyond the content of such assessments when warranted, as determined by informal assessments. As a result, every child in the class met, and many exceeded, minimum reading standards by year’s end. We conclude that using an individualized, child-centred pedagogy, informed by a combination of standardized and informal assessments, allowed the teacher to support her students to develop a range of reading abilities and to reach their full potential.

Individuals with dyslexia use a different visual sampling strategy to read text

Individuals with dyslexia present with reading-related deficits including inaccurate and/or less fluent word recognition and poor decoding abilities. Slow reading speed and worse text comprehension can occur as secondary consequences of these deficits. Reports of visual symptoms such as atypical eye movements during reading gave rise to a search for these deficits’ underlying mechanisms. This study sought to replicate established behavioral deficits in reading and cognitive processing speed while investigating their underlying mechanisms in more detail by developing a comprehensive profile of eye movements specific to reading in adult dyslexia. Using a validated standardized reading assessment, our findings confirm a reading speed deficit among adults with dyslexia. We observed different eye movements in readers with dyslexia across numerous eye movement metrics including the duration of a stop (i.e., fixation), the length of jumps (i.e., saccades), and the number of times a reader’s eyes expressed a jump atypical for reading. We conclude that individuals with dyslexia visually sample written information in a laborious and more effortful manner that is fundamentally different from those without dyslexia. Our findings suggest a mix of aberrant cognitive linguistic and oculomotor processes being present in adults with dyslexia.

Reading Assessment: A Case Study of Teachers’ Beliefs and Classroom Evaluative Practices

Research has revealed that teachers’ thinking processes highly influence their instructional and evaluative behaviors. Understanding teachers’ beliefs and theoretical orientations about reading are more than necessary to rethink reading instruction and assessment. The present paper reviews a case study conducted at the Department of English, Tlemcen University, Algeria. The study looked at teachers’ beliefs and theoretical orientations regarding reading assessment and its effect on EFL learners’ comprehension ability. It examines the correspondence between reading teachers’ theoretical orientations and classroom reading assessment. This study included 20 teachers and 120 students. Data collection procedures included questionnaires and classroom observations. Data analysis exposed the congruence between teachers’ beliefs about reading and classroom reading assessment. Moreover, standardized classroom reading assessment negatively impacted learners’ comprehension ability and reading motivation. The discussions underscored the importance of alternative reading assessment methods such as portfolios, which represent genuine and effective language learning strategies according to modern research.

Reading Assessment: A Case Study of Teachers’ Beliefs and Classroom Evaluative Practices

Research has revealed that teachers’ thinking processes highly influence their instructional and evaluative behaviors. Understanding teachers’ beliefs and theoretical orientations about reading are more than necessary to rethink reading instruction and assessment. The present paper reviews a case study conducted at the Department of English, Tlemcen University, Algeria. The study looked at teachers’ beliefs and theoretical orientations regarding reading assessment and its effect on EFL learners’ comprehension ability. It examines the correspondence between reading teachers’ theoretical orientations and classroom reading assessment. This study included 20 teachers and 120 students. Data collection procedures included questionnaires and classroom observations. Data analysis exposed the congruence between teachers’ beliefs about reading and classroom reading assessment. Moreover, standardized classroom reading assessment negatively impacted learners’ comprehension ability and reading motivation. The discussions underscored the importance of alternative reading assessment methods such as portfolios, which represent genuine and effective language learning strategies according to modern research.

Functional connectivity in the developing language network in 4-year-old children predicts future reading ability.

Understanding how pre-literate children's language abilities and neural function relate to future reading ability is important for identifying children who may be at-risk for reading problems. Pre-literate children are already proficient users of spoken language and their developing brain networks for language become highly overlapping with brain networks that emerge during literacy acquisition. In the present longitudinal study, we examined language abilities, and neural activation and connectivity within the language network in pre-literate children (mean age=4.2years). We tested how language abilities, brain activation, and connectivity predict children's reading abilities 1year later (mean age=5.2years). At Time 1, children (n=37) participated in a functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) experiment of speech processing (listening to words and pseudowords) and completed a standardized battery of language and cognitive assessments. At Time 2, children (n=28) completed standardized reading assessments. Using psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analyses, we observed significant connectivity between the left IFG and right STG in pre-literate children, which was modulated by task (i.e., listening to words). Neural activation in left IFG and STG and increased task-modulated connectivity between the left IFG and right STG was predictive of multiple reading outcomes. Increased connectivity was associated later with increased reading ability.

The long-term benefits of Montessori pre-K for Latinx children from low-income families

This study used covariate adjusted regression techniques to compare the third-grade outcomes of low-income Latinx children who attended Montessori pre-K programs (n = 161) with those who graduated from more conventional programs (n = 4975) in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Children who experienced one year of Montessori education demonstrated stronger pre-academic skills at the end of pre-K and, in turn, performed better on standardized assessments of math and reading in third grade than those who did not. No differences emerged in students’ identification as gifted and talented nor in third-grade GPA. Taken together, these findings suggest that the benefits of one year of Montessori at age 4 may carry forward over time and to the extent that they do, these benefits are attributed to the fact that Montessori graduates entered kindergarten more ready academically. At the same time, however, the persisting benefits of Montessori were 60–70% smaller four years after program exit and were less robust than the end of pre-K outcomes.

The early academic resilience of children from low-income, immigrant families

Data from the Miami School Readiness Project were analyzed to examine the early academic achievement of 1638 low-income Black and Latinx children from immigrant and non-immigrant families. Ecologically valid school outcomes from Kindergarten to 4th grade included classroom grades, grade retention, attendance, and standardized math and reading scores. Multivariate and logistic regression analyses conducted in Mplus examined differences by immigrant status (immigrant family vs. not) and generation (1st vs. 2nd) after accounting for child and family background characteristics. Immigrant advantage and paradox was evident in children’s early school outcomes. Children in immigrant families showed better attendance, received higher grades, and scored higher on standardized assessments of reading and math when compared with peers in non-immigrant families. First-generation immigrant children, in particular, outperformed second-generation and non-immigrant children on most measures. Immigrant status effects were similar for Black and Latinx children with the exception of attendance, where the immigrant advantage was larger among Black than Latinx students. Findings suggest early academic resilience and advantage among this important and growing population of children in immigrant families, as well as a need for more investigation into solutions to cultural and societal factors that contribute to generational decline.

Genetic and Environmental Influences on Decoding Skills – Implications for Music and Reading

Music education is associated with increased speech perception abilities and anecdotal evidence suggests musical training is also beneficial for performance in a variety of academic areas. In spite of this positive association, very little empirical evidence exists to support this claim except for a few studies linking musical training to improvements in verbal tasks. We evaluated the relationships between specific aspects of musical training/ability and scores on a series of standardized reading assessments in a sample of twins. There was a significant and positive relationship between self-reported sight-reading ability for sheet music and performance on passage comprehension – a standardized reading measure that relies on decoding and working memory. This effect was specific to sight reading ability, as other musical variables, such as number of years of practice or music theory, were not related to performance on this reading measure. Surprisingly, the verbal working memory ability we tested did not mediate this relationship. To determine whether there is a genetic component to these skills, we compared these relationships in pairs of monozygotic twins compared to dizygotic twins. Interestingly, intraclass correlations (ICCs) for sight reading and passage comprehension were both higher in monozygotic twins compared to dizygotic twins, though this effect was larger for passage comprehension than for sight reading. These results together suggest a familial and potentially partially shared inherited mechanism for success in both musical sight-reading ability and passage comprehension.