Download or read book Exploring Factors that Affect the Accessibility of Reading Comprehension Assessments for Students with Disabilities written by Jamal Abedi and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study sought to explore factors that affect the accessibility of reading comprehension assessments for students with disabilities. The study consisted of testing students using reading comprehension passages that were broken down into shorter "segments" or "chunks." The results of the segmenting study indicated that: (a) segmenting did not affect reading performance of students without disabilities; suggesting that it does not compromise the validity of reading assessment; (b) segmenting did not affect reading performance of students with disabilities; (c) the segmented version had a higher reliability for students with disabilities without affecting the reliability for students without disabilities; and (d) no trends were observed with student motivation, general emotions and moods with respect to the segmented assessment. The study also introduced the idea of incorporating some commonly used accommodations for students with disabilities, such as "test breaks," into the assessment. Limitations of the study included a disability sample with mostly students with specific learning disabilities and a high number of ELL students, as well as a reading assessment that only tested for reading comprehension and not other components of reading. More research using the methods in this study with different subjects can potentially shed additional light on accessibility issues in reading comprehension tests. (Contains 15 tables and 2 figures.).
Download or read book Literacy Assessment and Instructional Strategies written by Kathy B. Grant and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2014-08-07 with total page 521 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Literacy Assessment and Instructional Strategies by Kathy B. Grant, Sandra E. Golden, and Nance S. Wilson prepares literacy educators to conduct reading and writing assessments and develop appropriate corrective literacy strategies for use with their grade K–5 students. Connecting Common Core Literacy Learning Standards to effective strategies and creative activities, the book includes authentic literacy assessments and formal evaluations to support reading teaching in the elementary classroom. Initial chapters discuss literacy assessment and evaluation, data-driven instruction, high-stakes testing, and instructional shifts in teaching reading. Subsequent chapters focus on the latest instructional and assessment shifts, including pre-assessing literacy knowledge bases, using informational texts for vocabulary development, and close reading of text. Written by reading practitioners and researchers, this book is a must-have for novices as well as for veteran classroom teachers who want to stay on top of changing literacy trends.
Download or read book Handbook of Reading Disability Research written by Anne McGill-Franzen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-09-17 with total page 1175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bringing together a wide range of research on reading disabilities, this comprehensive Handbook extends current discussion and thinking beyond a narrowly defined psychometric perspective. Emphasizing that learning to read proficiently is a long-term developmental process involving many interventions of various kinds, all keyed to individual developmental needs, it addresses traditional questions (What is the nature or causes of reading disabilities? How are reading disabilities assessed? How should reading disabilities be remediated? To what extent is remediation possible?) but from multiple or alternative perspectives. Taking incursions into the broader research literature represented by linguistic and anthropological paradigms, as well as psychological and educational research, the volume is on the front line in exploring the relation of reading disability to learning and language, to poverty and prejudice, and to instruction and schooling. The editors and authors are distinguished scholars with extensive research experience and publication records and numerous honors and awards from professional organizations representing the range of disciplines in the field of reading disabilities. Throughout, their contributions are contextualized within the framework of educators struggling to develop concrete instructional practices that meet the learning needs of the lowest achieving readers.
Download or read book Theoretical and Practical Advances in Computer based Educational Measurement written by Bernard P. Veldkamp and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-07-05 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access book presents a large number of innovations in the world of operational testing. It brings together different but related areas and provides insight in their possibilities, their advantages and drawbacks. The book not only addresses improvements in the quality of educational measurement, innovations in (inter)national large scale assessments, but also several advances in psychometrics and improvements in computerized adaptive testing, and it also offers examples on the impact of new technology in assessment. Due to its nature, the book will appeal to a broad audience within the educational measurement community. It contributes to both theoretical knowledge and also pays attention to practical implementation of innovations in testing technology.
Download or read book Defining Reading Proficiency for Accessible Large Scale Assessments written by National Accessible Reading Assessment Projects (ED/OSEP) and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 12 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The National Accessible Reading Assessment Projects (NARAP) is a collaboration of two projects funded by the U.S. Department of Education to conduct research and development on accessible reading assessments for students with disabilities that affect reading. The goal of these projects is to produce research findings and assessment techniques that demonstrate how large-scale assessments of reading proficiency can become more accessible and valid for all students, while also meeting the assessment requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). Understanding the need for accessible assessments is key to determining the steps that must be taken to develop such assessments. One of the first steps in designing accessible assessments is the precise definition of constructs being measured. Such definitions permit construct-relevant factors to be distinguished from construct-irrelevant factors, thus facilitating the removal of barriers to accessibility while maintaining valid measurement of the constructs of interest. Similarly, distinguishing various components of the construct may facilitate development of assessments that can reveal strengths in some components that would otherwise be masked by weaknesses in other components. Thus, one of NARAP's first tasks was to develop a definition of "reading proficiency." In order to accomplish this, NARAP collected information in a variety of ways, including: (1) reviewing existing definitions of reading proficiency (e.g., various reports about reading including the NRP, RAND, PISA, PIRLS); (2) convening a panel of experts to provide input; and (3) conducting focus groups. This paper is a synthesis of the information collected and describes a set of principles and key unresolved issues described under each principle. These principles and issues will guide the next phases of the project (research and development). This paper does not focus on the assessment itself; rather, the assessment developed will be informed by the research and then addressed in a separate paper focusing on the principles and guidelines of accessible assessments. (Contains 1 footnote.) [This report was prepared by the National Accessible Reading Assessment Project's Designing Accessible Reading Assessments (DARA) (based at the Educational Test Service (ETS)); and Partnership for Accessible Reading Assessment (PARA) (a consortium of the National Center of Educational Outcomes (NCEO), the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST), and Westat).].
Download or read book Learning disabilities screening and evaluation guide for low and middle income countries written by Anne M. Hayes and published by RTI Press. This book was released on 2018-04-29 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learning disabilities are among the most common disabilities experienced in childhood and adulthood. Although identifying learning disabilities in a school setting is a complex process, it is particularly challenging in low- and middle-income countries that lack the appropriate resources, tools, and supports. This guide provides an introduction to learning disabilities and describes the processes and practices that are necessary for the identification process. It also describes a phased approach that countries can use to assess their current screening and evaluation services, as well as determine the steps needed to develop, strengthen, and build systems that support students with learning disabilities. This guide also provides intervention recommendations that teachers and school administrators can implement at each phase of system development. Although this guide primarily addresses learning disabilities, the practices, processes, and systems described may be also used to improve the identification of other disabilities commonly encountered in schools.
Download or read book The Effect of Response Format and Presentation Conditions on Comprehension Assessments for Students with and Without a Reading Disability written by Ronda Walker and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Previous studies (Collins, 2015; Kennan & Meenan, 2014) have shown how variations in text and task factors and individual reader skills affect performance on reading comprehension assessments. The present study examined whether different presentation conditions (silent reading, watching a video) and response formats (open-ended vs. multiple-choice questions) influenced comprehension performance for students with and without reading disabilities. In addition, measures of word-level reading, vocabulary, working memory, listening comprehension, and prior knowledge were also assessed to determine the best predictors of performance on comprehension assessments. Participants were 32 fifth grade students, 17 with reading disabilities (RD) and 15 typically developing (TD) students. All students were initially administered measures of word-level reading, vocabulary, listening comprehension, working memory, and decoding. Students were then administered four passages. Two of the passages were read silently and two were presented with videos. For each condition (text and video), comprehension was assessed with open-ended and multiple-choice questions. All assessments were administered individually to each student across two 60-minute testing sessions. All students were found to perform significantly better on the multiple-choice questions than the open-ended questions. As expected, the TD group had significantly higher comprehension scores on all measures. Presentation condition did not significantly affect performance for either group. Listening comprehension, working memory, and prior knowledge contributed unique variance to performance on the different response formats. For the open-ended questions, 67% of the variance was explained by the measures of listening comprehension and prior knowledge. In contrast, only 38% of the variance was explained by working memory for the multiple-choice questions. Even though students performed better on the multiple-choice questions, the regression analyses indicated that the open-ended questions were better reflections of basic language abilities and prior knowledge. Open-ended questions appear to provide a better measure of reader and text factors than multiple-choice questions which are more influenced by task factors. Future studies should continue to examine how reader, text and task factors influence comprehension performance."--Abstract from author supplied metadata.
Download or read book Improving Adult Literacy Instruction written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2012-04-26 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A high level of literacy in both print and digital media is required for negotiating most aspects of 21st-century life, including supporting a family, education, health, civic participation, and competitiveness in the global economy. Yet, more than 90 million U.S. adults lack adequate literacy. Furthermore, only 38 percent of U.S. 12th graders are at or above proficient in reading. Improving Adult Literacy Instruction synthesizes the research on literacy and learning to improve literacy instruction in the United States and to recommend a more systemic approach to research, practice, and policy. The book focuses on individuals ages 16 and older who are not in K-12 education. It identifies factors that affect literacy development in adolescence and adulthood in general, and examines their implications for strengthening literacy instruction for this population. It also discusses technologies for learning that can assist with multiple aspects of teaching, assessment,and accommodations for learning. There is inadequate knowledge about effective instructional practices and a need for better assessment and ongoing monitoring of adult students' proficiencies, weaknesses, instructional environments, and progress, which might guide instructional planning. Improving Adult Literacy Instruction recommends a program of research and innovation to validate, identify the boundaries of, and extend current knowledge to improve instruction for adults and adolescents outside school. The book is a valuable resource for curriculum developers, federal agencies such as the Department of Education, administrators, educators, and funding agencies.
Download or read book Factors that Affect the Reading Comprehension of Secondary Students with Disabilities written by Karen L. Sanford and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Factors that Affect the Reading Comprehension of Secondary Students with Disabilities Thirty-million Americans are considered functionally illiterate and are unable to complete job applications or understand health care forms. Fifty-seven percent of adults with disabilities believe that job opportunities are limited due to their poor reading ability. Without strong literacy skills, post-secondary college and employment options are limited. The genesis of adult literacy issues can be linked to below-grade level reading at the elementary and secondary school levels. For students with disabilities (SWD), reading deficits are rampant and lead to low self-efficacy and higher drop-out rates. While reading difficulties are not isolated to SWD, there is a significant gap in reading achievement between students with and students without disabilities. Additionally, poor academic outcomes for SWD are related to inconsistency in the application of teaching reading strategies. To understand the factors integral to reading comprehension, this study explored the relative importance of working memory, vocabulary, prior knowledge, word recognition, reading strategies, and motivation-to-read for the reading comprehension of secondary SWD. These variables represent the major constructs of Kintsch’s Construction Integration Model of reading and have been identified in reading comprehension research as the factors integral to reading comprehension. Participants were 158 SWD in grades 9 to 12 attending two large urban northern California high schools. Multiple regression analyses were conducted with the affective and cognitive variables both individually and jointly and, in order of importance, word recognition, vocabulary, reading strategies, working memory, and prior knowledge were found to influence the reading comprehension of secondary SWD. Of the motivation-to-read factors, extrinsic motivation had a statistically significant negative relationship with reading comprehension indicating that internally motivated students had higher reading comprehension ability. Intrinsic motivation was also a significant contributor to reading comprehension when the affective factors were regressed onto reading comprehension. Differences in the relative importance of the cognitive components between low- and high-comprehenders were also noted suggesting that high-comprehenders had more internalized reading abilities than low-comprehenders. The results from this study findings suggest a variety of cognitive and affective factors influence the reading comprehension of secondary SWD. Knowing the relative importance of these variables will help identify appropriate instruction to target key reading deficits. Multi-sensory direct instruction in word recognition and vocabulary is one such method that has promise for secondary SWD.
Download or read book Accessibility Principles for Reading Assessments written by National Accessible Reading Assessment Projects and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Measuring Up written by John Sabatini and published by R&L Education. This book was released on 2012-06-07 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent decades, the science of reading acquisition has been advancing through interdisciplinary research in cognitive, psycholinguistic, developmental, genetic, neuroscience, cross-language, and experimental comparison studies of effective instruction. Some of the science of reading has emerged from the theory and research into the realm of practice and policy. Yet the science and practice of measuring “reading comprehension” has remained relatively immune to much of this foundational knowledge. Measuring Up questions the traditional format of reading comprehension tests, typically a single series of questions asked about a series of passages, and offers ideas and innovations we might expect in a next generation of 21st century reading assessments. Sabatini, Albro, and O'Reilly believe that in light of the move towards Common Core State Standards and assessments, as well as significant national investments in reading and literacy education, it is a critical and opportune time to bring together the research and measurement community to address fundamental issues of measuring reading comprehension, both in theory and in practice.
Download or read book Examining Differential Item Functioning in Reading Assessments for Students with Disabilities CRESST Report 744 written by Jamal Abedi and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 62 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study examines performance differences between students with disabilities and students without disabilities students using differential item functioning (DIF) analyses in a high-stakes reading assessment. Results indicated that for Grade 9, many items exhibited DIF. Items that exhibited DIF were more likely to be located in the second half of the assessment subscales. After accounting for reading ability using a proxy score from items on the first half of the subscales, students with disabilities consistently underperformed on items located in the second half relative to the items located in the first half, as compared with students without disabilities. These results were seen in Grade 9 for data from two different states. These results were not seen for Grade 3. This study has several limitations. There was no access to information regarding the testing accommodations that students with disabilities might have received, and no access to the type of disabilities. Results of this study can shed light on potential factors affecting the accessibility of reading assessments for students with disabilities, in an ultimate effort to provide assessment tools that are conceptually and psychometrically sound for all students. A companion report is available examining differential distractor functioning for students with disabilities. (Detailed DIF Results are appended. Contains 30 figures and 45 tables.).
Download or read book The Science of Reading written by Margaret J. Snowling and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-04-22 with total page 922 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Science of Reading: A Handbook brings together state-of-the-art reviews of reading research from leading names in the field, to create a highly authoritative, multidisciplinary overview of contemporary knowledge about reading and related skills. Provides comprehensive coverage of the subject, including theoretical approaches, reading processes, stage models of reading, cross-linguistic studies of reading, reading difficulties, the biology of reading, and reading instruction Divided into seven sections:Word Recognition Processes in Reading; Learning to Read and Spell; Reading Comprehension; Reading in Different Languages; Disorders of Reading and Spelling; Biological Bases of Reading; Teaching Reading Edited by well-respected senior figures in the field
Download or read book Handbook of Test Development written by Suzanne Lane and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-10-08 with total page 676 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second edition of the Handbook of Test Development provides graduate students and professionals with an up-to-date, research-oriented guide to the latest developments in the field. Including thirty-two chapters by well-known scholars and practitioners, it is divided into five sections, covering the foundations of test development, content definition, item development, test design and form assembly, and the processes of test administration, documentation, and evaluation. Keenly aware of developments in the field since the publication of the first edition, including changes in technology, the evolution of psychometric theory, and the increased demands for effective tests via educational policy, the editors of this edition include new chapters on assessing noncognitive skills, measuring growth and learning progressions, automated item generation and test assembly, and computerized scoring of constructed responses. The volume also includes expanded coverage of performance testing, validity, fairness, and numerous other topics. Edited by Suzanne Lane, Mark R. Raymond, and Thomas M. Haladyna, The Handbook of Test Development, 2nd edition, is based on the revised Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, and is appropriate for graduate courses and seminars that deal with test development and usage, professional testing services and credentialing agencies, state and local boards of education, and academic libraries serving these groups.
Download or read book Keeping Score for All written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2004-10-02 with total page 151 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: U.S. public schools are responsible for educating large numbers of English language learners and students with disabilities. This book considers policies for including students with disabilities and English language learners in assessment programs. It also examines the research findings on testing accommodations and their effect on test performance. Keeping Score for All discusses the comparability of states' policies with each other and with the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) policies and explores the impact of these differences on the interpretations of NAEP results. The book presents a critical review of the research literature and makes suggestions for future research to evaluate the validity of test scores obtained under accommodated conditions. The book concludes by proposing a new framework for conceptualizing accommodations. This framework would be useful both for policymakers, test designers, and practitioners in determining appropriate accommodations for specific assessments and for researchers in planning validity studies.
Download or read book Accessible Reading Assessments for Students with Disabilities written by Jamal Abedi and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 95 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics of reading test items that may differentially impede the performance of students with disabilities. The findings suggest that there are certain revisions that can be done on current assessments to make them more accessible for students with disabilities. Features such as words per page, typeface changes, point size changes, and unnecessary visuals may be easily adjusted to the optimum level without affecting the validity of the assessment. These changes may help all test takers, not just students with disabilities. Appended are: (1) Rating Guidelines; and (2) Complexity Code Forms for Raters. (Contains 36 tables and 2 figures.).
Download or read book Examining Differential Distractor Functioning in Reading Assessments for Students with Disabilities CRESST Report 743 written by Jamal Abedi and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study examines the incorrect response choices, or distractors, by students with disabilities in standardized reading assessments. Differential distractor functioning (DDF) analysis differs from differential item functioning (DIF) analysis, which treats all answers alike and examines all wrong answers against the correct answer. DDF analysis in contrast examines only the incorrect answers. If different groups, such as students with disabilities and students without disabilities, selected different incorrect responses to an item, then the item could mean something different to the different groups. Our study results found items showing DDF for students with disabilities in Grade 9, but not for Grade 3. Results also suggest that items showing DDF were more likely to be located in the second half of the assessments rather than the first half of the assessments. Additionally, results suggest that in items showing DDF, students with disabilities were less likely to choose the most common distractor than students without disabilities. Results of this study can shed light on potential factors affecting the accessibility of reading assessments for students with disabilities, in an ultimate effort to provide assessment tools that are conceptually and psychometrically sound for all students. A companion report is available examining differential item functioning for students with disabilities. (Detailed DDF Results are appended. Contains 14 tables.).
