The purpose of the research was to replicate commonality analysis for two measures: critical content monitoring and sentence verification technique. Participants were 967 fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade students across seven public primary schools in a southeastern U.S. district. The predictor variables were administered as benchmarks 3 times in…

Many students struggle to understand what they read. The purpose of my study was to determine the relationship between teachers' instruction of three processes believed to help readers to become more engaged (purpose setting, questioning, and predicting), students' use of these engaged reader processes, and students' comprehension development. My…

This study examined the effects of reading mode (oral and silent) and text genre (narrative and expository) on fourth graders' reading comprehension. While controlling for prior reading ability of 48 participants, we measured comprehension. Using a repeated measured design, data were analyzed using analysis of covariance, paired t-tests, and…

Although several different reading fluency intervention approaches appear promising for adolescents who are struggling readers, few studies have directly compared various approaches. The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) to determine the relative effects of word-oriented, fluency-oriented, comprehension-oriented, and multi-component…

Problem: The problem of this study was to determine the difference in Bible comprehension scores among gender-based groups of older children using selected passages from three Bible translations: the Children's Bible, the Easy Bible, and the New Revised Korean Bible. Procedures: A total of 288 older children in three churches (Beautiful Baptist…

Nearly 90% of intermediate and middle school students from low-income families in the United States are not proficient in reading. This action research project used a quasi-experimental design to determine the effectiveness of a multi-component reading intervention program for students in grades four through eight at Mother of Sorrows Catholic…

The stability of subskill scores on the Reading Comprehension Test of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills was studied. It was concluded that the subskills are of limited use in diagnosing specific strengths or weaknesses in a student's reading comprehension skill development. (Author/GK)

A study examined the use of the accelerated reader (AR) computer program to increase the reading comprehension scores on the Stanford Achievement Test (SAT) of sixth-grade students compared to the previous year when they did not use the program. The study reviewed results and methods from previous research regarding use of the AR program. Subjects…

The effect on achievement when the prescribed maximum time limits of a standardized achievement test are exceeded was studied using students nested in block-by-treatment combinations. The analysis was a hierarchical (nested) randomized blocks analysis of covariance involving 408 fifth graders taking the Stanford Achievement Test in Lansing,…

This study compared the reliability and validity of two different measures of reading ability, the Degrees of Reading Power (DRP) and the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) Reading test and the ITBS Vocabulary test. The data consisted of scores of 377 grade 5 and grade 6 students on these tests, along with their assigned reading levels in the…

The effectiveness of an optimal item selection method in designing parallel test forms was studied during the development of two forms that were parallel to an existing form for each of three language arts tests for fourth graders used in the Connecticut Mastery Test. Two listening comprehension forms, two reading comprehension forms, and two…

This study examined irregularities in reading comprehension (RC) test results at both the individual and aggregate levels, focusing on the effect of test speededness on test scores. Data were taken from results of the Stanford Achievement Test--Seventh Edition (SAT/7), administered during April of 1983 to about 50,000 Palm Beach County (Florida)…

Systematic but unanticipated differences in patterns of responses to a test between two or more groups is generally taken as evidence of test bias. This study assessed whether a carefully-targeted instructional sequence could influence the effects of bias. A reading comprehension test with items previously identified as biased for certain groups…

A series of three studies was conducted to determine the effects of testing time above or below the recommended time on results of standardized achievement tests with a sample across all three experiments of 1,219 fifth graders in 59 classrooms in Lansing, Michigan. The first two studies considered the effects of increased time; the third explored…

This study is the second in a series designed to explore the probable consequences of exceeding the prescribed time limits in the administration of standardized achievement tests. This study considered whether the test user could apply norms that accompany the test if departures were made from established time limits, and whether increased testing…