scholarly journals Curriculum Biases in Reading Achievement Tests

1978 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 345-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph R. Jenkins ◽  
Darlene Pany
Keyword(s):  
Reading Achievement ◽  
Educational Research ◽  
Curriculum Evaluation ◽  
Achievement Tests ◽  
Achievement Test ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
Single Test ◽  
Test Items ◽  
Grade Levels ◽  
Reading Curricula

The extent and direction of curriculum bias in standardized reading achievement tests are examined. Bias is estimated by comparing the relative overlap in the contents of five separate reading achievement tests with the content of seven commercial reading series at first and second grade levels. Overlap between each achievement test and each reading series is reported in terms of achievement test grade equivalent scores that would be expected given mastery of the words which appear both as content in a reading series and as achievement test items. Results indicate clear discrepancies between the grade equivalent scores obtained both between tests for a single curriculum and on a single test for different reading curricula. The implications of the apparent curriculum bias of achievement tests are discussed as they relate to teacher, child, and curriculum evaluation, to reading replacement, and to applied educational research.

Standardized Achievement Tests: How Useful for Special Education?

1978 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 448-453 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph R. Jenkins ◽  
Darlene Pany
Keyword(s):  
Reading Achievement ◽  
Achievement Tests ◽  
Achievement Test ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
Single Test ◽  
Exceptional Children ◽  
Test Items ◽  
Grade Levels ◽  
Standardized Achievement Tests

The extent and direction of curriculum bias in standardized reading achievement tests are examined. Bias was estimated by comparing the relative overlap in the contents of four separate reading achievement tests with the contents of five commercial reading series at first and second grade levels. Overlap between each achievement test and each reading series is reported in terms of achievement test grade equivalent scores that would be expected given mastery of the words that appear both as content in a reading series and as achievement test items. Results indicate clear discrepancies between the grade equivalent scores obtained, both between tests for a single curriculum and on a single test for different reading curricula. The implications of the apparent curriculum bias of achievement tests are discussed as they relate to evaluation of teachers, children, and curricula; to reading placement; and to the identification and classification of exceptional children.

Learning Disabled Students' Spontaneous Use of Test-Taking Skills on Reading Achievement Tests

1985 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 205-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas E. Scruggs ◽  
Karla Bennion ◽  
Steven Lifson
Keyword(s):  
Reading Achievement ◽  
Achievement Tests ◽  
Learning Disabled ◽  
Achievement Test ◽  
Strategy Use ◽  
Disabled Students ◽  
Test Items ◽  
Test Taking ◽  
Level Of Confidence ◽  
Resource Rooms

The present investigation was undertaken to identify the type of strategies learning disabled (LD) students employ on standardized, group-administered achievement test items. Of particular interest was level of strategy effectiveness and possible differences in strategy use between LD and nondisabled students. Students attending resource rooms and regular third-grade classes were administered items from reading achievement tests and interviewed concerning the strategies they had employed in answering the questions and their level of confidence in each answer. Results indicated that (a) LD students were less likely to report use of appropriate strategies on inferential questions, (b) LD students were less likely to attend carefully to specific format demands, and (c) LD students reported inappropriately high levels of confidence.

Evaluation of Two Instrumental Procedures for Use with Embedded-Figures Subtest of Purdue Motion-Picture Screening Test

1976 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerry B. Ayers ◽  
Michael E. Rohr
Keyword(s):  
Reading Achievement ◽  
Motion Picture ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Screening Test ◽  
Achievement Test ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
Embedded Figures ◽  
Total Performance ◽  
Materials Used ◽  
Screening Device

The purpose of this study was to determine if modification of the materials used by young Ss in responding affected their performance on a motion picture screening device. Modification of the modes of measuring responses increased the total performance of 24 kindergarten Ss; however, there appeared to be little relationship with standardized reading achievement test scores for first and second grade Ss. The approaches used appeared applicable with kindergarten Ss.

scholarly journals Should Achievement Tests be Used to Judge School Quality?

2000 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott C. Bauer
Keyword(s):  
Language Arts ◽  
School Quality ◽  
Instructional Quality ◽  
Achievement Tests ◽  
Achievement Test ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
Local Study ◽  
Test Items ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Standardized Achievement Tests

This study provides empirical evidence to answer the question whether student scores on standardized achievement tests represent reasonable measures of instructional quality. Using a research protocol designed by Popham and the local study directors, individual test items from a nationally-marketed standardized achievement test were rated by educators and parents to determine the degree to which raters felt that the items reflect important content that is actually taught in schools, and the degree to which raters felt that students' answers to the questions would be likely to be unduly influenced by confounded causality. Three research questions are addressed: What percentage of test items are considered suspect by raters as indicators of school instructional quality? Do educators and parents of school-age children differ in their ratings of the appropriateness of test items? Do educators and parents feel that standardized achievement test scores should be used as an indicator of school instructional quality? Descriptive statistics show that on average, raters felt that the content reflected in test questions measured material that is important for students to know. However, for reading and language arts questions, between about 20% to 40% of the items were viewed as suspect in terms of the other criteria.

Changes in the Use of Graphic and Contextual Information as Functions of Passage Difficulty and Reading Achievement Level

1979 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 307-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Biemiller
Keyword(s):  
Reading Achievement ◽  
Oral Reading ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Reading Level ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
Achievement Level ◽  
Grade Levels ◽  
Reading Material ◽  
Information Strategies ◽  
Graphic Information

This paper presents results from a study of oral reading errors. The purpose of the study was to compare strategies of information use by readers of differing levels of reading achievement as they read passages of increasing difficulty. The study included 59 first graders from two different reading programs. Four passages were used ranging from preprimer to second grade levels. Achievement groups were formed on the basis of the most difficult passage a child could read without making more than 25% errors. Results indicated that with increasing passage difficulty, children made proportionately more non-response, and graphic substitution errors. On their most difficult passages, the most able readers made higher proportions of graphic errors than other children. These results are interpreted as indicating that when faced with increasingly difficult reading material (for their reading level), children increase their use of graphic information strategies. The results do not support the view that able readers make less use of graphic information than less able readers.

Factor Analytic Study of Perceptual-Motor Attributes as Measured by Two Test Batteries

1972 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 227-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dolores Geddes
Keyword(s):  
Visual Discrimination ◽  
Grade Level ◽  
Dynamic Balance ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
Body Perception ◽  
Motor Patterns ◽  
Test Items ◽  
Mentally Retarded Children ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Motor Acts

This study factor analyzed the scores of 80 first and second grade level public school children on the 28 test items of the Perceptual-motor Attributes of Mentally Retarded Children and Youth battery and the Purdue Perceptual-motor Survey. 10 factors were extracted and 9 were named: Visual Tracking, Visual Discrimination and Copying of Forms, Visual Discrimination and Copying of Rhythmic Patterns, Verbal Body Image, Dynamic Balance, Spatial Body Perception, Postural Maintenance, Visual Discrimination and Copying of Motor Patterns, and Gross Agility. The study indicated that the individual test items are very specific in nature, i.e., they measure very specific perceptual-motor acts.

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