Analysis of Reading Fluency and Comprehension Measures for Sixth Grade Students. Technical Report #24
Author: Alonzo, Julie
Date: 2004-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Reading Fluency,Reading Comprehension,Vocabulary,Reading Tests,Urban Schools,School Districts,Grade 6,Statistical Analysis,Regression (Statistics),Correlation,Prediction,Measurement

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has increased the importance of assessment in K-12 education. Designed to ensure that all students meet high academic standards, the law currently requires states receiving Title I funds to test all children annually in reading and math in grades 3 through 8 and report student performance disaggregated by poverty, race and ethnicity, disability, and limited English proficiency. The law requires states to set annual measurable objectives to track student progress towards proficiency, with the ultimate goal that &quot;all groups of students-including low-income students, students from major racial and ethnic groups, students with disabilities, and students with limited English proficiency-reach proficiency within 12 years&quot; (U.S. Department of Education, 2002, p. 17). With this goal in mind, school districts are developing assessment systems that enable them to monitor student progress in a timely fashion rather than waiting for year-end statewide assessments. These district assessments can serve multiple purposes: monitoring student progress, evaluating the effectiveness of particular programs and schools, and providing school personnel with valuable information about how well they and their students are doing. Developing easy-to-administer and score assessments at the district level can offer schools a distinct advantage over complete reliance on statewide assessments. In the area of reading, three measures can provide essential information about students' developing proficiency: oral reading fluency (ORF), vocabulary, and reading comprehension comprised of both selected responses (SR) and constructed responses (CR). Taken together, these three measures should give a good prediction of student performance on the large-scale reading assessment administered by the state. This report summarizes the spring 2003, sixth-grade reading achievement data from five different schools in an urban school district in a mid-sized city in the Pacific Northwest. The original data set contained 334 students, but 28 students were removed from the data set prior to analysis because they had no scores for any of the dependent variables. Additional students were missing data in some but not all of the dependent variable measures, so the total sample size used for analyses varies by measure. Dependent variables analyzed in this report include scores from the following measures: a test of Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) (n = 263), a District Vocabulary Test (n = 304), a District Reading Comprehension Test (n = 303), and the previous year's statewide large-scale assessment in reading (n = 254). Scores for the District Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension tests are reported as percent correct rather than as raw scores because they contained different numbers of items on the different forms. ORF scores are reported as words read correctly per minute. Finally, the Total Reading Scale Score is used from the statewide, large-scale exam. All sixth-grade students present in school on the days the tests were administered completed all four assessments. Independent blocking factors analyzed in this report include gender and ethnicity, as well as Special Education (SPED) and English Language Learner (ELL) which are both compared to non-SPED and non-ELL students in general education. The Appendix provides a complete table of item analysis for the selected responses [SR] section of the District Reading Test.