Proposition analysis was used to equate the text base of two essays with different readability levels. Easier reading essays were given higher scores than difficult reading essays. The results appear to identify another noncontent influence on essay test scores, leaving increasingly less variance for differences in content. (Author/PN)

A study was conducted with 782 elementary school students to determine whether the Homan-Hewitt Readability Formula could identify the readability of a single-sentence test item. Results indicate that a relationship exists between students' reading grade levels and responses to test items written at higher readability levels. (SLD)