Latent Profiles of Reading and Language and Their Association with Standardized Reading Outcomes in Kindergarten through 10th Grade
Author: Foorman, Barbara R.
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Profiles,Reading Skills,Language Skills,Statistical Analysis,Elementary Secondary Education,Kindergarten,Norm Referenced Tests,Reading Tests,Public Schools,Standardized Tests,Reading Comprehension,Elementary School Students,Secondary School Students,Multiple Regression Analysis

The idea of targeting reading instruction to profiles of students' strengths and weaknesses in component skills is central to teaching. However, these profiles are often based on unreliable descriptions of students' oral reading errors, text reading levels, or learning profiles. This research utilized latent profile analysis (LPA) to examine reading and language skills in a large, representative sample of Florida students in kindergarten through 10th grades. Additionally, it examined the relations among the latent profiles and a norm-referenced reading test in kindergarten through 2nd grade and a latent variable of reading comprehension in 3rd through 10th grades. There were 7,752 participating students in kindergarten through 10th grades, 2,295 in kindergarten through 2nd grade and 5,457 in 3rd through 10th grades. A component skills battery developed by the Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR), called the FCRR Reading Assessment (FRA; Authors, 2014) was administered mid-year and a standardized reading test--SESAT in kindergarten and SAT-10 in grades 1-10)--was administered at the end of the year during the 2012/13 school year. Additionally, scores on the state reading test--the FCAT (Florida Department of Education, 2013)--were obtained for students in 3 rd through 10th grades. A common-item non-equivalent groups design was used to collect data on the K-2 tasks and the baseline Reading Comprehension Task with 20% common items across forms. A planned missing data design was implemented such that all students were administered baseline Reading Comprehension and differentially assigned to be administered the computer-adaptive version of Vocabulary Knowledge, Word Recognition, and Syntactic Knowledge Tasks. A two-step process of latent profile analysis (LPA) and general linear modeling was conducted at each grade level. Like a confirmatory factor analysis, the LPA uses maximum likelihood estimation to estimate a latent factor that is assumed to cause the observed measures (i.e., the K-10 FRA tasks). When the manifest variables are categorical, the approach is referred to as latent class analysis, but with continuous variables, the model is referred to as LPA. The LPA conducted with a diverse K-10 sample of 7,752 students revealed five to six profiles in the elementary grades and three in the secondary grades that were strongly related to standardized reading outcomes, with average absolute between-profile effect sizes ranging from 1.10 to 2.53. The profiles in the secondary grades followed a high, medium, and low pattern. Profiles in the elementary grades revealed more heterogeneity, suggestive of strategies for differentiating instruction by addressing students' academic language needs in addition to their word identification skills. Tables and figures are appended.