Publication Date

2021

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Styck, Kara M.

Degree Name

M.A. (Master of Arts)

Legacy Department

Department of Psychology

Abstract

Reading curriculum-based measures (R-CBM) are frequently used to assess reading proficiency. However, the utility of these measures is predicated on the assumption that within-grade-level passages have equal text difficulty levels. Spurious changes in the number of words students read correctly depending on what passage is administered are widely documented and strongly suggest that this assumption is not tenable. Rather, passage effects (i.e., error variance in R-CBM scores due to unequal passage difficulty levels) can artificially increase/depress scores and mask true trends in progress monitoring data. Prior research has focused on readability formulas or statistical equating methods based on classical test theory as a means to address passage effects. However, serious limitations of these methods undermine their utility. The proposed study applies an alternative approach to addressing passage effects based on the scaling tradition to examine the presence and nature of passage effects in the complete set of first through third grade Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) R-CBM passages for a sample of students at risk for developing reading problems. It is hypothesized that passage difficulty will vary within and across grade levels and that passages will not exhibit equal discrimination between students with high and low word reading proficiency.

Extent

64 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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