This paper introduces an approach that uses latent class analysis to identify cut scores (LCA-CS) and categorize respondents based on context scales derived from largescale assessments like PIRLS, TIMSS, and NAEP. Context scales use Likert scale items to measure latent constructs of interest and classify respondents into meaningful ordered…

The present study aims to examine gender differential item functioning (DIF) in the reading comprehension section of a high stakes test using cognitive diagnosis models. Based on the multiple-group generalized deterministic, noisy "and" gate (MG G-DINA) model, the Wald test and likelihood ratio test are used to detect DIF. The flagged…

This brief provides a summary of the validity of Istation ISIP Early Reading scores in predicting students' performance levels on the Idaho Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) in English language arts (ELA). This correlational study analyzed how well third grade students' winter performance on the ISIP Early Reading test predicted their spring…

Curriculum-Based Measurement of Reading (CBM-R) is frequently used to monitor instructional effects and evaluate response to instruction. Educators often view the data graphically on a time-series graph that might include a variety of statistical and visual aids, which are intended to facilitate the interpretation. This study evaluated the effects…

This case study examines the research process used to assess the intermediate effects of a community-based college preparation program in a fast growth, high needs exurban school district in Texas. Because it was not possible to randomly assign participants to treatment or control conditions, a nonexperimental design using propensity score…

In the early 90's, the United States reformed its welfare system through state waivers and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. These changes altered family resources and potential investments for childhood human capital, which in turn could affect later adult outcomes. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, I examine…

In the absence of clear incentives, achievement tests may be subject to the effect of slipping where item response functions have upper asymptotes below one. Slipping reduces score precision for higher latent scores and distorts test developers' understandings of item and test information. A multidimensional four-parameter normal ogive model was…

We investigated whether high-skill readers skip more words than low-skill readers as a result of parafoveal processing differences based on reading skill. We manipulated foveal load and word length, two variables that strongly influence word skipping, and measured reading skill using the Nelson-Denny Reading Test. We found that reading skill did…

We investigated how struggling adult readers make use of sentence context to facilitate word processing when comprehending spoken language, conditions under which print decoding is not a barrier to comprehension. Stimuli were strongly and weakly constraining sentences (as measured by cloze probability), which ended with the most expected word…

Despite their widespread use, there is little research to support the accuracy of curriculum-based measurement of reading progress monitoring decision rules. The purpose of this study was to investigate the accuracy of a common data point decision rule. This study used a three-point rule with a goal line of 1.50 words read correctly per minute…

Data from three reading assessment tools--the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA), Reading Curriculum Based Measurement (R-CBM), and Maze--were compiled from 61 fourth grade and 59 fifth grade students across Fall and Spring administrations in order to determine how proficiency on these measures was associated with proficiency on the New York…

This study examined the high schools' state tests performances in mathematics, reading, and science of an open-enrollment STEM-focused charter school system,Harmony Public Schools(HPS), between 2010 and 2013, and compared them with the performance of matched traditional public schools (TPS) in Texas. After propensity score matching, 12 HPS schools…

Northwest Evaluation Association™ (NWEA™) is committed to providing partners with useful tools to help make inferences from Measures of Academic Progress® (MAP®) interim assessment scores. One important tool is the concordance table between MAP and state summative assessments. Concordance tables have been used for decades to relate scores on…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of inference making, decoding, memory, and vocabulary on reading comprehension among 7th- through 12th-grade struggling readers with varying levels of inattention and hyperactivity. We categorized a group of 414 struggling readers into 3 groups based on results from factor mixture modeling:…

One of the best-known methods for setting a benchmark standard on a test is that of Angoff and its modifications. When scored dichotomously, judges estimate the probability that a benchmark student has of answering each item correctly. As in most methods of standard setting, it is assumed implicitly that the unit of the latent scale of the…