Literature supporting the use of informational texts with preschool children has increased in recent years. However, many preschool classrooms still focus on narrative text, and teachers are often unsure how to provide support for children's comprehension of informational texts. An assessment addressing preschool children's informational text comprehension will help teachers understand what children can do with informational texts and point out demands or tasks that children should be able to handle. A comprehension assessment for preschool children focusing on text purpose, text features, text retell, and comprehension of text structures has not been available. To fit this need, recent effort has focused on developing The Early Expository Text Comprehension Assessment (EECA), which previous studies have found to be reliable and valid. However, the latest iteration, developed in 2016, identified multiple problematic items based on a many-facets Rasch analysis, and problems with administrator consistency were noted. To further develop the EECA, changes were made to problematic items and the assessment was fully digitized. This pilot study tested a beta version of the next iteration of the EECA on twelve participants at the BYU preschool to identify additional changes that could be made before submitting the revised assessment to a more comprehensive full-scale study for analysis of reliability and validity. Results identified additional changes to apply to the assessment including suggestions for improving child engagement and responsiveness to the digitized format, administrator prompts, technical errors with the assessment program, and improvements to individual test items.

Many have argued for more informational text to be incorporated into the curriculum, even in the earliest grades. However, it has traditionally been thought that narrative text should precede informational text when introducing children to literacy. Still several studies have demonstrated that preschool children are capable of learning from these texts. Because informational texts are being introduced even in the earliest grades, preschool teachers are in need of ways to assess their students' ability to handle early forms of informational texts. The Early Expository Text Comprehension Assessment (EECA) was developed to help teachers understand the comprehension abilities of their preschool children across several informational text structures. As part of a larger study, the third iteration of this assessment measure, called the EECA-R3, was examined for concurrent validity with the Test of Story Comprehension (TSC), a subtest of the Narrative Language Measure (NLM). Data came from 108 preschool children between the ages of four and five who were attending one of six title one preschools or one of four private preschool classrooms. Correlations that were run between the TSC and the EECA-R3 to determine concurrent validity were positive and significant, suggesting that the EECA-R3 is valid.

The aim of the present study is to describe and analyze what modes of discourse for reading comprehension were prominent among six teachers in two different schools in Stockholm, Sweden. Based on a teacher perspective on how to describe, teach and assess reading comprehension, the investigation concentrated on teacher discourses and their alignment with influential theories of reading. The study was based on transcriptions of six tape-recorded teacher interviews and classroom observations. The method for analyzing the material was a discourse analysis based on Rosalind Ivanic’s (2004) six writing discourses that were adapted to the context of reading comprehension. The results show that teachers in both schools tended to utilise several modes of discourse at the same time. There was overall a significant difference between the discourse styles that were used when the teachers were defining the purpose of reading comprehension and the styles used when the teachers were assessing reading comprehension. The teachers mainly used a creativity discourse and a social-practice discourse when explaining the purpose of reading comprehension. In describing assessment of reading comprehension however a skills discourse was more prominent among the teachers. Hence a discrepancy could be seen between how the teachers view the purpose of reading comprehension and how they assess it.

Although the implementation of the Common Core State Standards has included more informational texts in early grades to emphasize reading to gain knowledge (Green, 2012; Roskos & Neuman, 2014), the lack of available expository assessments leaves teachers unsure of what students need to know in order to be successful comprehenders of these texts (Hall, Markham, & Culatta, 2005; Harding, 2014). Moreover, there are very few early expository assessments available which makes it difficult for teachers to monitor young children's expository text knowledge and skills and then adjust their instruction to meet children's unique needs. The EECA R-2 is an early expository assessment measure that was created in order to meet these demands. Data from 128 preschoolers between the ages of four and five in seven different Title I classrooms were collected to determine the reliability and validity of the EECA R-2. Children were given the Test of Story Comprehension (TSC) subtest of the Narrative Language Measures (NLM) Preschool Assessment as well as two versions of the EECA R-2. A Many Facets Rasch model was used to determine reliability and to allow for examination of individual test items. In addition, correlations were run between the NLM and the EECA to determine the validity of the EECA. Results indicate the EECA R-2 is a reliable and valid measure. High reliability was obtained for all facets (rater .00, person .97, and form .96). Items 6-13, 15, 18, and 23 were deemed quality items. Items 1, 2, 5, 15, 16, 20, 21, 25, and 26 were deemed problematic items. There was a positive correlation between the TSC subtest of the NLM Preschool Assessment and the EECA R-2 tasks (r=.76, p= ≤.01). Future research could include another rendition of the EECA in order to gain a better understanding of the problematic items. Doing so could support teachers in assessing student abilities and preparing classroom instruction that targets specific areas of focus to move learning to higher levels.

This study investigated the reliability of the revised Early Expository Comprehension Assessment (EECA), a measure that looked at preschoolers' comprehension of expository text. Thirty-seven preschool children between the ages of four and five were administered two comparable versions of the measure by two examiners. Scoring procedures were created and the protocols were scored and compared for reliability. The data was analyzed using a mixed models Analysis of Variance for repeated measures and a maximum likelihood estimate of variance components. Results from the analysis showed that version and order had no significant effect on three of the response task scores (Purpose of the Text, Problem/Solution Retelling, and Problem/Solution Mapping), indicating these tasks were reliable. Results showed that variation due to controlled administration variables (version and order) was larger as compared to variability among the subjects in two of the response task scores (Graphics and Problem/Solution Questions), indicating these tasks to be unreliable.

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