Identifier

etd-03052008-184657

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Document Type

Dissertation

Abstract

National educational groups have recommended the use of universal screening to assist in the early identification of reading problems. One of the most widely used measures used for the universal screening of reading is oral reading fluency (ORF) (Fewster & Macmillan, 2002). However, ORF is somewhat time consuming to administer and has been reported to lack “face validity” with teachers (Fuchs, Fuchs & Maxwell, 1988). The purpose of this study was to investigate maze and other group-administered reading assessments because of their potential as a time efficient assessment that is as psychometrically valid as ORF. In this study, maze and a variation of maze known as sentence maze, both group-administered measures of basic reading performance and comprehension, were studied. A third assessment, picture word fluency, which measures a combination of site word reading and simple vocabulary, was also evaluated. The study consisted of two experiments. In the first experiment, these assessments were evaluated based on their psychometric adequacy, as well as their utility and accuracy for decision-making in the context of the requirements for universal screening. The purpose of the second experiment was to examine the generality of the results to another state with different criterion measures. A total of 789 regular education first, third and fifth grade students in two states participated in the two experiments. Students were administered CBM assessments and a criterion achievement measure. Two groups of validity analyses were reported: (a) those pertaining to concurrent/predictive validity, and (b) those pertaining to classification accuracy. These analyses revealed validity estimates for the two maze assessments similar to those shown in previous research studies. Similarly, the validity analyses for picture word fluency were also promising. Most germane to the evaluation of the screening measures was the classification accuracy analyses. Although the results were somewhat variable by grade, the results indicated that there was a moderate to high degree of concordance between those students identified as at risk by the group-administered CBM measures and the criterion measures used in this study, including ORF and the state accountability tests. The limitations of the study are discussed with suggestions for future research.

Date

2008

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

George Noell, Jr.

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_dissertations.2260

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