The purposes of this study were to investigate the extent of relationship and the extent of agreement between the instructional reading level as determined by the informal reading inventory and the instructional reading level as determined by a cloze test, the Ginn Reading 360 Initial Screening Test, and teachers' estimates at three grade levels (second, third, and fourth).MethodologyTwenty-seven second graders, thirty third graders, and twenty-three fourth graders from one elementary school in Muncie, Indiana constituted the population of the study.In May, 1975, primary teachers in the selected school estimated the projected instructional reading level of their students for Septembers In a few cases (e.g., transfer students) it was necessary in the autumn of 1975 to secure this estimate from the child's previous teacher. The two group tests, the cloze test which was specifically constructed for this study and Ginn 360-IST, were administered by the investigator to the students in each of the three classrooms during a period from August 30, 1975 to September 10, 1975. The informal reading inventory, an individual test constructed specifically for this study, was administered by the investigator during a period from September 13, 1975 to October 7, 1975.Data for the eighty students included: Instructional reading placement in Ginn Basal Readers as determined y the IRI, the cloze test, the Ginn 360-IST, and teacher stimate.Analysis of Data1. The Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was utilized to determine relationship between the RI scores and the results of each of the other assessment devices.2. A stepwise multiple regression correlation was used to determine the relationship between the IRI scores and various combinations of the results of the other assessment devices.3. The agreement between the scores on the IRI and the results from each of the other assessment devices was determined by cross tabulation. The extent of agreement id lack of agreement was reported in percentages.4. The Kappa Index of Agreement, a nonparametric statistic, was utilized to determine whether placements agreed above and beyond chance.Findinqs1. The correlation between the informal reading inventory scores and the results of each of the other instructional assessment devices was statistically significant above the .001 level of confidence for the entire population and for each of the three grades.2. The correlation between the informal reading inventory scores and various combinations of the results from the other assessment devices revealed statistical significance at the .01 level of confidence for the entire population and for each of the three grades.3. Only three of the 12 computed Kappa values to determine the degree of agreement above chance were statistically significant at the .01 level of confidence. Lackof agreement between procedures for identifying instructional levels was evident.Conclusions1. Based on the findings of this study the cloze procedure cannot be recommended as a replacement for the informal reading inventory as a reliable assessment instrument for determining the instructional reading levels of pupils.2. The Ginn Reading 360 Initial Screening Test did not provide results that justify its use in place of tine informal reading inventory for assessing pupil's instructional reading level.3. The lack of accuracy of the teachers' estimates of their pupils' instructional reading levels would indicate that teacher estimates cannot replace the informal reading inventory as a reliable estimate of the pupil's instructional reading level.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/175064 |
| Date | January 1977 |
| Creators | Bergman, Mary Elizabeth |
| Contributors | Lumpkin, Donavon D. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | vi, 149 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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