Developmental Differences in Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) Reading Aloud Growth Rates Between English-Speaking Students and English Language Learners in Grade 8

The purpose of this study was to examine the developmental difference in curriculum-based measurement (CBM) reading aloud performance between Grade 8 English-speaking students and English language learners (ELLs) using two theories of reading development: compensatory model and cumulative model. Fifty non-ELLs and 133 ELLs were administered the same CBM reading aloud probes in fall, winter, and spring. The simplex model and latent growth model were used to identify the most appropriate reading model for each group. The results revealed that the compensatory model was appropriate for both groups. Limitations and educational implications are presented.     

A Randomized Study of a Literacy-Integrated Science Intervention for Low-Socio-economic Status Middle School Students: Findings from first-year implementation

This paper presents the findings from a randomized control trial study of reading/literacy-integrated science inquiry intervention after 1 year of implementation and the treatment effect on 5th-grade low-socio-economic African-American and Hispanic students’ achievement in science and English reading. A total of 94 treatment students and 194 comparison students from four randomized intermediate schools participated in the current project. The intervention consisted of ongoing professional development and specific instructional science lessons with inquiry-based learning, direct and explicit vocabulary instruction, and integration of reading and writing. Results suggested that (a) there was a significantly positive treatment effect as reflected in students' higher performance in district-wide curriculum-based tests of science and reading and standardized tests of science, reading, and English reading fluency; (b) males and females did not differ significantly from participating in science inquiry instruction; (c) African-American students had lower chance of sufficiently mastering the science concepts and achieving above the state standards when compared with Hispanic students across gender and condition, and (d) below-poverty African-American females are the most vulnerable group in science learning. Our study confirmed that even a modest amount of literacy integration in inquiry-based science instruction can promote students' science and reading achievement. Therefore, we call for more experimental research that focus on the quality of literacy-integrated science instruction from which middle grade students, particularly low-socio-economic status students, can benefit.     

The Developmental Dynamics between Interest,Self-concept of Ability,and Academic Performance

Only a few studies have examined the direction of associations between academic achievement, interest, and self-concept of ability simultaneously by using longitudinal data over several school years. To examine the cross-lagged relationships between students' interest, self-concept of ability, and performance in mathematics and reading, longitudinal data from Grade 1 to Grade 7 of comprehensive school was gathered from 216 students. The results showed that, in both reading and math, performance predicted students' subsequent self-concept of ability. Some evidence was also found that math performance predicts subsequent interest in mathematics, and that self-concept of math ability mediates the impact of math performance on interest. No evidence was found for the assumption that self-concept of ability or interest would predict subsequent academic performance.     

A Curriculum-Based Passage Reading Test for Monitoring the Performance of Low-Progress Readers: The development of the WARP

Results are presented from two studies involving 190 primary and high school (Year 7) students and 146 older low-progress readers in the late primary years. These studies contribute towards the development of five 200 word standardised passages which may be employed interchangeably to monitor the performance of low-progress readers towards achieving functional literacy. The passages are shown to possess both high parallel form reliability (0.94 to 0.96) and internal consistency (0.97 to 0.99), and also good criterion validity (0.78 to 0.80) with reading accuracy. Appropriate growth in performance over the primary years is also demonstrated. These findings suggest that an extrapolated model of curriculum-based measurement (CBM), which incorporates elements of more traditional reading assessments, would overcome some of the problems associated with CBM.     

Creating a Progress‐Monitoring System in Reading for Middle‐School Students: Tracking Progress Toward Meeting High‐Stakes Standards

In this study, we examined the reliability and validity of curriculum‐based measures (CBM) in reading for indexing the performance of secondary‐school students. Participants were 236 eighth‐grade students (134 females and 102 males) in the classrooms of 17 English teachers. Students completed 1‐, 2‐, and 3‐minute reading aloud and 2‐, 3‐, and 4‐minute maze selection tasks. The relation between performance on the CBMs and the state reading test were examined. Results revealed that both reading aloud and maze selection were reliable and valid predictors of performance on the state standards tests, with validity coefficients above .70. An exploratory follow‐up study was conducted in which the growth curves produced by the reading‐aloud and maze‐selection measures were compared for a subset of 31 students from the original study. For these 31 students, maze selection reflected change over time whereas reading aloud did not. This pattern of results was found for both lower‐ and higher‐performing students. Results suggest that it is important to consider both performance and progress when examining the technical adequacy of CBMs. Implications for the use of measures with secondary‐level students for progress monitoring are discussed.     

Assessment of mathematics and reading performance: An examination of the correspondence between direct assessment of student performance and teacher report

Teacher judgments have been identified as a primary source of information regarding student academic achievement. Research examining the accuracy of teachers' judgments in assessing students' academic abilities has shown relatively high accuracy. However, previous studies have relied primarily on norm‐referenced measures to obtain estimates of students' achievement in reading and mathematics. Recent developments in the assessment of students' academic skills, such as Curriculum‐Based Measurement (CBM), provide a direct estimate of students' skill levels in basic areas such as reading and mathematics. The purpose of the present study was to examine the extent to which teachers' perceptions of students' reading and mathematics skills corresponded to direct estimates of students' reading and mathematics skills. Two second‐grade teachers estimated the reading and mathematics skills of 33 second‐grade students. Results of this study indicated that teachers were not accurate in assessing their students' mathematics functioning. Teachers were more accurate in assessing the occurrence of Mastery mathematics levels in basic addition, but were very inaccurate in assessing the occurrence of Mastery, Instructional, or Frustrational mathematics levels in all other skills assessed. In reading, teachers' judgment accuracy varied as a function of grade‐level material and instructional level. Specifically, teachers experienced considerable difficulty accurately identifying students who were reading at a Mastery level in grade‐level or above‐grade‐level material. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 43: 247–265, 2006.     

Modeling the Relationship Between Oral Reading Fluency and Performance on a Statewide Reading Test

This study examined the relationship between oral reading fluency and performance on a statewide reading test across Grades 3, 4, and 5. A curriculum-based measure of oral reading fluency was administered to 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders who participated in the reading test from the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP). A cross-sectional design with individuals nested within classrooms and classrooms nested within grade levels was used. Hierarchical linear modeling was employed to analyze the relationships. Significant correlations were found between oral reading fluency and the CSAP for all 3 grades. The measure of oral reading fluency added unique information to predicting CSAP performance over and above the predictability of previous year CSAP testing. There was significant variation at the individual classroom level in the relationship between oral reading fluency and CSAP performance. Diagnostic efficiency statistics were used with cut scores to predict whether students would pass or fail the CSAP.     

Sources of variance in curriculum‐based measures of silent reading

Curriculum‐Based Measurement silent reading (CBM‐SR) items have been found to be reliable and valid for measuring reading comprehension skills This generalizability study reports the findings from administration of three CBM‐SR passages to fifth through eighth grade students in one school district. Using Repeated Measures Analyses of Variance (RMANOVA) procedures, the statistical probability of performance on the CBM‐SR task as a differential indicator of reading comprehension skill was found to be significant among students in different grade levels and between students who did and did not receive special education services. Follow‐up analyses were conducted using generalizability theory to estimate the amount of variance in CBM‐SR scores from individual score differences, grade levels, and special education status. The results indicated that on two of the passages, variability in CBM‐SR scores came primarily from grade level differences in scores on the tasks, while on the third passage, the differences were most attributable to individual differences in scores, regardless of grade level or special education services. Implications for the use of CBM‐SR items for routine assessment of students' reading skills are discussed. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 40: 363–377, 2003.     

The Relationship of Teachers' Instructional Decisions and Beliefs about Alternate Assessments to Student Achievement

In the decade since alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS) were first required, special education teachers have had to develop content knowledge and pedagogical skills to teach academics to students with significant cognitive disabilities. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact that teachers' instructional decisions and beliefs about AA-AAS have on the academic achievement of students with significant cognitive disabilities. A survey of nearly 400 teachers across three states provided evidence of teachers' beliefs, as well as their instructional planning processes for students. Students' learning characteristics were also identified. Survey responses were analyzed in conjunction with students' 2010–2011 scores on their statewide AA-AAS. The results indicated that students with presymbolic communication systems had a lower likelihood of achieving proficiency in English language arts/reading and math than students with abstract symbolic communication. Students with concrete symbolic communication systems had lesser odds of proficiency in ELA/reading but not in math. Teachers who agreed that AA-AAS had an impact on instruction tended to have students with higher achievement proficiency. However, more negative views of the validity of AA-AAS scores were associated with greater odds of proficiency.     

An Examination of the Relationship between Computation,Problem Solving,and Reading

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship of mathematics calculation rate (curriculum-based measurement of mathematics; CBM-M), reading rate (curriculum-based measurement of reading; CBM-R), and mathematics application and problem solving skills (mathematics screener) among students at four levels of proficiency on a statewide test. It was hypothesized that CBM-M provides insufficient information to make good screening decisions and that other measures with content more similar to that of large-scale tests of mathematics would function to improve screening. One hundred and seventy students in third grade from a rural elementary school in the Midwestern United States participated. Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate direct, mediator, and latent growth models. In general, CBM-R mediated the relationship between the mathematics ability screener and passing the state assessment, while CBM-M did not have any significant paths within these models. Results are discussed in terms of the utility of CBM-M and CBM-R procedures in screening for success on state test performance in mathematics.     

Changes in Elementary School Children's Achievement Goals for Reading and Writing: Results of a Longitudinal and an Intervention Study

An achievement goal framework was used to examine changes in students' motivation for reading and writing in the late elementary years and to evaluate a classroom intervention project. The longitudinal study involved 431 students in Grades 3 to 5. Results showed significant declines in task-mastery and performance goals within the school year and across grade levels. There were few sex differences in students' goals for reading and writing. The intervention project included 8 teachers and 187 students in Grade 3. This study showed how various instructional modifications can influence students' achievement goals, perceived competence, and strategy use in reading and writing. As teachers provided more opportunities for students to complete challenging, collaborative, and multiday assignments, students became less focused on performance goals, and low-achieving students reported less work avoidance. The educational implications of this research are discussed.     

Self-report of reading comprehension strategies: What are we measuring?

Proficient readers engage in a wide range of cognitive and metacognitive strategies, and both developmental and classroom intervention researchers are in need of high-quality measures of strategy use. Several researchers have recently called into question the validity of the most common type of measures of strategy use in reading, self-report or introspective measures (i.e., the participant must report on his or her cognitive activity while not actually engaged in the activity). We administered three parallel strategy use measures to a sample of 30 ninth-grade students: a prospective self-report measure, a concurrent multiple-choice measure which required students to apply the strategies to specific passages, and a text on which we asked students to think aloud. We also collected two measures of reading comprehension—a standardized measure and free recall scores. Consistent with Veenman’s (2005) conclusions based on a literature review, the concurrent multiple-choice and think-aloud data were both significantly correlated with both of the comprehension scores and with each other, whereas the prospective self-report data had non-significant correlations with all of the other measures. We conclude by recommending concurrent measures for researchers who wish to study strategy use in reading comprehension.     

“She's sort of dragging me into the story!” Student teachers' experiences of reading aloud in Key Stage 2 classes

This article explores the place of the class novel within the current primary curriculum. It begins with an overview of past and current thinking about reading aloud to older primary‐age children. The discussion then moves on to describing research carried out with 43 primary postgraduate student teachers, which aimed to investigate the students' school experiences of observing reading aloud and working on whole narrative texts. Lastly, the article focuses on how the findings influenced changes made to a postgraduate primary course in order to support and develop students' understanding of the role that reading aloud plays in developing children's critical understanding of story.     

Curriculum-based assessment of reading skills: Considerations and caveats for school psychologists

General dissatisfaction with commercial norm-referenced tests and global ability measures and the need for more specific achievement measures due to changes in special education have led to an increased interest in the curriculum-based assessment of reading. We argue that a curriculum-based assessment (CBA) of reading provides relevant information for instructional interventions only if the content of the curriculum and instruction are grounded in the cognitive skills underlying the domain of reading. If CBA is based on valid cognitive constructs, it may assist greatly in the identification of younger readers at risk for reading problems, older students with reading problems, and provide the most sensitive measure of continuous progress. We discuss the implications of our review for the training of school psychologists and for consultation. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Teachers' explicit expectations and implicit prejudiced attitudes to educational achievement: Relations with student achievement and the ethnic achievement gap

In this paper, we consider whether teachers' explicit and implicit prejudiced attitudes underlie the ethnic achievement gap. To date, most research on teacher expectation effects has relied on explicit expectation measures that are prone to social desirability biases. In contrast, we examine the effects of teachers' (a) explicit ethnicity-based expectations for academic achievement and (b) implicit prejudiced attitudes about academic achievement on students' actual academic success over time. A total of 38 teachers completed both a traditional teacher expectation measure and a modified Implicit Association Task designed to assess ethnic stereotypes associated with academic achievement and failure. A multi-level analytic framework showed that students in classrooms of teachers with high expectations performed better in reading at the end of the year and that these effects were found across all ethnic groups. In contrast, whereas students' mathematics achievement scores were largely unrelated to teachers' explicit expectations, teachers' implicit prejudiced attitudes predicted student performance. Specifically, students benefited most academically when their teachers' implicit biases favored the ethnic group to which the student belonged. Findings are discussed in relation to differences in the salience of teachers' expectations and implicit prejudiced attitude in the classroom, and the ethnic achievement gap.     

Students' Perception of School Violence and Math Achievement in Middle Schools of Southern Italy

This study aims at both investigating bullying episodes occurring at school across different grades (from 6 to 8) and evaluating whether educational achievement in math can be predicted on the ground of students' perception of school violence. The sample was composed of 11,064 students coming from middle schools of Southern Italy. Standardized tests were submitted to measure students' performance in mathematics. Background questionnaires were used to assess students' perception of school violence in relation to some bullying episodes occurring in the last month. Students' perception of school violence, which tends to decrease from Grade 6 to 8, can be considered a valid predictor of their math performance, also controlling for both individual and family background, school context, and geographical characteristics.     

Another look at the “C” in CBM: Does it really matter if curriculum‐based measurement reading probes are curriculum‐based?

This study investigated differences between two types of reading probe material to monitor students' oral reading fluency over time. Thirty‐six second‐grade students participated in this study. Twice each week for 5 weeks, participants read two passages from each of two sources. One source was the curriculum in which the child was being instructed at school, and the second source was the “Tests of Reading Fluency,” a set of generic (curriculum‐independent) passages. Standardized curriculum‐based measurement administration and scoring procedures were used. Level and rate of improvement (slope) of oral reading fluency were the dependent measures. Level and slope data were analyzed using two, two‐tailed t‐tests. Also, readability of passages was calculated using two readability formulas. Correlational analyses were used to examine the relation between the readability and reading fluency. Correlations among readability and words read correct were not significant. Results of the analyses examining level and slope indicated that students read significantly more words correct in the generic reading passages than in the curriculum‐based passages. However, rate of progress was not significantly different. These results suggest that practitioners could use either set of passages to gauge students' reading progress over time. Implications for future research and practice are discussed. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

FORMATIVE,INFORMATIVE, AND SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT: THE RELATIONSHIP AMONG CURRICULUM‐BASED MEASUREMENT OF READING,CLASSROOM ENGAGEMENT,AND READING PERFORMANCE

This study explored the relationships among formative curriculum‐based measures of reading (CBM‐R), student engagement as an extra‐academic indicator of student motivation, and summative performance on a high‐stakes reading assessment. A diverse sample of third‐, fourth‐, and fifth‐grade students and their teachers responded to questionnaires about student engagement in academic tasks. These questionnaires were collected about the same time as fall CBM‐R oral reading fluency and maze screening tasks. Results indicated that fall student and teacher reports of engagement and a composite score of reading competence derived from CBM‐R screening tests uniquely predicted student performance on year‐end standardized reading tests. Profile analyses indicated that student engagement was associated with better reading performance among students with low competence, suggesting that engagement may be particularly important for increasing student performance for struggling readers. Implications for interventions targeting both student motivation, as well as reading skill development, are discussed.     

How Well Performance in Curriculum-based Tests Predicts that in Life-based Tests: A Study of 12th-grade Students Learning Chinese Language

A sample of 209 secondary (12th grade) students were tested for their knowledge of Chinese characters, words, and idioms as specified in a Chinese Language syllabus. The students also took comprehension tests in the form of cloze tests based on passages selected from Chinese newspapers and literary works, covering occupations, social events, sports, leisure pursuits and international news. Although performance in curriculum-based tests was satisfactory, the students were found to have difficulty comprehending life-based reading materials. Probable causes for the lack of consistency between performances in the tests using different reading materials are discussed.     

Curriculum-Based Measurement as a Predictor of Performance on a State Assessment: Diagnostic Efficiency of Local Norms

With the concurrent emphasis on accountability, prevention, and early intervention, curriculum-based measurement of reading (R-CBM) is playing an increasingly important role in the educational process. This study investigated the differences in diagnostic accuracy and utility between commercial norms and local norms when making high-stakes, local decisions. Scores on Dynamic Indicators of Early Literacy Skills Oral Reading Fluency for 1,374 students in Grades 2 to 5 were used to predict outcomes the Georgia reading achievement test, the Criterion Referenced Competency Tests. Local norms were generated using logistic regression and receiver operator characteristic curve analysis. The generated cut scores were compared to the commercial norms for differences in diagnostic efficiency. The generated cut scores were lower than the commercial norms and had improved diagnostic efficiency. Implications related to educational policy and the use of R-CBM are discussed.