Both school and district administrators use the results of standardized, large-scale tests to inform decisions about the need for, or success of, educational programs and interventions. However, test results at the school level are subject to random fluctuations due to changes in cohort, test items, and other factors outside of the school's…

This research study investigates the impact of the rapid transition from paper-based to online administration of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) exams on student performance in a South Texas school district. The transition, mandated by House Bill 3261, presented Texas public schools with a tight timeline for adapting…

The New York State Education Department (NYSED) has a partnership with NWEA for the development of the 2024 Grades 3-8 English Language Arts Tests. Teachers from across the State work with NYSED in a variety of activities to ensure the validity and reliability of the New York State Testing Program (NYSTP). The 2024 Grades 6 and 7 English Language…

Background: Detecting reading comprehension difficulties is challenging because many factors are involved in comprehension ability. Various reading comprehension tests can be used to detect difficulties but often do not yield the same results. Method: Our aim was to analyse the agreement between three commonly used standardised reading…

The use of standardized assessments to monitor the success and productivity of public school systems in the United States is arguably a necessary component of state accountability systems. This research study is not intended to challenge the compulsion of accountability via testing, but the results of this study do raise questions regarding the…

We conducted conceptual replications for an online-administered general outcome measure known as critical content monitoring in science. Totally, 547 Grades 4 to 6 students from a rural Louisiana school district participated. Research questions addressed criterion validity, diagnostic accuracy, growth, and social validity concerns. Criterion…

Inference skill is one of the most important predictors of reading comprehension. Still, there is little rigorous research investigating the effects of inference instruction on reading comprehension. There is no research investigating the effects of inference instruction on reading comprehension for English learners with reading comprehension…

Many adolescents struggle with reading comprehension, despite an emphasis on reading instruction over recent decades. Evidence suggests that informational text is particularly challenging for students. To implement assessments within a multi-tiered framework, schools must have psychometrically adequate tools. Using data of 473 students in Grades 6…

This study explored print-processing and vocabulary differences among a group of 5th- and 6th-grade students who had scored below the 50th percentile on a standardized reading test. Guided by the simple view of reading, we applied cut scores (low/high) to the students' performance on print-processing and vocabulary tasks. The design allowed for…

Two hundred and two (n = 202) sixth-grade students in social studies were administered a weekly vocabulary-matching curriculum-based measure (CBM) for 35 weeks. Students were also administered the Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI), along with the annual state high-stakes test in Communication Arts. CBM scores were analyzed with respect to…

During the 2016-2017 school year, the Vision Partnership program provided vision services to approximately 3,353 students enrolled in the Houston Independent School District. This evaluation brief describes HISD students' participation in campus-based screenings and the Vision Partnership, and the academic achievement of students served by the…

This study presents estimates of Black-White, Hispanic-White, and income achievement gaps using data from two different types of reading and mathematics assessments: constructed-response assessments that were likely more cognitively demanding and state achievement tests that were likely less cognitively demanding (i.e., composed solely or largely…

Reading achievement scores for adolescents with disabilities are markedly lower than the scores of adolescents without disabilities. For example, 62% of students with disabilities read "below" the basic level on the NAEP Reading assessment, compared to 19% of their nondisabled peers. This achievement gap has been a continuing challenge…

This study investigated accommodations for students without disabilities in order to fill critical gaps in both knowledge and practices in fields of special education and educational assessments. In Ontario, students at different grade levels were assessed by the provincial assessments developed by the Education Quality and Accountability Office…

A conceptualization of reading as an interaction of constrained and unconstrained skills formed the theoretical basis for this correlational analysis of adolescents' orthographic knowledge. We hypothesized that orthographic development (as measured by spelling ability) would serve as a link between constrained and unconstrained reading skills in…