The authors of a report on the technical adequacy of alternative reading measures reflect on issues concerning "whole language" terminology, the use of both quantitative and qualitative measures, and instructional decision making. (DB)

Two studies focused on concurrent validity and instructional decision making in using alternative reading measures with elementary regular and special education students. The first study examined the relation of oral reading performance to several other reading measures; the second study investigated teacher decision making, using quantitative and…

This study describes validation data for qualitative and quantitative writing measures useful with a full range of students, including special education students, in grades three through five. The study looked for consistent administration and scoring, sensitivity in differentiating groups of students, relation to other accepted assessments, and…

The purposes of this study were to examine the reliability and validity of a basal reading series mastery test, and to explore the appropriateness and usefulness of two strategies for investigating the reliability and validity of criterion-referenced tests. Subjects were 47 sixth graders, who were tested on the SRA Reading Achievement Test, the…

The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of a basal reading series mastery test. Subjects were 25 fourth graders, who were tested once on the SRA Reading Achievement Test, twice on the Scott-Foresman End-of-Book 9 Criterion-referenced Test (CRT), and once on the Word Reading Test. Traditional psychometric correlational…

This monograph reviews issues in research on the effects of using accommodations for students with disabilities who are included in educational assessments, particularly state and district assessments. Following an introductory overview, a section provides background on the need for good research on accommodations. The paper then defines commonly…

This study examined the construct validity of curriculum-based measures of oral reading fluency from basal reading programs. Twelve special education students (grades 2-5) were monitored for oral fluency using 2 reading curricula (their instructional curriculum and the mainstream reading curriculum) throughout the academic year. Performance…

The focus of this study was on the relationship between visual and statistical analyses of time series data and the degree to which characteristics of the data influenced this relationship. A total of 52 teachers took part in evaluating a series of graphs having prespecified characteristics. The independent variables manipulated included: slope,…